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Cordoba race report
Ford dominates at Córdoba: Hernández wins and Ponce de León is the 2003 champion Córdoba, November 23.- Ford completety dominated the thirteenth round of the Argentinian Touring Car Championship (TC 2000) disputed today at Oscar Cabalén ...
Published: Nov 26, 2003, 6:47 PM
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Ford dominates at Córdoba: Hernández wins and Ponce de León is the 2003 champion
Córdoba, November 23.- Ford completety dominated the thirteenth round of the Argentinian Touring Car Championship (TC 2000) disputed today at Oscar Cabalén Speedway in the province of Córdoba.
In a fantastic sunny day Walter Hernández won for the first time at the wheel of the Ford Focus. The podium was completed by Marcelo Bulgiotti and the men of the weekend: Gabriel Ponce de León scored third and also his second title in the category. Once again driving a Ford.
Ponce de León drove in an excellent way leading the field in the first part of the race until lap 18 when he didn`t bothered the fastest step of his teammate Hernández. Lots of situations gave the TC 2000 to the fans that said present in a huge number (37.000) during the 33 laps of competition.
Ponce started from the first place after winning the fastest short race of the morning. Gabriel Furlán became in the main contender during the first laps of race until his privateer Mitsubishi Lancer said stop and put an end to Furlán's hopes after only laps. With the Ford Focus in the 1-2 places, Buglioti, almost in silence, was already in the podium after started ninth the final race.
The race had two Pace Car periods, first at the beginning and then in the final laps due to a hard accident of the Chilean Julio Infante who lost control of his Civic to hit the barriers. Quickly Infante received medical attention and retired without majure injures.
It was a horrible weekend for the factory Toyota and Honda teams. Norberto Fontana was on fire when his Corolla showed problems in the gird. He finally started from the pits and retired leaving behind his champion position in hands of the new king.
Juan Manuel Silva also needed to a good result to continue in the dispute. Despite the former champion suffered many problems during the weekend that put him knock-out for the tournament, he never gave-up and finished ninth.
The factory Ford team and Ponce de León deserves this amazing result. After a 2002 of hard work with no victory they started this season with one aim: be the best in TC 2000. It wasn`t easy, but once again they did it.
Gabriel became in 2001 in the youngest champion in the TC 2000 history and now already has two championships with just 24 years. The best is about to come for this very young, but consecreted driver.
The TC 2000 shedule still has one round at Mar del Plata on December 7th. Be ready for another exciting event.
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