The 2006
FIA World Rally Championship heads to back to the Amercias this weekend for the Rally Argentina, which will see the series return to gravel, the surface that dominates.
Based around the city of Cordoba, the Rally Argentina will also, uniquely, play host to a round of
both the 2006 Production Car WRC and the 2006 Junior WRC, the third round in the former and the fourth in the latter.
This year the service park moves from Villa Carlos Paz to Cordoba, just opposite the football stadium built for the 1978 World Cup Finals.
On Thursday and Sunday nights the stadium will host a new Superspecial where crews will run side-by-side through a specially-built 2.2km stage. After two loops through the circuit on Thursday, the true rallying starts on Friday at 0833hrs. Leg one is run to the north of Cordoba and features the longest stage of the event between the towns of Ascochinga and La Cumbre. The finish is scheduled for 1330hrs in the Cordoba stadium.
Special notes:
The rally is run through dramatic scenery on the edge of the flat, grassy Pampas and in the Sierras Chicas hills close to Cordoba. The varied landscape produces numerous changes of road surface and character as narrow, loose gravel stages high in the mountains combine with flat-out harder-packed sprints in the valleys. Although Mexico has superseded Argentina as the rally with the highest average altitude, many of the Argentine stages are more than 1,000 metres above sea level, with Leg three’s El Condor stage peaking at 2,195 metres. Such high altitude produces its own challenges as power output is reduced as a direct consequence of the air being thinner.
If the reduced power, high speeds and bumpy terrain weren’t enough of a test, there’s always the famous watersplashes. Getting the right line and speed on approach is crucial, and with 17 watersplashes in total, there are many potential hazards.
