Fresh from its stunning win in the first of the TC2000's three long-distance races at Rio de Honda Fiat Pro Racing tackled the prestigious Buenos Aires 200 km (and the seventh round of the series) but with somewhat less success; however Emiliano Spartaro and Felipe Maluhy brought the Fiat Linea home in very solid seventh position. Team mates Omar Martínez and Mariano Altuna, who clinched the historic win at Rio del Honda in mid June that returned the Fiat brand to the TC2000 winners circle for the first time in nineteen years, finished twelfth in front of the passionate 45,000-strong crowd.

Sandwiched in between the two endurance races was the sixth round of the series which took place at the Autódromo Santiago Yaco Guarnieri at Resistencia, Chaco, and Fiat Pro Racing arrived at the 2.695 km track fresh from its win in the previous round. However the event proved unrewarding for the team with Emiliano Spataro and Omar Martínez qualifying seventeenth and eighteenth respectively and in the forty lap race the former dropped out after just four laps while the latter completed thirty four laps.

That brought the team onto the prestigious 200 kilometre race in Buenos Aires held at the 5.641 km long Autódromo Oscar Alfredo Gálvez. Located in a park in the south of the city, the circuit which was opened under President Juan Perón in 1952 is the former home of the Argentinean F1 Grand Prix as well as having hosting the legendary Buenos Aires 1000 Kms sports car race from the mid 1950s to the early 1970s. The lap record is still held by Gerhard Berger set in a Benetton-Renault F1 car in 1997.

The circuit was damp when the race began and there was bright sunshine by the time it ended which meant that the teams had to change the type of tyres their cars were using adding an additional ingredient for this classic event. While Emiliano and his co-driver for the three long-distance events, Maluhy, finished in the top-10, team mates Martínez and Altuna finished twelfth. This result came after a struggle for pace by Fiat Pro Racing during the qualifying sessions which saw Spataro claiming fifteenth spot on the grid while Martinez was seven places further back in twenty second position.

It means that in the TC2000's mini "Endurance Series" standings after two of the three rounds, the new leaders are Toyota's Fontana and Mauricio with 37 points while Fiat's Martínez and Altuna, who were on top going into this round, are now five points adrift. Silva/Bueno (Equipo Petrobras), 27; Rossi/Camilo (Renault Lo Jack Team), 24, and López/Reid (Equipo Petrobras), 22, are the next up in the classification.

At the front it was the driver pairing of Norberto Fontana and Ricardo Mauricio (Toyota Corolla/TTA) that won the sixth edition of the Buenos Aires 200 Kilometres. Runners-up were José María López/Anthony Reid (Honda Civic/Equipo Petrobras) while third place went to Christian Ledesma/José Ciantini (Chevrolet Vectra/Chevrolet Elaion). Once again, the Buenos Aires 200 Kilometres did not allow any of the drivers to repeat their victory and a new driver pairing lifted the cup; and it was the same for Toyota which thus won this race in Buenos Aires for the first time.

In fourth were Basso/Ugalde (Ford Focus/Ford YPF), fifth went to Rossi/Camilo (Renault Megane II/Renault Lo Jack Team) and sixth were Silva/Bueno (Honda Civic/Equipo Petrobras) before Spataro and Maluhy brought the Linea across the line to claim seventh place. The top-10 was rounded out by Pernía/Canapino (Honda Civic/Equipo Petrobras), Yannantuoni/Flaqué (Chevrolet Astra/DTA) and Carducci/Diruscio (Ford Focus/DP1 Team).

The gaps at the championship standings are now much smaller with Juan Manuel Silva still ahead with 84 points after his sixth place finish but now just one point ahead of José María López while Norberto Fontana has 70, Leonel Pernía 60 and Matías Rossi 54. Best of the Fiat pilots is Martínez in eighth, with 32 points, while Spataro is nineteenth with nine points. In the manufacturers' championship standings after seven rounds Fiat are in sixth place with 28 points, while at the top of the table Honda (206) have a huge lead over Toyota (115) in second and third placed Ford (71). The next round of the 2009 TC2000 will take place on September 6th at the brand-new Autódromo de la Ciudad de Centenario, in Neuquén.