RALLY ARGENTINA PREVIEW
 
After a three months pause, the PWRC returns with next weekend’s Rally of Argentina, one of the more traditional and beautiful events of the schedule. The Argentinean Rally is the fourth event valid for this year championship and means the half-season point for Sergio López-Fombona. So far the RACC-Repsol-Mitsubishi team is doing very well as in the three previous rallies both of its drivers have scored points. An eighth place for Fombona at Sweden, followed by fifth and sixth for his team-mate Pons at Mexico and New Zealand show the excellent work done by the RACC Automóvil Club and Repsol. The team continue with their main target on aiding the learning and promotion of both drivers on the difficult world rally stages.
   
 
Fotos RACC y Jean Marc Pastor

After the different experiences of such diverse places as Sweden or New Zealand, the rally circus now arrives at the very fast terrain of Argentina with jumps and river-crossings continuously appearing along the stages. The young RACC drivers will also have to face the huge amount of ruts that the WRC runners leave behind them. No doubt the Rally of Argentina features excellent roads and a very beautiful landscape but it's quite hard with some stages without almost any vegetation and plenty of big rocks.
With the very attractive and popular tourist city of Villa Carlos Paz as headquarters, the Rally of Argentina will start at 00:07h (Spanish time) next Friday the 16th July, with the traditional superstage at Complejo Pro Racing, that will be repeated again on Friday at the end of the first leg and once more on Saturday. The rally will last over 1,347.27 kilometres with 382.63 kms along 26 special stages, where the Repsol and RACC liveried Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII will be ready to allow Sergio López-Fombona and Xevi Pons to battle again for points.


The importance of good fuel

Usually we talk about the importance of a good engine, a compact chassis, the right suspension setup, good tyres... but sometimes we all forget about a very important factor for the optimum performance of a rally car: the fuel. For 30 years Repsol YPF, one of the team’s main sponsors, helps the best national drivers and teams by providing them with latestst generation fuel and lubricants, showing its continuous commitment to motor sport.
Keeping an engine in good shape to avoid problems and keeping it working at its optimum performance no matter what the atmospheric conditions are two factors that make a winning fuel. Josep Calm, Calm Competició's chairman, says “Nowadays the FIA regulations are quite restrictive on fuel specifications. All teams use the same fuel with a specific maximum octane number and combustion power according to the technical rules. Therefore a good fuel is very important and it's a factor to keep in mind when trying to maximise its potential. At Calm we develop it firstly on the dyno and then through testing, finally we design an electronic program for both the fuel and engine at each rally.” No doubts about the importance of a good fuel “a ‘maximised’ fuel can give you some 25-30 BHP extra”, says Josep Calm.

Last rally on gravel

After Argentine, Sergio López-Fombona will say goodbye to gravel events with his Lancer Group N, to return to tarmac for the Rallies of Germany and France (Tour de Corse). The last rally of the season, Australia, is not included in the schedule of the RACC-Repsol Team.
     PROGRAMME
 
A changed Rally of Argentina

Although keeping its usual format, the 24th Rally of Argentina will have several changes on the way. The rally will visit the three valleys of the Cordoba hills, Punilla, Calamuchita and Traslasierra, with the main feature being the stage called “Valle Hermoso-Casa Grande” (11.16 kms), never before included in the South American event. As usual the organizers are expecting huge crowds, especially given the holiday dates (from the 15th to the 18th of July).
After a basically slow first leg and a quicker second one, the drivers will face during the third day a hard stage with big rocks along the route; here they will reach a height of 2,200 meters above sea-level. Two of the harder and more charismatic stages of the event are part of this last leg: Mina Clavero-Giulio Césare and El Cóndor-Copina, and it is very likely we will have to wait until then to know the name of the winner before the final arrival of the drivers at the Cordoba Olympic Stadium.
Más información en la página web oficial del Rallye: www.rallyargentina.com
   
 
   IN SERGIO'S VIEW
 
""After three months I really miss the action. I'm looking forward to being back at the wheel of my Mitsubishi in Argentine and scoring a good result. It will be a very complex rally; there are a couple of tough car-breaking stages where we must be very careful, then there are some really nice stages where you can really push hard. An important factor will be the cold temperatures, on the verge of 5-10ºC, but we will have to get used to it. Another problem will be altitude, at certain places we will be at over 2.000 meters. It will affect the engines although not so much as was the case in Mexico.
I'm very happy with how the Mitsubishi works. We have been testing and we are improving a lot, especially with the suspension and central differential. Again the target will be to cover as many kilometres as possible, gain experience and end up as high in the results as we can manage”.