Emiliano Spataro wins the opening round in Trelew

Renault’s Emiliano Spataro took victory in the first race of the 2016 Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship at Trelew, holding the lead for most of the race, finishing ahead of Chevrolet’s Norberto Fontana and Fiat’s Javier Merlo.

Spataro had won his Super 8 qualifying heat in the morning and started from pole position, with Javier Merlo alongside after the Fiat driver won the second eight-lap Super 8 heat.

A disastrous Super 8 for Agustín Canapino saw the Chevrolet driver eliminated at the start of his heat, and forced to start from the back of the grid along with Renault’s Leonel Pernía.

Merlo challenged Spataro for the lead at the start, but the Renault driver came out on top. The Fiat driver then lost two positions on lap two to the Chevrolet of Norberto Fontana and the Peugeot of Mariano Werner, with Fontana then making a dive for the lead around the left of Spataro, with the nose of his car briefly ahead, but with the next turn a right-hander, Fontana was forced to relinquish his short-held lead to the Sportteam Renault driver.

From here on, Spataro began to eke out a gap over Fontana, who was now fighting a rear-guard action against Werner’s Peugeot 408.

On lap 11, the best placed Toyota of former champion Matías Rossi ground to a halt, becoming the first major retirement of the race.

The out-of-position Canapino and Pernía were continuing to climb through the field, with Canapino up from last to eighth by half-distance. The YPF Chevrolet driver was now being held behind Facundo Ardusso’s Renault Fluence through the mid-part of the race, but was finally able to put a move on the Renault at the final turn on lap 19, just as Werner’s race-long charge for second came to an abrupt end, with the Peugeot 408 expiring at the first corner at the start of lap 20.

This took the pressure off Fontana, but it was too late for the former champion to do anything about Spataro’s lead. Canapino, now sixth due to Werner’s retirement, immediately passed Esteban Guerrieri’s Toyota on lap 21, and soon completed a pass on the Peugeot of Damian Fineschi to take fourth, snapping at Merlo’s heels for the final podium spot but just ran out of time before the chequered flag.

Spataro took the victory, two seconds clear of Fontana, with Merlo third for Fiat and Canapino an impressive fourth after starting from the final row of the grid.

Fineschi finished fifth, the best-placed of the Peugeots following Werner’s retirement, with Guerrieri the top Toyota in sixth. Three Renaults followed Guerrieri, with Ardusso ahead of Christian Ledesma and Leonel Pernía, with privateer Bruno Etman completing the top ten in his M&M Group Fiat Linea.

The next round of the Argentinian Super TC 2000 Championship takes place at Rosario on April 10th.