Slow Boat to Buenos Aires
Eyvind Brynildsen had a pre-event change of car. Ralliart New Zealand's Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX went to Brazil instead of Argentina. RNZ's team principal Neil Allport was however able to honour his team's commitment to the PCWRC championship by renting a car from the local VRS Rally Team, run privately by the Munchi's driver Federico Villagra. "This was our own car being brought from New Zealand to Argentina", Allport explained. "It seems that the shipping line wanted to speed up the delivery of cargo to Brazil, and decided to miss out their planned stop in Buenos Aires. Unfortunately all this came about over Easter, so it was many days too late to make alternative transport arrangements". This was the second time for this event that Villagra came to the aid of stricken New Zealanders. Earlier he found a local, driver,. Luciano Bernardi, willing to take over the Mark Tapper Motorsport PCWRC entry, after their originally nominated driver Mark Tapper found himself financially unable to fund the trip. Bernardi drove an Evo X on this event, but then only after last-minute scrutineering problems had caused Villagra more unplanned challenges to solve. Finally Villagra was present in person or in spirit on three of the cars on the event.

Latvala has his Reasons
Why did Jari-Matti have his mother-of-all crashes in Portugal? The two intervening weeks before he came down to Argentina offered a chance of self analysis... "I think the reason for the accident was that I had too much information in my pacenotes. My brain was in overload with details. When I knew I could not take all the information in my head, I started to check what was happening with my eyes. My codriver Miikka had done everything he could when he sensed I was having trouble. He repeated the warnings about the corner where we crashed, but by then it was all too late and I had no chance to avoid the accident any more. I went in to the last left bend too fast and the car jumped over the barrier and dropped down the hillside". It was one of three dangerous places on that stage. "We had safely passed the first two, this was the third. It was the last difficult corner of the stage. Normally you get to spot when you are coming up to difficult places, but I did not remember places on that road so well. It was a road that was new to me this year. Not trusting your notes and looking to check things with your eyes is not the way to do things at all... "

Tango Goes Big Time
31 years old Tango Rally Team proprietor Marcos Ligato hosted the opening of a vast new preparation centre on night before the start of Rally Argentina. Situated 20km north of Cordoba, this facility covers on area of 5 hectares with a 1.3 km long gravel road test track adjacent to the workshop. "I am proud that this is the only place in South America which combines the preparation and development work with a dedicated test track". Tango Rally Team, and the associated Tango Competicion, are active in rallying in Argentina and abroad, and in off-road cross-country competition activity with Mitsubishi vehicles, and Torino cars for Touring Ca racing. Ligato has been active in world level rallying for eight years, winning the Group N category in the 1000 Lakes Rally in Finland in2001. He was FIA Codasur zone champion in 2000 at the age of 23 and Argentina national champion in 2005.

Behaving Badly in Baires
Citroen drivers Sebastien Loeb and Dani Sordo broke their journey to Cordoba in Buenos Aires, where the team's sponsor Red Bull arranged for streets in the Palermo region of the Argentine capital to be specially closed. The drivers then gave the huge crowds, estimated at 50,000, a scintillating display of rally style, smoke-inducing doughnuts, jumps and so forth. The attached image shows a C4WRC being displayed under the landmark Spanish Monument. The car was not one which team drivers Sebastien or Dani would drive on the rally, however. Oh no, it was an old test car which was being supplied for the rally instead to Sebastien Ogier...

Argentina Side Stories
The cost of fuel in Argentina continues to rise, like everywhere else. The complex side streets of Villa Carlos Paz are difficult to fathom, something of a headache. The official rally roadbook orders competitors to turn right at a fuel station called Aspro. The Tango Rally Team meanwhile proudly announced that one of their major partners was a company called Tafirol. A company making headache tablets.


3mmm