Claudio Menzi's hopes of
making a successful fight for the
Campeonato Argentino de Rally
(Argentine Rally Championship) title for Scuderia Fiat on the Italian
carmaker's comeback year have received a big setback
with a no points score on the Rally Vuelta de la Manzana.
Instead Federico Villagra (Ford) raced to his fourth win
on the trot on the rally held in Gral. Roca, Río Negro, to
extend his title cushion, and he is now more than 100
points ahead of Menzi.
In the bright new era for Argentinean rallying that began
this year with the arrival of the new generation of "Maxi Rally"
cars, Federico Villagra remains as just unbeatable
as always. After a prolific winning spree with
Mitsubishi, the eight-time champion is now enjoying a
new affair with the Ford Fiesta Maxi Rally.
Argentinean rallying has been utterly dominated in
recent years by the Mitsubishi Evo and Subaru
Impreza, and with neither of the Japanese brands
having much of a sales impact in the country it has
diverted attention away from rallying. To
dramatically cut escalating costs the ambitious new
"Maxi Rally" category was devised for this
season, an
aspiration very similar to the "Super 2000" category
in Europe, but with a much greater use of stock
components. In effect a "kit" it comprises
of a stock
four-wheel-drive system (with Subaru diffs), a 4-cyl,
2.4-litre normally aspirated Honda engine that has
280 HP at 7,600 rpm on tap, and a 6-speed sequential
gearbox. The Fiat Punto shell used for the "Maxi
Rally" contender is the Brazilian built 5-door model
and features an Abarth Grande Punto "Super 2000"
inspired aero package. Embracing the new rules and
the new challenge, Fiat Argentina has made its official
return this year to the
Argentinean Rally
Championship after a 15 year break.
After missing the
last round of the series Scuderia Fiat arrived at
the Rally Vuelta de la Manzana (round six) buoyed by a successful test that had seen
both drivers expressing themselves much happier with the new Punto Maxi
Rally. That test had notably involved the input of Luciano Monti, Technical Director of the Equipo
Fiat Oil Combustibles TC2000 racing team who made several suggestions to improve the Punto's
suspension.
Villagra however claimed
his fourth consecutive victory after a crushing win. The Rally Vuelta de la Manzana
is the most traditional round on the calendar and an
event "Coyote" has already won on
six previous occasions. Once again the Ford VRS driver
was clever enough to come up with a fast but cautious
pace that enabled him to safely make his way through one
of the toughest rounds of the year. On the other hand,
his main contenders all hit serious trouble while trying
to give chase.
Juan Marchetto (Ford) and
Claudio Menzi (Fiat), two of Villagra's main contenders
in the title race dropped out of the event when they
were sitting comfortably in the podium positions, while Diego Domínguez
(Kia) and Juan Gil De Marchi (Chevrolet) didn't prove up
to this demanding challenge. Raúl Martínez (VW) and
Marcos Ligato (Chevrolet) were able to complete the
rally; however, they lost much time.
Menzi made a tardy start
to the event, dropping 12.5 seconds on the short (2.3 km
long) SS1 after he was only 18th quickest through the
stage. As the rally got underway proper with the 10.90
km long SS2, Menzi immediately went fastest to bounce up the
order into fifth place. Sixth quickest time on SS3
dropped Menzi down a place, but another fastest time on
SS4 put the Fiat Punto Maxi Rally pilot into the podium
positions for the first time on the rally. Unfortunately
it all went wrong for Menzi on SS6 as he lost a massive
eleven and a half minutes after a major gearbox problem
which stopped him shortly after the start of the stage.
However he eventually got the transmission hooked up but plunged
down the order to 28th place overall. Team mate
Christian Confetti though capitalised on Menzi's
troubles to take over third place. That was to be the end of
Menzi, but Confetti consolidated his third place over
the final two stages to go into parc ferme at the end of
leg one, 1 min 3 secs adrift off rally leader Villagra.
Back under "super rally"
rules for the second leg, Menzi kicked off in style on
SS9 with fastest time (his third fastest time of the
rally) but that was to be it and the factory Fiat driver
was gone again on the second stage of the final day
(SS10). Scuderia Fiat's misfortunes meanwhile
transferred themselves straight to Confetti: the Italian
lost more than half a minute on SS9 after suffering a
left rear puncture and suspension damage to drop him down
two places overall and on SS10 he lost over eleven
minutes to plunge out of the top-ten and then out of the
running to end Fiat's participation in the rally.
Villagra is now on 185
points after six rounds after collecting a further 46
points on the Rally Vuelta de la Manzana. His Ford team
mate Juan Marchetto holds onto second place, although he
collected just nine points; he now on 111 points which
leaves him 76 points adrift of Villagra, a gap that is
equivalent to a win and a second place. Villagra in fact
made big gains on all his title rivals as Gabriel Pozzo
(VW) remains in third on 95.5 points after a no score
showing, while Menzi remains rooted on 71.5 points after
his zero score.
Demonstrating the
immediate dominance of the new breed of "Maxi Rally"
machines, the top six in the championship are all
driving these 2011 season debuting cars as Juan Gil De
Marchi (65.5 points) and Raúl Martínez (60.5 points) are
behind the wheel of the new Chevrolet and VW cars
respectively. Villagra still has to rule out one rally
(it will be the eighth round), and that's the
opportunity his rivals are waiting for so they can
ascertain exactly where they are with regard to
"Coyote".
Argentinean Rally
Championship Rd 6, Rally Vuelta de la Manzana,
Final Classification:
1. F. Villagra/D.
Curletto (Ford) 1h33m03.2s.
2. R. Martínez/F. Mussano (VW) + 1m14.0s.
3. M. Ligato/R. García (Chevrolet) + 1m37.2s.
4. O. Ibargüen/D. Rubio (Mitsubishi) + 2m15.5s.
5. G. Padilla/R. Kember (Ford) + 2m47.7s.
6. F. Bassi/R. Rinaudo (Mitsubishi) + 2m48.1s.
7. A. Cancio/S. García (Peugeot) + 3m01.8s.
8. A. Elvira/O. Tagle (Mitsubishi) + 3m26.1s.
9. N. Díaz/G. Piazzano (Mitsubishi) + 4m15.2s.
10. O. Kovacevich/J. Kovacevich (Mitsubishi) + 6m30.6s.
Argentinean Rally Championship standings
(after 6 of 11 rounds):
1. F. Villagra 185 points
2. J. Marchetto 111
3. G. Pozzo 95.5
4. C. Menzi 71.5
5. J. Gil De Marchi 65.5
6. R. Martínez 60.5
7. J. Cantón 58
8. M. Baldoni 53
