Photo: STC2000

Agustín Canapino completes perfect weekend with Oberá feature race win

By

Chevrolet YPF driver Agustín Canapino took the Super TC 2000 feature race win in Oberá ahead of Renault Sport’s Leonel Pernía and Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina’s Matías Rossi to complete a perfect weekend after claiming the qualifying race victory yesterday.

The standing start saw Rossi challenge Canapino on the outside into turn one, but the Chevrolet driver managed to hold on to the lead. At the back of the field, Julian Santero of Toyota Gazoo Racing Argentina and Team Peugeot Total Argentina driver Matías Muñoz Marchesi collided, with both drivers able to continue.

The first lap saw two retirements with Carlos Javier Merlo spinning off track in his privateer M&M Group Renault Fluence and series rookie Tomás Gagliardi Genné retiring due to gearbox damage in his debut race for team Chevrolet YPF.

The opening lap action saw the safety car on track.

As the race had resumed, Rossi tried to fight Canapino for the race lead, something that instead saw Pernía starting to challenge him second place. After a lengthy battle, Pernía dived on the inside at the end of the main straight and overtook Rossi for second place.

Fabian Yannantuoni went into the pits to change his front tires following excessive wear at mid-point of the race but didn’t manage to return to track due to a technical issue.

The final part of the race saw Canapino keeping Pernía at bay with a second separating the two. Canapino crossed the finishing line sixth tenths of a second ahead of the Renault driver, with Rossi a distant third, close to ten seconds behind.

José Manuel Urcera finished a solid fourth ahead of Renault driver Facundo Ardusso. Bernardo Llaver of Chevrolet YPF finished sixth ahead of former WTCC Volvo driver Néstor Girolami and Peugeot driver Mariano Werner.

Canapino has thanks to his two wins from this weekend claimed the championship lead on 133 points, 21 points ahead of Ardusso and 24 points ahead of Rossi.

The Super TC 2000 will head to Santa Fe Street Circuit next on September 1-2, featuring a night race on the Saturday.