Argentina Rally 1985

[Mig007]

Hello

I've been making this article about the 1985 Argentina Rally. Can you give me your opinion about that? It's for sure not a great piece of writing, but I'm trying to improve:

The 1985 Marlboro Rally Argentina was the eighth race of the twelve-round’s World Rally Championship’s season. Raced on the characteristic Argentine “Pampas”, the vast and fertile plains that occupies most of Uruguay and some provinces of Brazil and Argentina, it is an unique event, on gravel roads, but mixing fast and good surfaced stages with some bad surfaced and sinuous ones, although intercalating some big jumps and water passages. So, it was expected a fast race, but difficult, due to surface conditions’ change and the long distance of most of the special stages.
But, leaving aside the race route, there was another big interest point, as the race could decide the Manufacturers’ Championship, whose fight was already limited to two teams: Peugeot and Audi. The reigning Champion Audi wanted to add a third title to their palmares (1982 and 1984), and Peugeot, who had returned brilliantly mid-1984 and was dominating the season wanted his first. And, looking for the points table, Audi had to win or, in case of a Peugeot’s victory, finish second, to keep some (remote) expectations for the title. Regarding the Drivers’ Championship, Timo Salonen (Peugeot) had a comfortable lead over his teammate Ari Vatanen and the Audi driver and reigning Champion Stig Blomqvist. So, all the stuff was reunited to provide a great race, in spite of the absence of many teams and big names, as we can see on the entry list below:

[on the final PDF]

As we can see, only Audi and Peugeot entered their cars in Argentina. Peugeot put in this race their usual efforts: two riders, Salonen and Vatanen, plus a third car, driven by... Carlos Reutemann! It was a big marketing operation for the Sochaux team, as they tried to promote the French cars by entering the retired F1 driver, whom remained the most popular driver in Argentina. “El Lole”, as he was called there, accepted the invitation to return to competition with the powerful Peugeot, and spread a wave of euphoria among the locals. Peugeot wanted to solve the question of the Manufacturer’s title, before the introduction of the new Peugeot 205 at the following race, and had Salonen and Vatanen duelling for the Drivers’ tittle. While Salonen seemed to be the prototype of regularity and had already three wins and points in all but one race, Vatanen had only two wins and one second place, after a serie of retirements, most of them due to mechanical trouble. It’s well known the Vatanen’s aggressive style, contrasting with Salonen’s smoothness; but Vatanen was the main force behind the development of the 205 Turbo 16, so it’s understandable that so many failures were abnormal and he was getting frustrated, thinking about missing the Argentina Rally and rest some time. But, sadly for him, he changed his mind and decided to race.
Audi decided by the opposite of Peugeot. The teams’ direction decided to enter the new car, the Quattro E2, with a better weight distribution and new aerodynamical package; and concentrate their efforts on the leading driver, Stig Blomqvist. It was expected that the new car could match the speed and handling of the Peugeots at the fast special stages of the rally and prevent Peugeot of winning the title (for now).
All other entries were outsiders. Audi had a semi-official old Quattro A2 for the Austrian debutant Wiedner, known only for his performances in his home country; and Nissan had two semi-official cars, known for their endurance at hard races like Safari and Ivory Coast, for the Kenyans S.Mehta and J.Shah. The Group A was “in local boys’ hands”, led by the official Renault Argentina duo Recalde and Soto, with several South American drivers expecting a failure to win this class and grab some points.
The race was long and fast, divided in four stages. The first one led the drivers from Buenos Aires to Cordoba, the main base of the rally. The other three stages were raced around Cordoba and, if the first stage was the longest, the second one was the toughest, as more than a half of it was timed.
When the race began, Vatanen put immediately pressure and won the first special stage, proving that he was in Argentina to win and forget the black series he had earlier in the season. Only one second behind, Salonen was tied with Blomqvist, and the Audi-Peugeot duel appeared to be promising.
But it would be short-lived... At the next special stage, Las Bajadas 1, Vatanen was going full throttle over a bump and, instead of other riders, he entered in it by the left side. Instead of the track, the car landed on his front at a big hole, beginning a horrific series of somersaults. The brutality of the crash was so great that the car was completely destroyed, with only the drivers’ seat and the security structure around it remaining, with a wheel attached to them. The tragedy wasn’t even worse because the assistance helicopter was following the car closely and landed almost immediately, taking Vatanen and Harryman to the Cordoba’s hospital. Thanks to that, both drivers went to intensive care some minutes after the crash and it saved their lives. While Harryman was stabilized and his return to the competition is pending of a leg operation; Vatanen had a bad prognosis (with some media saying that he was near death, without chances; among all the information and counter-information that was arriving to Europe) and the fractures in his legs and spine put his career and also her life in danger. Nobody knows if he will return, but his life is in the first place, obviously; and let’s hopes that such a skilful driver and great man can recover.
On the next special stage, San Ignacio 1, what remained of interest in the rally, the Blomqvist vs. Salonen fight, virtually ended, as the Audi’s engine stopped and, after the restart, it only worked with 4 cylinders. Blomqvist finished the stage with 2 minutes and 41 seconds of delay and the most unusual (or not) was that the engine problem was a result of an assistance failure (the air filter cover was left loose and water entered to the engine). It led to a simple conclusion – Audi’s assistance was failing too much and the failures had left their mark and the championship standings. To “help” the Audi’s debacle, the new aerodynamical kit was suffering with the fast and bumpy roads of Argentina and Blomqvist left bits of the car alongside the road while trying to close the gap to Salonen. The others were also suffering: Reutemann was adapting to the powerful Peugeot; and Mehta and Wiedner suffered electrical problems, which cost three minutes to the Austrian. Among the Group A, the favourite Jorge Recalde overturned his Renault and began to have some overheating problems, loosing much time at the assistance; so his teammate Soto was more relaxed, despite the pressure of the private Gabriel Raies, with another Renault 18.
After the first stage, the general classification was as follows:
1. Salonen/Harjanne 1h29’01’’
2. Blomqvist/Cederberg 2’41’’
3. Wiedner/Zehetner 6’34’’
The though second stage was marked by the Salonen/Blomqvist duel. With his car in reasonably good conditions, the Swedish driver proved that the Quattro E2 was indeed fast, but the old Peugeot 205 was enough to hold with it. But at the third special stage of the day, El Manzano, with almost 63 Km; Timo Salonen punctured at the beginning of it, opening the way for a possible attack by Blomqvist. Salonen restarted just in front of Blomqvist (the helicopter assistance changed his wheel in just 1’50’’, landing included!!!!) and they duelled around the Pampas, with Blomqvist overtaking and being later overtaken again by Salonen, in a fierce battle like a F1 race. Blomqvist gained more than a minute over Salonen (and could have gained more but Salonen’s dust prevented it) and he was going really fast at the SS8, gaining again time, while the engine broke – all the water on the engine couldn’t make anything good and the connecting rod opened a hole and fell. Audi’s hopes for the title almost vanished, and the same happened to Stig Blomqvist. After that, the rally lost almost all the competitive interest, with Audi’s faint hope concentrated on the debutant Wiedner (now with factory full assistance), the only one who could postpone the Peugeot’s title if he could hold “El Lole” Reutemann. At the Group A, Recalde retired due to the same overheating problems, and Raies hold a small lead over Soto, promising an interesting fight at the last stages. So the GC was like that:
1. Salonen/Harjanne 5h12’04’’
2. Wiedner/Zehetner 12’39’’
3. Reutemann/Fauchille 17’06’’
At the opening SS of the Stage 3, the Group A lost also any possibility of battle, when Gabriel Raies private Renault broke his transmission, leaving the official Soto with a good chance of grabbing the win. Now, all eyes were on Reutemann, as he had the possibility to give the crown to Peugeot if he reached Wiedner. And Reutemann tried but, apart his natural maladjustment with the car (Peugeot wasn’t the proper car to start a rally career) and the notes weren’t complete enough and took on a 504 recognizing Peugeo;, he suffered an electrical problem that stopped him in the middle of a timed section, losing any hope of reacing the Austrian. Salonen was now running slower, saving his car. There’s the GC:
1. Salonen/Harjanne 8h11’07’’
2. Wiedner/Zehetner 15’32’’
3. Reutemann/Fauchille 23’57’’
So the last stage, the shortest of the race, was just to complete the rally distance, as Wiedner took advantage of Salonen’s slower pace to win several special stages and distancing Reutemann. For the Group A, Soto assured the victory, and even tried to reach Mehta fourth place. At the end, Jean Todt was pleased that Peugeot hadn’t won the title on a sad journey marked by Vatanen’s fearful crash.

[makinen_fan]

thanks for this. I always wanted to learn more about 1985 Rally Argentina. There is something confusing on your story though, when you say

At the opening SS of the Stage 3

, do you mean Leg 3, Day 3??

Also does anyone know of any video footage from this rally? Especially I want to see the Audi Quattro E2 in action in this rally.

[januszsz]

Hi Mig007,
It is a very interesting story.
As a guy who collects rally results and start lists I would like to ask you: do you have a full result and a start list of that rally? May you share it with me?
Regards
Janusz

[Mig007]

No, I have some magazines and I use Rallybase.nl and juwra.com results

[Mig007]

thanks for this. I always wanted to learn more about 1985 Rally Argentina. There is something confusing on your story though, when you say , do you mean Leg 3, Day 3??

Also does anyone know of any video footage from this rally? Especially I want to see the Audi Quattro E2 in action in this rally.

Ni, I mean the first special stage of Leg 3. And I have photos and the Duke WRC 1985 Review