Leonel Pernía wins action packed race at Río Hondo

Renault Lo Jack Team’s Leonel Pernía won a frenetic race at the Termas de Río Hondo circuit in Santiago del Estero, Argentina, with the tricky conditions playing a significant part in race and tyre strategy.

The 37-year-old had secured second on the grid in the Super 8 qualifying heat, beginning behind pole sitter Agustín Canapino’s Chevrolet, whom had won the morning’s qualifying heat against him.

The race started in damp conditions with the majority of the field opting to start on slick tyres, with the notable exception of the Equipo Petrobras Honda team, with their best placed car of Ricardo Risatti starting all the way down in 13th position.

With the cars not lined up correctly for the first start, a second green flag lap was needed which shorted the race distance to 20 laps. At the second attempt, Canapino was able to hold on to first position for the opening two laps, with the safety car called on lap two after JM Motorsport’s Gonzalo Fernandez and Lanus Motorsport’s Javier Manta came together and were eliminated from the race in their independent Chevrolet Cruzes.

The race restarted on lap five and championship leader Matías Rossi was quick to pass Perníá’s Renault for second place, but the rain began to fall harder and both Pernía and race leader Canapino slid wide at the next corner, with Pernía losing positions to the two Fiats of Facundo Ardusso and José María López as well as Risatti’s Honda, with Canapino dropping to second behind Rossi’s Toyota.

The wet conditions were playing right into the hands of Honda, with Risatti putting on a brilliant charge, passing Canapino for second on lap six and then driving around the outside of Rossi’s Toyota for the lead on lap seven and began building a gap to the slick-shod pack behind.

The battle for second raged on with Rossi defending against Canapino’s Chevrolet, which allowed the Renault of Perníá to sneak through on lap 11 and then overtake Rossi’s Toyota on the following lap for second place.

At this point the other Equipo YPF Chevrolet of Franco Vivian and López’s Equipo Petronas Fiat opted to pit for wets, just as the track was starting to dry out.

This affecting the leading Honda Civic of Risatte, whose lead had been 4.5 seconds, but this now began to diminish with the Renault of Pernía closing fast.

Mariano Altuna also began to push forward in the Peugeot 408, passing Ardusso’s Fiat for fifth position and joining the scrap for the lead.

On lap 15, Perníá caught and passed a fading Risatti, but the Honda driver was still able to defend second position for several laps from Canapino’s Chevrolet. Held up by the Honda, Canapino lost further positions to Altuna’s Peugeot and Rossi’s Toyota on the penultimate lap, with Altuna then making side-to-side contact with Risatti’s Honda, with the Civic dropping down the order whilst Canapino’s Chevrolet spun into the gravel in avoidance of the incident up ahead and was out of the race.

Perníá was unchallenged up front and went on to take his second win in the Super TC 2000 with Renault, his first since November last year at Salta.

Mariano Altuna finished second for Peugeot with Matías Rossi extending his points lead over Facundo Ardusso in the Championship with third, with Ardusso crossing the line in fourth ahead of the top placed Chevrolet of Franco Girolami. Christian Ledesma finished at the top placed Honda despite Risatti’s valiant charge, who went on to pick up tenth place.

The next round of the 2013 Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship is at Junín on August 10th.