Juan Manuel Silva opens account with Ford
Juan Manuel Silva won the first race of the 2011 TC2000 season in style with a lights to flag victory for Ford-YPF in an eventful race at General Roca.
Silva had started from pole position alongside Toyota Team Argentina’s Bernardo Llaver, with the two drivers having won the morning’s qualifying races. Silva made a brilliant start to have a good gap on Llaver by the first corner, who quickly closed the door on an equally fast starting Guillermo Ortelli in the Renault Lo Jack Fluence.
Ortelli chased Llaver hard for the first few laps whilst Silva started pulling out a lead, but the Renault driver went off on the fourth lap suffering with a gear selection problem with the new Fluence and had to pit for a quick repair, dropping him to the back of the field. Ortelli would eventually recover to 22nd.
The top fight in the field for much of the next part of the race was the battle to get past the now best placed Renault of Sportteam Competición’s Guido Falaschi, who was now in ninth and holding up strong contenders Leonel Pernía in the Honda and the two top Fiats of Gabriel Ponce De León and José María López.
On lap 10, Bernardo Llaver crashed out of second place in his Toyota Corolla, and although he managed to rejoin, had to retire a lap later just as the safety car was deployed to recover the Renault of Martín Serrano.
A few laps into the restart, Pernía was able to get past Falaschi for 8th place, and later dispatched Agustín Canapino’s Chevrolet for 7th. Although the 2010 championship runner up closed in on the Toyota of Mariano Werner in the closing stages, there was no time to try and pass and had to settle for 7th.
With eight laps to go, José María López appeared to lose pace in his Fiat Linea, dropping back from team-mate Ponce de Leon. The 2008-2009 champion would eventually finish in 17th place after looking set for at least 10th.
Despite a strong run, Guido Falaschi drove to a halt on lap 23, releasing Gabriel Ponce de León and Emilano Spataro’s Fiat which had been stuck behind him. Spataro was now fending of the Equipo Petrobras Civic of Nestor Girolami, who had started last after failing to finish in the morning’s qualifying race. The Equipo Petrobras driver had put on a great run to eventually finish in 11th place.
Juan Manuel Silva completed lap 30 (the race shortened by one lap due to time) to take victory in his first race with Ford-YPF, with Matías Munoz Marchesi taking a magnificent second on his debut in the works Peugeot Cobra Team. Ford’s Fabián Yannantuoni rounded out the podium completing a good day for Ford. This was despite Norberto Fontana’s retirement on the first lap after contact with Renault Lo Jack’s Mauro Giollambardo, an incident which saw both drivers as well as Fineschi Racing’s Javier Manta knocked out of the race.
Matías Rossi finished fourth on his debut for Toyota, fighting off the top Honda of Mariano Altuna for much of the race.
The second round of the championship will take place on April 10th at Santa Fe.
All timing is unofficial
