Less than a week after landing his first world championship points of the season on Vodafone Rally de Portugal, Federico Villagra is already preparing to get back behind the wheel.
The Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team ace, who finished eighth overall in Portugal, will begin the defence of his Argentine title on Rally de Areco, held in the province of Buenos Aires, this weekend.
He will compete in a Super 2000-based Ford Fiesta in the country’s new Maxi Rally class and said he hopes to use his domestic campaign to boost his chances of success on the world stage, starting with the Jordan Rally later this month. “I hope the experience will help even more for when I return to the WRC in Jordan,” he said.
Of his performance in Portugal, Villagra explained: “It was a tough rally but we’ve enjoyed ourselves and it was important to get some more time in the car after our incident in Mexico. I think we’ve found a good set-up and I’m feeling more and more confident with the car after each event. We wanted to concentrate on getting to the end and leaving with some points for the championship and that is what we have done.”
Villagra was co-driven by Jose Diaz in Portugal after regular navigator Jorge Perez Companc was unable to travel to the event due to business commitments. “It’s not easy when it is like this but Jorge had to work,” said Villagra, whose only major cause for complaint during the rally was an intermittent misfire on Friday’s opening day.
Argentine Villagra is not the only WRC regular competing on Rally de Areco: WRC Academy frontrunner Miguel Baldoni will also be in action at the wheel of a Maxi Rally-specification Volkswagen Gol.
This weekend’s event, based in San Antonio de Areco, features 12 special stages over a competitive distance of 145.44 kilometres.
Credit: World Rally Championship (www.wrc.com)
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