The Stage 3of the Route 40 Challenge in it W2RC FIA -fourth date of World Rally Raid Championship– it was for the American Seth Quintero with the Hilux so that Toyota Gazoo Racing can repeat yesterday’s joy, postponing Nasser Al Attiyah -Hunter Nasser Racing- and Yazeed Al Rajhi -Toyota Overdrive-.
Al Attiyha, once again, commanded the first part of the 341 km special that took the rally raid cars to the deserts of the Mogna and Las Lajas areas, for a full orchestra finish in the Albardón River.
The ”rally” tracks were almost forgotten – only 70 km. to connect – and today’s route was an off-road in deserts with a lot of vegetation and dangers, there was also a passage over a 40 km salt flat, through a ”chott” -long straight in the desert- and through rivers dry to finish in Albardón.
Arriving at KM142, the Qatari suffered a fire in the exhaust of his Hunter (“A piece of carbon broke and caught fire,” Nasser told us in the bivouac”) and lost almost 2 minutes to put it out. Then, he suffered a puncture and there he gave up the chances of winning the stage and taking the lead in the overall standings with which he had entered the day’s stage. Al Rajhi, first, and Quintero, later, took over the lead. In the final part, it was only enough for him to remain as a guard.
Quintero took first position, surpassing Al Attiyah +1.09, Al Rajhi +2.07s, Sebastián Halpern -Mini- +6.44 and Lucas Moraes -Toyota- +6.16. D. Krotov and C. Baumgart, were placed next. Juan Cruz Yacopini, the Toyota driver from Mendoza, had another ‘rollover’ today and when he arrived at the camp the FIA technicians told him that he should remove the car, after checking for damage to the roll cage.
The overall race continues with Al Rajhi ahead, Al Attiyah +2.21, Moraes +9.03, Halpern +23.20, Quintero +28.20 and C. Baumgart +32.06.
In the Challenger, the exit to the off-road tracks seemed like the ideal day in which Nicolás Cavigliasso with his Taurus T3 Max could get closer to the first position of the Lithuanian Rokas Baciuska, who started the day with 9 minutes of difference – after that the stewards would withdraw 2″ of the wrongly placed penalty from the Córdoban player. And so it was, in a certain way, because the Cordoban reached the leader of the championship along the way and had taken the lead in the stage.
But, marching behind the Brazilian Marcelo Gastaldi -Taurus BBR-, who did not give way, ”Nico” and ”Valen” lost a lot of time, disappearing a good part of the discounted time that brought them closer to the lead, although after being 2nd, they were less than 6” minutes behind Can-Am. “Also, I have been complaining all the time about the ”Power Shift” that doesn’t let me downshift comfortably,” the man from Cabrera told C3M. His team, the Taurus Factory Team, lost today David Zille from Pampa – rollover and broken front suspension – and South African Puk Klaassen who also had a broken suspension.
The special went to N. López -Taurus BBR- who, navigated by San Juan’s ”Lichi” Sisterna, took advantage of the latter’s knowledge of the terrain and his starting position, behind the leaders. He was followed by Cavigliasso +4.48, Gastaldi +4.51, Dania Akeel -Taurus BBR- +6.41 and Baciuska +7.00.
In the general classification, Baciuska leads Cavigliasso -Taurus- +5.55s, Marcos Gastaldi -Taurus- +9.25s, Dania Akeel -Taurus- +17.31 and Hernán Garcés -CanAm- +38.12, completing the five best positions. N. López, L. Del Río, N. Lafuente, J. Cerdá Araya and O. Santos complete the classification after the third day of the race.
In the changing SSV, Ricardo Ramilo -Can Am- won the partial and took the lead of the race over E. Gaspari -CanAm- +3.08, Sebastián Guayasamin -CanAm- +4.16 and Rebeca Bussi -CanAm- +10.34.
In the Open division, always with a good difference, Jeremías González Ferioli -CanAm- from Cordoba won the partial and greatly stretched his lead in the general standings over Pablo Macua -CanAm- +34.49. They are followed by N. Gagliardi, L. López, Alfredo Olmedo, J. Vélez and R. Núñez.
Tomorrow, Stage 4 San Juan/La Rioja -412 kms. of special and 264 kms. link-. The machines will depart from areas near ”La Difunta Correa”, in Vallecito, to cross the dunes of the place and then head north towards the Province of La Rioja. Where they will cross Zolca and the surroundings of the Anzulón Reservoir, to end near Olta.
Chain 3 Motorfrom the ”El Villicum” International Raceway, San Juan, Campamento DR40, with photographs of DR40.
