Bahia Blanca round five qualifying notes

First pole position for Ledesma and the Chevrolet Astra

Bahia Blanca, June 7.- The fifth round of the 2003 TC 2000 Championship takes places tomorrow in Argentina. The city of Bahía Blanca near the Atlantic Coast is the places where the race will be held over a track of 3.324 metres.

Qualifying was dominated by Christian Ledesma, who is contesting this series for the first time after competing with success in single-seaters and 3-Litre Touring Cars. This was also the first pole position claimed by a works Chevrolet Astra, a car which is new to the sport since this season.

The driver from Mar del Plata set 1.15.777 for his fastest lap at a quick average speed of 157.916 km/h. Quite close to him, Guillermo Ortelli put his Honda Racing Argentina Civic second, 0.068s behind. In his best performance to date, Juan Pablo Satorra was third (0.365s) with one of the loyal Belloso Competición's Ford Escort Zetecs. Satorra comes from a town close to Bahía Blanca and many fans hope to see him do well or a podium finish.

Gabriel Furlán drove his Mitsubishi Lancer to fourth, 0.525s slower than Christian Ledesma. More than half a second behind the poleman, Martín Basso was fifth (Honda Civic), with the similar car of Fabián Yannantuoni sixth.

The top ten list was completed by Marcelo Bugliotti with the second Astra, Walter Hernández (Ford Focus Zetec), Gabriel Ponce de León (Ford Focus Zetec) and Nelson García (Ford Escort Zetec).

The two short races of six laps each will start at 10:00 and 10:30, while the main event (40 laps) starts at 12:40 as usual.

TC 2000
Bahia Blanca Raceway
3,324 km. , 2.065 mi.
Saturday June 7 2003 <pre> 1 9 LEDESMA CHRISTIAN CH ASTRA 1:15.777 2 4 ORTELLI GUILLERMO H CIVIC 1:15.845 0.068 3 16 SATORRA JUAN PABLO FORD ESCORT 1:16.142 0.365 4 8 FURLAN GABRIEL MITSUB. LANCER 1:16.302 0.525 5 24 BASSO MARTIN H CIVIC 1:16.334 0.557 6 28 YANNANTUONI FABIAN H CIVIC 1:16.398 0.621 7 10 BUGLIOTTI MARCELO CH ASTRA 1:16.475 0.698 8 5 HERNANDEZ WALTER FORD FOCUS 1:16.639 0.862 9 6 PONCE DE LEON GABRIEL FORD FOCUS 1:16.659 0.882 10 26 GARCIA NELSON FORD ESCORT 1:16.793 1.016 11 20 ARMELLINI LUCAS CH ASTRA 1:16.881 1.104 12 2 MARTINEZ OMAR TOYOTA COROLLA 1:16.910 1.133 13 3 SILVA JUAN MANUEL H CIVIC 1:16.916 1.139 14 11 FINESCHI OSCAR H CIVIC 1:16.918 1.141 15 17 KERN NICOLAS FORD ESCORT 1:17.101 1.324 16 27 BEITIA CRISPIN FORD ESCORT 1:17.137 1.360 17 39 FLAMARIQUE JULIAN TOYOTA COROLLA 1:17.241 1.464 18 33 TUERO ESTEBAN MITSUB LANCER 1:17.301 1.524 19 12 CARDUCCI LEANDRO H CIVIC 1:17.448 1.671 20 34 MOREIRO JAVIER MITSUB LANCER 1:17.493 1.716 21 1 FONTANA NORBERTO TOYOTA COROLLA 1:17.568 1.791 22 21 DI PALMA MARCOS CH ASTRA 1:17.573 1.796 23 18 LOPEZ JUAN MANUEL ALFA ROMEO 146 1:17.751 1.974 24 23 GIOVANETTI ARIEL VW POLO 1:17.932 2.155 25 36 LORCA RODOLFO VW POLO 1:17.989 2.212 26 29 INFANTE JULIO H CIVIC 1:18.386 2.609 27 35 " REX " VW POLO 1:18.456 2.679 28 30 CORLETTA ROBERTO FORD ESCORT 1:19.387 3.610

Average Speed: 157.916 kmh

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