Run on the edge of the Pampas and in the hills around the town of Carlos Paz, the Rally of Argentina will dish up fast smooth gravel, mud, sand, rocks, as well as some infamous water splashes.
Run on the edge of the Pampas and in the hills around the town of Carlos Paz, the Rally of Argentina will dish up fast smooth gravel, mud, sand, rocks, as well as some infamous water splashes.
Round Five of the 2003 FIA World Rally Championship will see 92 competitors contest a much more compact route than previous years, run around the central service area at Le Cumbre. The high altitude loop of stages traditionally held around El Condor has been removed, but with nine new stages for the competitors to contest, none of the event’s traditional character will be lost.
The Rally of Argentina will comprise of three legs and 25 stages. Each leg offers a mixture of fast stages to the north of Le Cumbre and twisty stages to the south. With some of the stages as high as 1,600 metres above sea level, weather conditions can often change rapidly, making grip levels and speeds alter quickly, sometimes without warning.
The 555 Subaru WRC team principal David Lapworth said this week: “Argentina is a very tricky rally and is hard to describe technically. It should be slightly easier on the car this year as we have lost the high altitude stages and the route is more concentrated so the extreme aspect is gone. The terrain is quite soft and sandy and can be dusty.
“Large rocks that often line the stages make the event very unforgiving – even small mistakes here can spell retirement. Worse still is that sometimes the rocks get dragged into the centre of the road by the cars ahead and drivers can be confronted by obstacles not present on the recce,” he added.
The winning car is expected to cross the finish ramp at the lakeside in Villa Carlos Paz on Sunday afternoon.