Argentinian Championship

[Damian Baldi]

One of my friends was talking with Javier Castro (the one who built the R4 cars here), and he said that the difference between the R4, R5 and MR is that the MR have a longer suspension travel that complicate the setup, and that the ARB could help to give the dampers/springs to have more freedom to be setup.

About diffs, I still have to get more information to know what kind of LSD the MR uses, and if there is some freedom to improve them.

[br21]

maybe easier then to limit MR suspension travel? I have quite much experience with all of those (not with MR but N5) and at least in N5 case it's more complex issue, as whole suspension design is more simple and less efficient.
Diffs for sure are much worse than in R4/R5 (those are same ones actually), in N5 case active center diff helps in some situations, but in some is not an advantage.

[Damian Baldi]

Finally after three months and several failed tries, next weekend it will take place Rally of Córdoba in a mix scenery. As the country still have several covid cases the rally will be run behind closed door.

There will be superprime specials at the Berta's Fortaleza over a mixed surface, then at the Cabalén circuit using the outside roads of the racing circuit, last superprime scenery will be the one used by the WRC. Finally, a special on proper rally roads on a private property.

Sadly the frontiers are still closed, so the chilean and uruguyian drivers wont take part (they could drop this race as the worse result at the end of the championship).

About the cars. R5 car numbers are growing over the Maxi Rally cars. There are plans to bring an update for the Maxi Rally cars for next year, at the moment the only thing known is that the gears ratios will be updated (as they are still using some short ratios thought for the old atmospheric engine). The other changes are still under study.

It looks like the Maxi Rally era is reaching to an end replaced by R5 cars and new Proto cars (at the moment VW Golf, Peugeot 208, Fiat Argo and other three still unknown). The biggest problem with the MR cars is the reliability issues.

Javier Castro owner of RC Competition team and builder of the R4 cars, will move with his team to US to take part of the ARA championship with the Toyota Etios R4 with the idea to show the car and try to sell some units. On this first try the team will have their base at Miami, but their plans are to move to the north later.

Javier Castro talks about the team plans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDSPCBxtSJ8

The other awaited, desired and reclaimed news is that finally Rally Argentino will stream the race on facebook and youtube. Let's see how all this is done, but it's a great news anyway.

[Damian Baldi]

Well deserved victory for Juan Marchetto with Skoda. This man had to left competition 10 years ago to take treatment against cancer and have made a great work with just a few runs of practice.

The rally was in part defined by a very hard first SS of saturday and sunday that made some drivers lose a lot of time with punctures, broken rims and fogged glass after crossing some fords.








The RC2A class (R5 cars) have had a field with missing drivers because the frontiers are closed. The entire Point Cola Racing team couldn't take part of the event with their two Hyundais, leaving aside Martin Scuncio and Miguel Baldoni. Championship leader Martinez couldn't take part for he same reason as Dennis Romero who have their brand new Skoda waiting but neither could arrive.

Meanwhile Marcos Ligato made the debut of the Citröen C3, and Juan Alonso who moved from Skoda took part with his Ford Fiesta. There was no R4 cars this time, Javier Castro is moving to US and Alvarez was at Europe for a raid race.

Marchetto did no mistakes, he won several SS even using very simplified notes becasuse he said there were too much to do and he didn't want to pay too much attention to the notes.

Cancio suffered two punctures of the same wheel on the same SS (saturday and sunday). That made him lost an entire minute difficult to recover. Same for Ligato who suffered with fogged glass and later admited that he didn't made the procedure right. Alonso was doing what he could on his first race with this car. The team had to work without an engineer and that made everything more difficult.

However, on saturday Marchetto won four SS, Ligato three and Cancio one. Sadly Ligato have overturn the car at the very last SS of the saturday loosing only 6 seconds, but damaging some parts of the car that the team didn't have spares, so his race ended there.


Something similar happened on the RC2B class (Maxi Rally cars) on that tough first SS shaking the race's positions. Padilla with the Polo had a strong morning, while Villagra (Yaris) and Díaz (Fiesta) losed time with a punctures and fogged glass.

On saturday afternoon Padilla suffered with a transmsion problems losing all the advantage he had. On Sunday morning after the tough first SS Díaz become the leader, with Villagra second, Pasten third with a Polo and Padilla fourd. The rest of the race was a close fight between Díaz and Villagra with both taking the lead SS after SS, but at the end Díaz won by almost ten seconds and even won two overal SS. Pasten got a penalty for delay on the asistance and Padilla finally took 3rd place.

It was a good weekend in middle of a very rare situation with the pandemic. The streaming coverage was really good to be the first time, there are some things to sort out off course, but from nothing to this, is like day and night.

Summary of day 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIqn0rk20ZU

Summary of day 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuDB2abUU64

Some colour notes. Many drivers and co-drivers took part in this event, because the official ones are stranded in Europe. Hernan Kim that usually drives his Ford Fiesta MR on the carx championship, took part in the event with one of the three Villagra brothers as co-driver. He wasn't fast on saturday, but on sunday their times were very competitive. Marcos Ligato had Diego Levy as co-driverd. Many drivers as the winner of the RC2N Gonzalo Monarca (EVO X) took part of the rally as a one off.

Another video from the point of view of a spectator, no music
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cRinJcjaiMs

[Tom206wrc]

Great news for our argentinian friends! Peugeot will produce this year(2023)the 208 Rally4 in their Palomar factory(that already produces the road 208)!

Some parts will still come from Europe though(with FIA homologation)

http://www.carburando.com/notas/peug...-en-el-palomar

[Tom206wrc]

Very interesting entrylist for the first round of argentinian rallies championship this weekend!!!

Also no less than four Citroën C3 Rally2

http://rallyargentino.com/documentos...23_Oficial.pdf

[NaBUru38]

I had been out of touch with the Rally Argentino the past years, most notably because highlights shows were available only on DirecTV (I have cable TV).

I seriously can't believe that there's 20 cars in the R5 / Rally2 class, plus 12 Maxi Rally Turbo.

Let's see if my countryman Rodrigo "Coco" Zeballos can fight for overall wins.

[Tom206wrc]

Rallye Copa del Gobierno del San Luis postponed(new date to be confirmed)because of weather damage(too much rain in the region)

[NaBUru38]

Argentinian Rally Championship - RC2 standings after La Rioja:

* 1. Martin Scuncio (Skoda), 216 pts
* 2. Alejandro Cancio (Skoda), 190
* 3. Miguel Baldoni (Skoda), 185
* 4. Gaston Pasten (Skoda), 117
* 5. Nicolas Diaz (Skoda), 88.5
* 6. Augusto D'Agostini (Skoda), 83
* 7. Geronimo Padilla (Skoda), 80
* 8. Juan Carlos Alonso (Skoda), 68.5
* 9. Federico Villagra (Hyundai), 64
* 10. Alejandro Menendez (Skoda), 47.5

- o -

Next round is on June 23-25 at Catamarca.

According to Uruguayan rally driver Rodrigo Zeballos, the Rally del Atlántico (Maldonado / Lavalleja, mid October) has a "80-90% chance" of hosting the Argentinian Rally Championship in addition to the Uruguayan and South American championships. The big blocker is the unfavorable exchange rate.

[NaBUru38]

Rally del Poncho at Catamarca - RC2

* 1. Martin Scuncio (Skoda), 1:19'33.0, 96.97 km/h
* 2. Miguel Baldoni (Skoda), + 40.3
* 3. Augusto D'Agostini (Skoda)
* 4. Gaston Pasten (Skoda)
* 5. Juan Carlos Alonso (Skoda)
* 6. Leandro Bonnin (Citroën)
* 7. Roberto Saba (Skoda)
* 8. Federico Cadamuro (Skoda)
* 9. Alejandro Menendez (Skoda)
* 10. Rodrigo Zeballos (Citroën)

Argentinian Rally Championship - RC2 standings after Catamarca:

* 1. Martin Scuncio (Skoda), 274 pts
* 2. Miguel Baldoni (Skoda), 236
* 3. Alejandro Cancio (Skoda), 206
* 4. Gaston Pasten (Skoda), 151
* 5. Augusto D'Agostini (Skoda), 123
* 6. Juan Carlos Alonso (Skoda), 97.5
* 7. Nicolas Diaz (Skoda), 88.5
* 8. Geronimo Padilla (Skoda), 80
* 9. Federico Villagra (Hyundai), 66
* 10. Alejandro Menendez (Skoda), 60.5

Next round is the Vuelta de la Manzana at General Roca on August 4-6.