Damián Fineschi devastated after last lap failure

Damián Fineschi of team Escudería FELA by RAM Racing had to retire from second place on the last lap of Super TC 2000’s feature race in San Martín, Mendoza. His bad luck prevented him to take the championship lead.

“This is tremendous, I can’t believe how could we have such bad luck, it never happened to me,” said Fineschi. “I was set to finish in second and take the championship lead. When I entered Turn 3 I stated to see some smoke, then I thought ‘don’t let me down one lap from the end!’, but it did. I had trouble with the gearbox and perhaps it ruined or burnt something, I don’t know.”

Fineschi claimed pole position on Saturday and was involved in the top fight of the feature race to confirm his team’s solid debut in the Super TC 2000.

“When we started the season, we knew we were going to be strong, but of course, we are really delighted with the results we’ve had so far,” said Fineschi to TouringCarTimes.

Despite Fineschi’s retirement today, Chevrolet YPF driver Agustín Canapino praised him and his team in the post-race press conference: “Damián Fineschi and Peugeots are the ones to beat. Escudería Fela may be a privateer team, but they have lots of experience, they’ve won many titles here when they were a factory one. So it may look like, but their strong pace is no surprise”.

Team Escudería FELA is the operation which ran the factory Renault Sport team until 2013, currently led by Victor Rosso and Sebastián Martino, also claiming titles in late 2000s, representing Honda’s last factory program in the old TC2000 series.