Facundo Chapur claims maiden Super TC 2000 win at Potrero de los Funes

Team Peugeot Total Argentina’s Facundo Chapur has clinched his first victory in the Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship at Potrero de los Funes, San Luis. Reigning champion Agustín Canapino of Chevrolet YPF and Facundo Ardusso of Renault Sport followed him on the podium.

The qualifying race had Gabriel Ponce de León as winner, hence that, the Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina driver started on pole, followed by Ardusso.

At the start, Ardusso tried to challenge Ponce de León for the lead, but ran wide and fell down to fifth, behind Chapur, Damián Fineschi and Canapino.

Chapur decided to start the race on a fresh set of tires, and went immediately to battle with Ponce de León, putting lots of pressure on him from the very first lap. Ardusso recovered third from Fineschi, and Canapino settled down in fifth again.

Safety Car was forced out on the fourth lap after Javier Manta stopped on track, in his privateer Chevrolet Cruze from JM Motorsport team.

After the restart, Chapur tried to attack Ponce de León, while Canapino overtook Fineschi’s Ford Focus for fourth place. Then, the Toyota Corolla driver started to build a gap.

Ignacio Julián, who was having a solid weekend in the top ten during both races, had a steering issue and crashed heavily to the wall. The 22-year-old driver could get out of the car by himself while the safety car had to come out again.

Once again, Chapur attacked Ponce de León for the lead in the first two turns. Both drivers were warned by the stewards for running over the painted zone next to the kerbs with their four wheels. Finally, Canapino could overtake Ardusso for third.

On Lap 12, Chapur did a brilliant move in sector 2 by the outside and overtook Ponce de León after a little contact. Immediately after, the Toyota Corolla driver started to lose pace, and dropped down to fourth.

After overtaking Ardusso for third and moving up to second after Ponce de León’s issue, Canapino had a clear track ahead to chase Chapur, while Ardusso stayed in third.

The safety car came out again on lap 15 after Manuel Mallo had to retire due to engine issues in his Chevrolet Cruze of the Chevrolet YPF team. The restart, on lap 16, saw Chapur leading comfortably.

Lucas Benamo crashed heavily into the wall in his privateer Peugeot 408 from team Escudería FE and forced Safety Car out for fourth time in the race just one lap after the green flag. Since this was during the last three laps of the race, three more laps were added, increasing the total from 21 to 24 laps.

On lap 20, the restart saw many drivers looking to secure their points after such a long race, officially, the longest in Super TC 2000 history since it’s re-foundation in 2012.

Canapino couldn’t try anything else and secured second place behind Chapur who took his first in the series since his debut in 2013.

Ardusso finished in third with Renault Sport and completed the podium. After leading the first part of the race, Gabriel Ponce de León finshed in fourth, as Damián Fineschi completed the top five in his privateer Ford Focus III from Escudería Fela by RAM Racing, meaning five different makes at the top.

Matías Rossi was sixth for Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina, followed in seventh by Mariano Werner in his Peugeot 408. Bernardo Llaver of Chevrolet YPF, Luis José Di Palma of Renault Sport and Fabián Yannantuoni of Team Peugeot Total Argentina completed the top ten.

José Manuel Urcera of Citroën Total Racing finished 12th in his factory Citroën C4 Lounge and is in a joint championship lead with Ardusso, both on 35 points, while Rossi is behind on 32 points.

Super TC 2000’s next round will be in the Jorge Ángel Pena circuit in Mendoza, where the Joker Lap will be included on the feature race.