Resistencia qualifying report/results

Martinez and Toyota back on form

Resistencia, Argentina, August 30th.- It has been a while since former TC 2000 champion Omar Martinez was on pole in the sport for the last time. But he was always among front runners and today he got the best possible place in the grid for tomorrow's race at Resistencia, the eighth round of the 2003 season.

Guillermo Ortelli (Honda Civic) kept the fastest time for most of the afternoon until the Toyota Corolla appeared on top of the timing screens with 1.05.692 (147.681 km/h). What is more, even Gabriel Ponce de Leon's works Ford Focus Zetec was able to improve what Ortelli was doing, qualifying secong at a mere 0.055s from Martinez. Ortelli was third, not really far, 0.080s behind.

The day was sunny but it was very windya and it is thought that conditions in this sense should remain stable for race day. Fabian Yannantuoni was quick enough to secure fourth position with his private Honda Civic (0.092s behind the poleman), with Christian Ledesma (Chevrolet Astra) fifth at 0.295s and local ace Juan Manuel Silva sixth at 0.318s.

The top ten list was completed by Nelson Garcia (Ford Escort Zetec), Martin Basso (Honda Civic), Crispin Beitia (Ford Escort Zetec) and ex-F3000 driver Gabriel Furlan (Mitsubishi Lancer). From 27 cars, 22 qualified in less than one second.

Short races (6 laps each) go on Sunday morning (10:00 and 10:30) before the main event (49 laps) which starts at 12:40.

TC 2000 Qualifying
Resistencia, 2.695 m.
Saturday August 30th., 2003 <pre> 1 2 MARTINEZ OMAR TOYOTA COROLLA 1:05.692 2 6 PONCE DE LEON GABRIEL FORD FOCUS 1:05.747 0.055 3 4 ORTELLI GUILLERMO H CIVIC 1:05.772 0.080 4 28 YANNANTUONI FABIAN H CIVIC 1:05.784 0.092 5 9 LEDESMA CHRISTIAN CH ASTRA 1:05.987 0.295 6 3 SILVA JUAN MANUEL H CIVIC 1:06.010 0.318 7 26 GARCIA NELSON FORD ESCORT 1:06.018 0.326 8 24 BASSO MARTIN H CIVIC 1:06.033 0.341 9 27 BEITIA CRISPIN FORD ESCORT 1:06.059 0.367 10 8 FURLAN GABRIEL MITSUB. LANCER 1:06.146 0.454 11 36 TUERO ESTEBAN VW POLO 1:06.151 0.459 12 20 ARMELLINI LUCAS CH ASTRA 1:06.170 0.478 13 10 BUGLIOTTI MARCELO CH ASTRA 1:06.220 0.528 14 16 SATORRA JUAN PABLO FORD ESCORT 1:06.240 0.548 15 1 FONTANA NORBERTO TOYOTA COROLLA 1:06.281 0.589 16 14 BAINOTTI MARIANO H CIVIC 1:06.473 0.781 17 12 CARDUCCI LEANDRO H CIVIC 1:06.501 0.809 18 5 HERNANDEZ WALTER FORD FOCUS 1:06.571 0.879 19 40 LORENZATTI FRANCO FORD ESCORT 1:06.588 0.896 20 11 FINESCHI OSCAR H CIVIC 1:06.615 0.923 21 29 INFANTE JULIO H CIVIC 1:06.647 0.955 22 21 DI PALMA MARCOS CH ASTRA 1:06.667 0.975 23 17 KERN NICOLAS FORD ESCORT 1:06.775 1.083 24 35 " REX " VW POLO 1:07.115 1.423 25 30 CORLETTA ROBERTO FORD ESCORT 1:07.126 1.434 26 34 MEIRINHOS SANTIAGO MITSUB LANCER 1:07.742 2.050 27 18 LOPEZ JUAN MANUEL ALFA ROMEO 146 7:24.622 6:18.930 Average 147.689 km/h.

-www.tc2000.com.ar