Turismo Carretera race five report

In the city of Buenos Aires the Turismo Carretera disputed the fifth race of the year.

The activity started on Saturday with a sunny day.

Diego Aventín (Ford) made the fastest lap in his last try and left Cristian Ledesma (Chevrolet) in the second place. Third finisher Ernesto Bessone making a fantastic job with the Dodge.

But on Sunday the things changed, the weather did.

Buenos Aires dawned with rain, a lot during the night, which complicated the work for the drivers.

However the series had disputed without rain but with a wet track.

The first series showed the fight between Aventín, who started first, and Traverso with Chevrolet.

The young driver tried to keep Traverso behind, but the ex-champion experimented in wet conditions, passed Aventín and won his first series since he came back this season.

The second series was comfortably won by Ledesma (Chevrolet) followed by Etchegaray (Ford) and Acuña (Ford).

The third series almost did not have a full race because of a crash in the first lap made that the Pace Car "bother" the six laps of the series. Finally won Marcos Di Palma (Chevrolet), second finished the leader of the championship until this race Guillermo Ortelli (Chevrolet).

After the three series it was almost sure that a Chevrolet will win the final race, but the question was which one.

The track was wet in some places and dry in others and the menace of rain was still present.

The key of the race was tyres choice. Ledesma, Traverso, the Di Palma brothers, etc. decided for the wet tyres, and Etchegaray, Ortelli, Acuña, Martínez, etc. decided to start with tyres for dry.

In the start Traverso passed Ledesma for the first place. Silva (Ford) went out of the track in the first curve, which motivate the intervention of the Pace Car for the first time.

Aventín who was in third position quit the race with mechanical problems in his Ford.

In lap four, the race started again with Ledesma in the first place followed by Traverso, the Di Palma brothers.

After a couple of laps the Pace Car entered again for two laps.

With the elapse of the race the track started to get more dry which complicated the job of the drivers with wet tyres. Ortelli and Etchegaray who were with slick tyres started to push. They passed Traverso in the fight for the fourth place. In spite of this Ledesma kept leading the race.

In lap fifteen the pace car entered for the third time because of a crash in the last curve of the circuit.

When the race started again all the competitors were very close and here came the more fantastic, the fight in the last laps.

In just one lap Ortelli passed José Luis Di Palma for the third place and then Marcos Di Palma for the second but he lost the position at hands of Marcos again.

However Marcos, with wet tyres, started to lose performance in his Chevrolet and he was passed without problems by Ortelli and Etchegaray.

The positions changed every lap. Ortelli and Etchegaray went to catch Ledesma for the first place, but the Ford men made a mistake in the last curve and lost all possibilities for the victory.

It seems that the chances of Ford to win were finished, but Fabián Acuña finished in the third place.

When rest just one lap, Ortelli made a little mistake, he lost the control of his Chevrolet and hit Martínez who was a couple of positions behind. Because of this situation appear the red flag and the race finished with Cristian Ledesma in first place. Second and third were Acuña an Ochionero, both with Ford. A result unexpected for them in this race. The last time that a Chevrolet won here was in 1999.

Ledesma won his third race in Turismo Carretera and is the new leader in the championship.

Next race of the Turismo Carretera will be June 2th in Paraná, Entre Rios.