Muddy roads mark Tacuaremboan Rally

Story: Christiam Mateus
Pictures: Anibal Guglielmelli

Enrique Pereira and Juan Antelo (Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII) won the second round of the Uruguayan Rally Championship in Tacuarembó.

The “Carlos Gardel Rally” was held in muddy roads with the Class N1 cars not allowed to compete over the 18 SS and 178km-lomng rally route.

General & Class N4 – Enrique Pereira won in a new car
The changing from Subaru to Mitsubishi, to leave the Impreza WRX that give him the 2008 championship and start a new career with a Lancer Evolution VII, put the Pereira – Antelo crew in a new situation in this second round of the championship.

The favourites to win this event held recently were Rodrigo Zeballos/Sebastián Dotta (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII), who won the first round in Durazno last month. The Quattrocchio Rally Team started in front to win the first five stages, but they retired before the sixth stage after they lost drive 100 meters before they start the SS.

From that moment to the end of the first day, the leadership was held by Martín and Omar Cánepa (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII). But, they too ran out of luck in the first stage of the second day with steering problems.

Pereira and Antelo claimed the lead of the rally and kept it to the finish line. This pairing had to fight with drive problems throughout the day, and their car’s differential problems only worsened. They were the only ones remaining in Class N4 after all competition had retired: Gabriel Beltrán/Daniel Revenga (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII – crashed out in SS01), Alfredo Lago/Gustavo Cámera (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII – hydraulics, crashed out in SS01), Javier Castiglioni/Gonzalo Piana (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII – drive and clutch), Álvaro Cardozo/Martín Villete (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VI – crashed in SS06) and Sergio Lafuente/Julio Erache (Subaru Impreza WRX – retired).

Class N3 – Winning while knowing the car
José Levy/Daniel Parafita in their new Honda Civic Type R, are showing why they still are the fastest in a two-wheel drive car as they did so last season. In this event, they not only won their Class but finished second in the general classification.

Their main rivals, Ronny Wolloch/José Luís Schumacher (Peugeot 306 S16), didn’t manage to finish the first day. Firstly, they lost the rear left wheel when they were in SS03, and after that they retired wth gearbox problems (they lost third and fourth gear).

Other classes
Hugo Correa/Richard Collazo (Peugeot 206 XS) put their first round retirement behind them to win Class A6 here to also finish the event in third place overall. Pablo Rezk/Julio Rabassa (Peugeot 206 XS) finished behind them.

Pablo Pereira won the N2 Class with Martín Cabrera as his co-driver in their VW Gol. The Peugeot 206 XS of Daniel Suárez/Andrés Kalaitzis finished second, followed by Waldemar Ruiz/Fernando Malagamba in third and Ignacio Fontes with his father Gerardo in fourth place.

Julio Durán/Nicolás Sabatino won the Gol 305 Class. They were the only pair that saw the finish line.

Overall Clasification
01) N4 – E. Pereira/J. Antelo (Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VII) – 01h 39m 01,1s
02) N3 – J. Levy/D. Parafita (Honda Civic Type R) + 09m 38,1s
03) A6 – H. Correa/R. Collazo (Peugeot 206 XS) + 10m 58,7s
04) A6 – P. Rezk/J. Rabassa (Peugeot 206 XS) + 12m 23,3s
05) N2 – P. Pereira/M. Cabrera (Volkswagen Gol) + 21m 20,2s
06) N2 – D. Suarez/A. Kalaitzis (Peugeot 206) + 22m 48,2s
07) N2 – W. Ruiz/F. Malagamba (Volkswagen Gol) + 25m 17,1s
08) N2 – I. Fontes/G. Fontes (Peugeot 206 XS) + 26m 03,4s
09) G305 – J. Durán/N. Sabatino (Volkswagen Gol) + 26m 15,9s