Chevrolet - Marcos Ligato. Photo: rallyargentino.org.ar
The Argentine Rally Championship is set to start a new and promising season this weekend with the Rally de Areco, the first of eleven rounds scheduled for this year, to be held in the province of Buenos Aires.
After 15 years characterized by the fight between Mitsubishi and Subaru, this season will offer new challenges for both the teams and drivers as the new generation of cars break into the national rally scenery before spreading over South America.
The brand new Maxi Rally class will officially carry out its first campaign with an important number of cars that will stand for six marks. The arrival of Chevrolet, Volkswagen, Fiat, Ford, Peugeot and KIA will enhance the importance of the series as one of the most competitive of the world.
Fiat - Claudio Menzi. Photo: rallyargentino.org.ar
This weekend the crews head to San Antonio de Areco, 120 kilometres far from the Argentine capital, where the ceremonial start will take place. The season will kick off in front of the Argentine Automobile Club, in the busy area of the Del Libertador Avenue.
The first showdown of the year features soft and high speed roads, and ideal venue for the teams to check out the general functioning of the Maxi Rally cars before tackling the first compromise in the mountains. The rally will cover 145,44 km of competitive distance distributed in 12 special stages.
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KIA - Diego Dominguez. Photo: Nery Sanabria (Fotomotor, Paraguay)
A new era has come
Last year the Baretec team was the first in introduced a Maxi Rally car, a VW Gol Trend driven by Claudio Menzi. This season, however, the Barattero brothers will line-up four cars for the 2010 runner-up Gabriel Pozzo, the two-time South American Champion Raúl Martínez, the young and promising Miguel Baldoni and Sebastián Abramian.
On the other hand Chevrolet, Fiat and Ford will officially back the Tango, EZD and VRS teams respectively. The first one comes with one of the Agile models for Marcos Ligato. The EZD Competicion already has two Fiat Punto for Claudio Menzi and the Italian driver Cristian Conffeti. As for the team of the Villagra brothers, they will embark just one Ford Fiesta to Areco which will be driven by the reigning champion Federico Villagra.
Ford - Federico Villagra. Photo: rallyargentino.org.ar
Finally Alejandro Cancio will run a private Peugeot 207, as well as Paraguayan Diego Domínguez will do it with a KIA Rio. It's expected that more drivers ma ke their appearance at the wheel of a Maxi Rally car before the midseason.
VW - Gabriel Pozzo. Photo: rallyargentino.org.ar
source: rallyargentino.org.ar
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Tags: 2011, arc, Argentine Rally Championship, chevrolet, fedeico villagra, fiat, ford fiesta, kia rio maxi, maxi, menzi, pozzo, rally argentino, vw, vw gol maxi
