Trelew round three report

Ponce de Leon won round 3 in Trelew.

Trelew, Argentina, April 6th.- Ford completely dominated round 3 of the 2003 TC 2000 Championship in southern Argentina today. The bumpy circuit of Trelew hosted the event in which former champion Gabriel Ponce de Leon gave the works Focus Zetec its first series win since its debut at the beginning of the 2002 season.

It was a 1-2-3 for the oval manufacturer, with the other Focus of Walter Hernandez second overall and the Escort Zetec of Nelson Garcia third in the podium, a "satellite"car of the Berta Motorsport team.

A group of at least eight cars crossed the chequered flag very close each other, although it was a clean race with no major shunts. Only in the last few minutes of the event, leader Gabriel Ponce de Leon who started first after the morning six-laps heats, was able to make a gap of more than one second.

The Toyotas of Norberto Fontana and Omar Martinez chased all three Ford for every single lap, but they had to end in fourth and fifth place, respectively. It was a very good job the one of Fabian Yannantuoni, who returned to the wheel of one of Fineschi Racing's Honda Civics. Yannantuoni finished sixth ahead of Juan Pablo Satorra, Fineschi himself, the Alfa Romeo 146 of Juan Manuel Lopez and Javier Moreiro (Mitsubishi Lancer).

Fontana is still first in the points table with 42, but Ponce de Leon is now a threat for him as he now has 39 points. Hernandez is third with 35.

13 drivers were not classified in a round in which almost half the competitors found trouble to get to the finish line. On May 4th, the beautiful but hazardous track of El Zonda at San Juan will be the place where TC 2000 will go for a new race.

-tc2000-