Emiliano Spataro takes Mendoza win with first “joker lap” race

Emiliano Spataro claimed Renault’s second win of the season at the Autódromo Ciudad de San Martín in Mendoza, the French marque’s second in two races, while Agustín Canapino initially crossed the line second place and was set to close in on Peugeot team-mate Néstor Girolami in the standings, but a penalty saw him dropped to sixth position.

The Mendoza round saw the use of the Rallycross inspired “joker lap” for the first time, which proved pivotal in shaping the result of the race, providing the drivers with an eight second shortcut which could be used twice between laps three and 23 of the race.

Chevrolet’s Norberto Fontana lined up on pole position ahead of the Fiat of Jose Manuel Urcera, with Fontana keeping the lead at the start of the 23 lap race, while Emiliano Spataro launched his Renault Fluence straight up to second position ahead of Urcera.

A crash at the end of lap one involving the Chevrolet of Matías Muñoz Marchesi, the Toyotas of Matias Milla and Esteban Guerrieri and the Ford of Mariano Werner saw the safety car deployed as the wreckage was cleared.

Championship leader Néstor Girolami was the first driver to make use of the joker on the restart, moving from 12th to the lead of the race, while the privateer Chevrolet of Javier Manta opted to use the joker in two consecutive laps to leap frog into a short-lived lead, before Girolami overtook the Chevrolet driver on track to reclaim the lead.

While the rest of the field used up their jokers, pole-sitter Norberto Fontana was holding back on using the wild card at all, and still had joker laps to use with just nine to go.

Fontana used his first joker on lap 19 and moved up to second position, but then received a 15 second penalty for crossing the yellow line at the turn’s exit. To add insult to injury, the two-time champion made the same mistake on his second use of the joker, and ended up losing more positions than he’d gained.

After everything had played out, Spataro was in the lead ahead of Canapino’s Peugeot 408 and the Fiat of Juan Manuel Urcera, but after the race the stewards decided Canapino would drop behind the Fiat of Facundo Chapur after earlier contact in the race, promoting Urcera to second and the Renault of Leonel Pernía to the final spot on the podium.

With Néstor Girolami now classified in fourth, the Peugeot Total driver extends his championship lead, and is now 9.5 points ahead of Pernía, with Toyota’s Matías Rossi now down to joint-third with Urcera’s Fiat.

There are two races remaining of the Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship, with the next at Cordoba on November 29th.