· Another three stages to go
With three days of the event contested, Orlando ‘Orly’ Terranova and Bernardo ‘Ronnie’ Graue hold the overall lead in Desafío Ruta 40 Norte.
With their MINI ALL4 Racing, the two Argentineans won the prologue and the following two special stages. In the second stage, from San Juan to Villa Unión, Terranova and Graue had to change a tyre due to a puncture and had to pump up another one but at the end of the day they proved to be the fastest, nevertheless. In the following stage, the rally took the field to the heights of Tinogasta. “A nice route,” Terranova said following his next stage win. “We drove for 20 kilometres on roads but the rest of the stage was off-road terrain. This special stage was a major challenge for us, the vehicle and the tyres.”
During the course of the coming days, the competitors will be taken further to Northern Argentina. From Tinogasta the field will drive via Belén and Tafi de Valle to Tucuman where the teams will drive across the finish podium.
Desafío Ruta 40 overall standings after SS2:
1st O. Terranova (ARG) / B. Graue (ARG) MINI ALL4 Racing – 7h 46m 52s
2nd S. Halpern (ARG) / E. Pulenta (ARG) Toyota – 8h 08m 56s
3rd J. Garcia (ARG) / R. Tolaschi (ARG) Chevrolet – 8h 55m 49s
4th B. Zapag Benitez (PRY) / R. Posse (ARG) Toyota – 14h 12m 26s
5th O. Gandara (ARG) / L. Martinez (BOL) Toyota – 16h 26m 38s
