Juan Tomás Catalán Magni
(Ford) scored his first victory as a single driver in
Road Tourism
this Sunday by winning the second test of the division's annual calendar held at the Parque Provincia de Neuquén racetrack, in the town of Centenario.
The young man from Arrecife, 24 years old, had already shared the privilege of winning a TC competition, but as a
guest pilot
.
It happened in 2017, when he accompanied Juan Manuel Silva
from Chaco
and both won the 1000 kilometers of Buenos Aires, at the Oscar and Juan Gálvez racetrack.
On this occasion, Catalán Magni, who had finished third in the opening race held last February in Viedma, won alone as the sole and main midfielder, after an entertaining fight with Julián Santero (Ford
)
.
The Arrecifes rider, who has made 73 appearances in the category, completed the 25 laps of the 4,380-meter track in a time of 40m36s128, at an average of 161.814 kilometers per hour.
Santero from Mendoza, for his part, finished at 2.611 seconds, accusing a noticeable drop in the performance of his car, due to a problem with his left rear tyre, which almost reached the finish line on the rim.
Towards the middle of the competition, when the positions began to be defined, the incident occurred that guaranteed the triumph of the young man from Reef. It is that in a second relaunch due to the entry of the safety car due to a mistake by Ricardo Risatti (Chevrolet), the Santero
from
Mendoza he was forced to cede the position to the winner, after a little friction between the two, at the exit of turn number 4 of the circuit.
"I did not see that it harmed him in that specific maneuver. In the first one, maybe yes, it happened to me a bit and I touched it involuntarily," the 29-year-old native of Guaymallén apologized.
Then, Catalán Magni seized the opportunity, led in a race by another pair and kept his sober driving to seize the victory.
"I drove tense during the first 24 laps. It was only in the last one that I was able to enjoy knowing that the victory was not escaping," confessed the winner, the new leader of the championship, with 83 units.
"Hopefully this victory will serve as a boost to be able to fight for the tournament. It will be very difficult but I think we have a car" confided Catalán Magni.
In third place and the last step of the podium came the Uruguayan
Mauricio Lambiris
(Ford), at 5s842.
Mariano Werner
(Ford) from Entre Ríos
, winner of the inaugural test in Viedma, guaranteed the overwhelming dominance of the
Oval
brand , with a fourth place, at 6s607.
Valentín Aguirre
(Dodge) , also from Reef,
finished fifth, at 6.945 seconds, while the defending champion, the man from Rio Negro (Torino) had to settle for sixth place, at 7.163 seconds.
The Buenos Aires native from Lobería,
Jonatan Castellano
(Dodge), third in the contest, came in seventh place, at 7s653.
Rivera's driver
Germán Todino
(Dodge) qualified eighth, at 7s767;
Nicolás Bonelli
(Ford) from Entre Ríos finished ninth at 9.999 seconds and
Santiago Mangoni
(Chevrolet) from Balcarce
completed the top ten at 10.832 seconds.
After the first two dates of the tournament, Catalán Magni leads the table with 83 points;
followed by Werner with 82.5;
Castilian, 73;
Lambiris, 72;
Todino, 63;
Aguirre, 57.5;
Craparo, 56;
Urcera, 54.5. The next competition on the calendar will be on Sunday the 26th of this year at the Toay racetrack, La Pampa province.
Source: Telam
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