WRC: Five tests cancelled in Argentina.

[Rory Phoulorie]

The organisers of the Rally Argentina have had to cancel the opening five tests on Friday, after some rally personnel were left stranded in Buenos Aires following Thursday night's super special.

With the River Plate Stadium stage taking place some 700 kilometres from the service park, the plan was to fly people there and back. However, one of the three aeroplanes - carrying competitors from the PWRC - was delayed from returning to Cordoba, where the service park is based, due to bad weather. As such stewards have had to delay the re-start for leg one by five hours to give personnel more time to arrive.

The leg will now re-start at 14.26 hours local time, with service B in Carlos Paz, and the rest of the itinerary should remain unchanged. This means crews will tackle just three stages on Friday - namely: SS7 Capilla del Monte-San Marcos at 16.11 hours, SS8 San Marcos-Cuchi Corral at 16.48 hours and the SS9 Estadio Cordoba Superspecial at 19.05 hours.

SS2, SS3, SS4, SS5 and SS6, making up 79.91 competitive kilometres - more than 60 per cent of the opening's day action, has been lost.

It is all rather regrettable, especially as a number of concerns were raised before the event, with Citroen's Sebastien Loeb amongst those questioning whether it was worth all the effort. His words now seem spot on � almost prophetical.

"I hope there will be a good atmosphere in the stadium because the logistics are a little complex for just one stage which, to my mind, has little to do with the rally,� he stated before the event began.

�If super-specials are organised in the region of events for those spectators who can't get out to the stages, so be it? But when they became a priority, I really hope they're worth it��

Despite the problems after though, the super special did go well and tens of thousands were there to witness the action. Furthermore a number of drivers were won over by the atmosphere at the River Plate Stadium � although all were speaking before the subsequent problems with the weather.

�I was aware that the Argentinean's are rally enthusiasts. But the vibes of the almost 70,000 fans here were extremely impressive,� noted OMV Kronos Manfred Stohl. �That makes you cherish each second and the spectators deserve that you off them a good show instead of just stubbornly concentrating on the circuit.�

�We have travelled a long way today to do a Super Special stage and it was good to get it completed without any problems,� added Stobart Ford's Matthew Wilson. �It was really special to compete in this historic stadium, I have seen it many times on television and it really is exceptional.�

For the record, it was not an easy stage to do as the logistical challenge to transplant the rally to the capital for the night involved nine coaches, eighty cars, 14 vehicle transporters, 500 people and three aeroplanes. In the end it was a plane too far...


http://www.crash.net/news_view~cid~4~id~147385.htm

[Plex]

Some bad news there for rally fans..