Ardusso wins in San Luis, Girolami wins the title

Facundo Ardusso won the final round of the 2014 Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship at Potrero de los Funes, his first win of the season, ahead of his Fiat team-mate Mariano Werner, but fourth place was enough for Peugeot’s Néstor Girolami to secure the 2014 drivers’ championship.

Facundo Ardusso had taken an early lead in the Fiat Linea, while he was being challenged by Renault Lo Jack Team’s Leonel Pernía, who was Girolami’s closest rival in the title race.

The other contender for the title was Girolami’s Peugeot team-mate Agustín Canapino, who came into the race as the absolute outsider, 27 points down with 34 points available for the win.

Canapino charged through the field and was up to third on the final lap, when he made contact with Pernía’s Renault, knocking the Renault driver down the order, which also allowed the Fiat of Mariano Werner and the Toyota of Esteban Guerrieri through into second and third, with Canapino crossing the line fourth, which was not enough to overhaul the points gap with Girolami fifth, and immediately confirmed as the champion.

The stewards decided to exclude Canapino for the incident which moves Girolami up to fourth in the race results, and means the 25-year-old wins the drivers’ title by 36.5 points ahead of Pernía, with Canapino’s exclusion meaning he now drops to fourth in the standings behind Chevrolet’s Norberto Fontana.

Girolami claims his first Super TC 2000 drivers’ title in a close season where there were no runaway winners. Of the 13 race championship, Girolami won the most races with three, at the Buenos Aires 200km in July and the two races at Sante Fe, while last year’s champion Matías Rossi and the Toyota Team Argentina squad finish the season without having won a single race.

Peugeot also win the manufacturers’ title and Peugeot Lo Jack Team win the teams’ title in 2014.