Facundo Ardusso completes perfect weekend with double win at Santa Fe
Renault Sport’s Facundo Ardusso won the second Super TC 2000 championship race at the Sante Fe Street Circuit. He was followed on the podium by team-mate Leonel Pernía and YPF Chevrolet’s Bernardo Llaver.
The starting grid had Agustín Canapino of YPF Chevrolet and Matías Rossi of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina on the front row, and standings leader Ardusso and Pernía, both of Renault Sport, on the second row.
When the lights went green, Rossi made light contact with Canapino but stayed in second, while Ardusso kept third place ahead of Pernía.
The leading duo ran away from the Renaults of Ardusso and Pernía, while Matías Milla of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina overtook Fabián Yannantuoni of Team Peugeot Total Argentina for sixth on the opening lap.
On lap 6, Rossi challenged Canapino in the braking zone for the first turn and overtook him for the lead after some light contact.
The safety car was issued not long after as Javier Manta crashed his privateer Chevrolet Cruze of JM Motorsport into a tyre barrier.
At the restart, the leading duo once again ran away from the Renaults. However, Rossi’s car started to show evidence braking issues, with severe vibrations.
This enabled Canapino to challenge Rossi and overtake. The Toyota driver struggled more and more and had to give up second place against Ardusso too. Not long after, he spun off and retired from the race, once again calling the safety car on track.
The race saw the green flag on lap 12, Canapino now had both Renaults of Ardusso and Pernía behind him. Lap 16 saw the safety car back out again as José Manuel Urcera retired with his factory Citroën C4 Lounge.
As the restart came, Canapino retired from the lead of the race, apparently having a front suspension failure with only four laps were remaining. This saw the safety car back on track for a fourth time as the race was set to finish by time, however the sporting rules required three more laps in order to have a green-flag finish.
Esteban Guerrieri clipped Facundo Chapur’s factory Peugeot 408 when trying to overtake him for fifth and dropped back, while Ignacio Julián overtook Antonino García with a daring move for seventh.
Ardusso went on to win again, just as in yesterday’s night race, followed in the podium by Pernía and Llaver. Werner finished in fourth ahead of Chapur and Milla. Julián came home in seventh, as Guerrieri, García and Luciano Farroni of Escudería Fela by RAM Racing rounded off the top ten.
Ardusso extended his lead in the championship to 19 points ahead of Werner. The Super TC 2000 will race again on October 1st, with the traditional Buenos Aires 200 km race at the Oscar y Juan Gálvez circuit.