Preview: Rally of Argentina.

The 24th Rally of Argentina takes place this coming weekend - the eighth round out of sixteen in the 2004 FIA World Rally Championship.

Argentina will also play host to the fourth round in the 2004 FIA Production Car WRC.

Starting on Thursday 15 July with two sprints round a Super Special stage in the host town of Carlos Paz, the rally will be the sixth consecutive gravel event of the season and marks the halfway point in the 16 round FIA Championship.

Preview: Rally of Argentina.

The 24th Rally of Argentina takes place this coming weekend - the eighth round out of sixteen in the 2004 FIA World Rally Championship.

Argentina will also play host to the fourth round in the 2004 FIA Production Car WRC.

Starting on Thursday 15 July with two sprints round a Super Special stage in the host town of Carlos Paz, the rally will be the sixth consecutive gravel event of the season and marks the halfway point in the 16 round FIA Championship.

Comprising three legs and 382.63 competitive kilometres, Rally Argentina includes 26 stages. Leg one is run to the north of Carlos Paz, near Le Cumbre, while Legs two and three offer a mixture of stages, both north and south of the host town.

This year the event will see a return to the stages near El Condor in Leg three, which peaks at 2,153 metres above sea level. The longest test, the Ascochinga stage at 28.83km, will be used for SS4 and SS8, while the shortest, the Super Especial Complejo Pro-Racing Super Special at 3.02km, will be used six times as SS1, SS2, SS11, SS12, SS20 and SS21.

The winning car is expected to cross the finish ramp at 1638hrs on Sunday 18 July.


Special notes:

Run on the edge of the Pampas and in the hills close to the city of Cordoba, Rally Argentina is often cited as the most beautiful rally of the year. Breath-taking scenery and numerous water splashes make for spectacular viewing and every year tens of thousands of fans flock to the stages to cheer on their favourite rally drivers.

For the drivers, the event is characterised by high-speeds and fluctuating conditions. Loose gravel stages high in the mountains combine narrow, twisty sections with flat-out roads and numerous surface changes.

One of the highest events of the year, many stages are more than 1,000 metres above sea level and weather conditions can be unpredictable, changing rapidly with little warning. In the wet, the loose gravel surface can be exceptionally slippery, while current winter temperatures can fluctuate between 20?C and below freezing.

FIA World Rally Championship news:

Sebastien Loeb leads the World Rally drivers' championship, 9 points ahead of Petter Solberg. Citroen meanwhile head the constructors' - 15 points ahead of Ford, while Subaru are a further six adrift in third.


News from the Manufacturers' teams:
555 Subaru World Rally Team:

[Petter Solberg, car #1 and Mikko Hirvonen, car #2.]

Petter Solberg has competed in Argentina four times and has scored points on each occasion. He finished second in 2002 and is looking to improve on that this year.

Finnish driver Mikko Hirvonen contested the Argentine event for the first time in 2003 when he finished 16th. This year he will be aiming to secure championship points.

Citroen Total:

[Sebastien Loeb, car #3 and Carlos Sainz, car #4]

"Argentina is one of the rallies of which we have much less experience compared to our rivals," comments team boss, Guy Frequelin. "Our knowledge on the event is limited to a week of testing in 2002, when such work outside of Europe was still permitted, and to our participation in 2003. That said, last year's event went rather well for us.

"Carlos posted seven fastest stage times and, had it not been for a clocking-in error, he could have come away with better than second place. Meanwhile, although the rally was completely new to him, Seb confirmed the Xsara's competitiveness by posting two-second fastest times and two third bests.

"Since then, all the teams have progressed, and so have we. The way I saw the Xsaras handle in Turkey leads me to believe that we now have a competitive base, which we can fine-tune to adapt it to the different terrains visited by the championship. If we succeed in doing that in Argentina, and I hope we do, we should be in a position to fight for victory."

Marlboro Peugeot Total:

[Marcus Gronholm, car #5 and Harri Rovanpera, car #6].

Marcus Gronholm won the Rally Argentina last year for Peugeot, the French manufacturer also took third and fourth with Richards Burns and Harri Rovanpera respectively. If they are to stand any chance in Constructors' championship this season, where they are 33 points behind Citroen, or in the drivers', where Gronholm is 21 points off Loeb, they will need a top result this weekend. Nothing but a win will do.

Ford Motor Company:

[Markko Martin, car #7 and Francois Duval, car #8.]

Markko Martin and Michael Park will warm-up for the Rally Finland when they drive a Focus RS WRC on the Pirelli Rally in Finland on July 31. The event is based in Tampere and the fast gravel special stages will allow the duo to 'tune in' to the kind of speeds that will be seen on the fastest round of the world championship a week later. The Pirelli Rally will complete a week's testing in Finland during which Janne Tuohino and Duval will also drive.

Mitsubishi Motor Sports:

[Gilles Panizzi, car #9 and Kristian Sohlberg, car #10.]

Kristian Sohlberg will partner Gilles Panizzi this weekend in the second Mitsubishi, following his outings in Sweden, New Zealand and Cyprus. His aim is simple - to score some points.

"Having only done the recce [in Argentina] I think it's quite hard to expect too much, but even so my objective is to get points for Mitsubishi," he noted. "The rally is quite fast but some parts are pretty rough, and also the altitude adds another dimension. I also heard last week that there's a lot of snow around El C?ndor, so it's going to be a cold event with lots of mud and slippery stages; it will be very interesting. Tyre-wise, we are prepared for every possible weather condition."


Production Car WRC:

The Production Car WRC continues this weekend, following round three in New Zealand back in April, when Manfred Stohl took the honours.

In the championship standings it is tight at the top, with the top five drivers separate by just 6 points. Daniel Sola currently leads on 16, while Toshi Arai and Jani Paasonen both have 15. Alister McRae is fourth on 14, and Stohl has 10. 16 drivers' have scored points thus far.


Schedule:

Organisers have dropped last year's compact set-up in favour of a return to its traditional format of visiting the three valleys in the sierras of Cordoba, each offering stages of differing character and landscape.

After the now traditional opening at the Pro-Racing super special stages near the rally base of Villa Carlos Paz on Thursday evening, the first full day is based in the Punilla Valley to the north.

Leg two is a mix of the flowing stages in the Calamuchita Valley to the south and the Punilla Valley.

A shorter final day ends amid the rocky speed tests high in the Traslasierra mountains, and brings the return of El Condor and Giulio C?sare, two of the most famous and toughest stages in the entire championship, which peak at almost 2200 metres.

The Pro-Racing tests will be repeated at the end of the first and second legs. Also back is the picture postcard finish ceremony in Cordoba's soccer stadium.

Drivers face 26 stages covering 382.63km of competition in a route of 1347.27km.

Hot tip:

Citroen and Sebastien Loeb are on form at the moment, they must be considered the favourites.


Last year:

Last year's event, which took place in May was won by Marcus Gronholm, with Carlos Sainz second and Richard Burns third. There were six significant retirements, including Freddy Loix, Colin McRae, Sebastien Loeb, Tommi Makinen and Markko Martin.

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