This year’s Rally Argentina is to be another classic South American world championship event albeit with a shorter route and a time frame format which runs 24 hours earlier in the week than usual. Almost 100km of the total special stage length has been taken off the route, the fifth round of the 2013 WRC compared with last year, and the total competitive distance for this all-gravel rally now stands at 407km. The event will run Wednesday Saturday, finishing one day earlier than in previous years, to allow the event to start unusually on a Wednesday, which this year will be a public holiday, May 1st. The Saturday finish means that any end-of-event results dramas will no longer cause difficulties with European media deadlines! The total number of individual stage venues has been reduced from ten to seven with 14 stages compared with 18 in 2012. Six of the stage venues will be at least 40km long or thereabouts. The emphasis continues to be on long stages, the average stage length (including the two short superspecials) is 29km.
The big excitement is that Sebastien Loeb will be present on the penultimate occasion he plans to enter a WRC event before his celebrated retirement from rallying at his home event at the end of September. Loeb told an interviewer that he choose Rally Argentina because he wants to do a gravel round before Rally France and Argentina is a "good rally for him” (unbeaten on the last seven times he has started the rally) and for the market of Citroen.
The big discussion at this time is the virtual lack of top level Argentine drivers, casualty of a conflict of interests between the WRC and the promoters of the national championship series. Currently the only top Argentina drivers are Marcos Ligato, competing as a Production Car driver in the WRC2 category, and Gabiele Pozzo who has been given a late entry on a non-championship basis, originally to be in a Mini WRC but changed to a Fiesta WRC. Only three Citroen WRCs have entered (but this time including Sebastien Loeb) with six Fiesta WRCs, three VWs and the Lotos team Mini.
New to the WRC2 series is the Paraguayan driver Diego Dominguez in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo R4. Diego won the 2012 Paraguayan Trans Chaco Rally in a Kia Rio Maxi Rally car but Maxi Rally cars are not admitted into the WRC2 series. There are no WRC3 (two wheel-drive) entries and only three private entries in two-wheel-drive cars at all. The number of entries on the full WRC event is 34, while another 23 have entered for the shorter ACA Copa Rally, run over only the first loop of each day. There are no competitors in either the main or the ACA Copa events driving the local Maxi Rally cars. No non championship drivers from non South American countries have entered.
The format of the event is simplified. Each day basically has two stages, each run twice. On the Wednesday evening and the Friday evening there will also be the superspecial. Day 1 (Thursday) heads north to the hills between La Cumbre and Jesus Maria. Day 2 goes south to the lower level stages around Santa Rosa de Calamuchita. Day 3 goes westwards towards Mina Clavero. Qualifying will be held on the Wednesday morning close to Villa Carlos Paz. Michelin has selected their soft compound as their “prime” tyre instead of the hard tyres preferred last year, but the higher average speeds (around 90kph average of the stages) and less abrasive surfaces means that tyre wear is not expected to be a problem, especially if the promised wet conditions prevail.
Centre of the special features of the event must be the “Parque Tematico” superspecial stage, being used for the third year. Located just outside Villa Carlos Paz, adjacent to the road to Cordoba, this has to be the most adventurous figure-of-eight course used in the WRC. The whole facility is conceived for sporting use by cars, bikes and enduro activities. There is a main rally course with secondary roads for other use. The rally course road has a very good surface, mostly wide, with a big jump and a tunnel where the cars change from the inner to the outer course. The complete lap is three kilometres long, and during Rally Argentina the cars will do two complete laps, total 6.04km. It will feature in the late afternoon just after the start on Wednesday, then at night on Day 2 (Friday), enabling spectators to enjoy a true rally show and see the action for a long period of time for each car. Teams hope that there will be no problem with dust, not only from other competitors but also from each car when exiting from a tight turn. Incidentally, the title sponsor of the event is Philips LED, manufacturers of special lamps...
This year’s Rally Argentina is to be another classic South American world championship event albeit with a shorter route and a time frame format which runs 24 hours earlier in the week than usual. Almost 100km of the total special stage length has been taken off the route, the fifth round of the 2013 WRC compared with last year, and the total competitive distance for this all-gravel rally now stands at 407km. The event will run Wednesday Saturday, finishing one day earlier than in previous years, to allow the event to start unusually on a Wednesday, which this year will be a public holiday, May 1st. The Saturday finish means that any end-of-event results dramas will no longer cause difficulties with European media deadlines! The total number of individual stage venues has been reduced from ten to seven with 14 stages compared with 18 in 2012. Six of the stage venues will be at least 40km long or thereabouts. The emphasis continues to be on long stages, the average stage length (including the two short superspecials) is 29km.
The big excitement is that Sebastien Loeb will be present on the penultimate occasion he plans to enter a WRC event before his celebrated retirement from rallying at his home event at the end of September. Loeb told an interviewer that he choose Rally Argentina because he wants to do a gravel round before Rally France and Argentina is a "good rally for him” (unbeaten on the last seven times he has started the rally) and for the market of Citroen.
The big discussion at this time is the virtual lack of top level Argentine drivers, casualty of a conflict of interests between the WRC and the promoters of the national championship series. Currently the only top Argentina drivers are Marcos Ligato, competing as a Production Car driver in the WRC2 category, and Gabiele Pozzo who has been given a late entry on a non-championship basis, originally to be in a Mini WRC but changed to a Fiesta WRC. Only three Citroen WRCs have entered (but this time including Sebastien Loeb) with six Fiesta WRCs, three VWs and the Lotos team Mini.
New to the WRC2 series is the Paraguayan driver Diego Dominguez in his Mitsubishi Lancer Evo R4. Diego won the 2012 Paraguayan Trans Chaco Rally in a Kia Rio Maxi Rally car but Maxi Rally cars are not admitted into the WRC2 series. There are no WRC3 (two wheel-drive) entries and only three private entries in two-wheel-drive cars at all. The number of entries on the full WRC event is 34, while another 23 have entered for the shorter ACA Copa Rally, run over only the first loop of each day. There are no competitors in either the main or the ACA Copa events driving the local Maxi Rally cars. No non championship drivers from non South American countries have entered.
The format of the event is simplified. Each day basically has two stages, each run twice. On the Wednesday evening and the Friday evening there will also be the superspecial. Day 1 (Thursday) heads north to the hills between La Cumbre and Jesus Maria. Day 2 goes south to the lower level stages around Santa Rosa de Calamuchita. Day 3 goes westwards towards Mina Clavero. Qualifying will be held on the Wednesday morning close to Villa Carlos Paz. Michelin has selected their soft compound as their “prime” tyre instead of the hard tyres preferred last year, but the higher average speeds (around 90kph average of the stages) and less abrasive surfaces means that tyre wear is not expected to be a problem, especially if the promised wet conditions prevail.
Centre of the special features of the event must be the “Parque Tematico” superspecial stage, being used for the third year. Located just outside Villa Carlos Paz, adjacent to the road to Cordoba, this has to be the most adventurous figure-of-eight course used in the WRC. The whole facility is conceived for sporting use by cars, bikes and enduro activities. There is a main rally course with secondary roads for other use. The rally course road has a very good surface, mostly wide, with a big jump and a tunnel where the cars change from the inner to the outer course. The complete lap is three kilometres long, and during Rally Argentina the cars will do two complete laps, total 6.04km. It will feature in the late afternoon just after the start on Wednesday, then at night on Day 2 (Friday), enabling spectators to enjoy a true rally show and see the action for a long period of time for each car. Teams hope that there will be no problem with dust, not only from other competitors but also from each car when exiting from a tight turn. Incidentally, the title sponsor of the event is Philips LED, manufacturers of special lamps...