Photo: Renault Sport Argentina

Emiliano Spataro wins thrilling Super TC 2000 feature race in Rafaela

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Renault Sport’s Emiliano Spataro won another dramatic Super TC 2000 feature race at the Rafaela circuit with the mixed oval layout. Matías Rossi of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina finished second from 23rd on the grid with Facundo Chapur of Team Peugeot Total Argentina completing the podium.

After a last-minute engine change ahead of the race, Chevrolet YPF’s Agustín Canapino managed to claim second place in the start behind Saturday’s qualifying race winner Mariano Werner of Team Peugeot Total Argentina.

Germán Sirvent of Renault Sport crashed into the wall in the opening lap at the exit of the first chicane and forced the safety car out on track. Right before that, Martín Moggia of Citroën Total Racing managed to overtake Canapino for second.

The Chevrolet YPF team immediately complained to the stewards that Moggia had passed Canapino right after the safety car deployment alert and that he should give second place back. The stewards however took no action.

The race was restarted on lap four and Damián Fineschi overtook Canapino for third in his privateer Ford Focus III. Not long after, he passed Moggia and moved up to second place. Werner tried to open a gap in the lead as Canapino challenged Moggia for third again.

Suddenly Werner’s rear wing came off, with the Peugeot driver having to fight hard to keep the lead. Fineschi closed the gap in the corners while Werner managed to reach a higher top speed on the straights.

Moggia pulled off a strong move to overtake both Fineschi and Werner on the outside on lap eight to claim the lead. Meanwhile Werner took advantage of his lack of downforce and amazingly enough challenged Moggia for the lead again, despite running without a rear wing. The Peugeot, with no rear downforce, proved to be two tenths of a second faster on the main straight compared to the competitors.

Juan Angel Rosso retired on lap 20 and forced the safety car out once again.

The race was restarted was just four laps left. Things changed drastically as race leader Moggia retired when he was less than two laps away from becoming the youngest winner of the championship.

Rossi pulled off another strong move to climb from fourth to second entering the last lap, as Chapur also overtook the Citroën of Urcera for third.

Spataro took the victory ahead of Rossi and Chapur. Urcera finished in fourth, followed by Renault Sport’s Leonel Pernía and Facundo Ardusso. Team Peugeot Total Argentina’s Matías Muñoz Marchesi and Werner finished in seventh and eigth respectively as Manuel Mallo of Chevrolet YPF and Esteban Guerrieri of Citroën Total Racing rounded off the top ten.