Syd Stelvio – Gaucho Trail Day 8: Posadas to Corrientes – 405km

Back on track and back on plan this morning, and with a little bit of a lay in to boot, by virtue of the fact that we had already completed the border crossing that we should have been taking on this morning.

With a few extra minutes in bed, you might have expected everyone to have been laser focussed for the mornings test, at the Autodromo Santa Cruz, located appropriately on Avenida Juan Manuel Fangio, but that wasn’t set to be the case. Crews gathered early, the test diagram was examined and discussed amongst drivers and navigators and the crews braved a rickety looking grandstand, constructed from scaffold planks, to get a top-down view of the task at hand. Perhaps the prospect of completing the test in front of one’s peers added too much extra pressure, or maybe there was just something in the water in Posadas. Either way, once the cars hit the track, all bloody hell broke loose. Cars were going everywhere, and the confusion wasn’t limited to which side of a cone they ought to be travelling, there were wrong test exits, wrong approaches and even cars driving around the solid barriers (affixed with direction arrows) indicating that section of track ought to perhaps be avoided. The circus was in town.

However, it’s important to keep some perspective on it all, as it is all in the name of fun, and no doubt the unlucky 13 crews that suffered a wrong test can laugh about it now. Probably. Fastest around the two laps of the test circuit, and with the map book held the right way up, were Lars and Annette Rolner, pedalling the Porsche to a time of 2:53, so to congratulations to them.

As well as being the day we got back on track, today was also supposed to be the day that the rally was reunited with its homegrown competitors, Jorge Perez Companc and his son Ezequiel, in their fabulous Ford Coupe. Sadly though, this will not come to pass as they have not been able to source the parts to repair the clutch and have unfortunately retired. Elsewhere in the field, we welcomed a new car wearing the 25 plates today, as Jon Bennettand Ashley Bennett appeared in a Peugeot 404, that they had found on Facebook, after their Volvo had succumbed to a blown head gasket earlier in the rally. The car looks (looks!) pretty good, though time will tell on how shrewd their purchase has been. For now, though it is brilliant to have them back in a classic, after spending the last few days in a hire car.

They would have plenty of time to evaluate the reliability of their new steed, as a long run following the banks of the Rio Parana followed the blast around the track, with a concentration run of some 300km to the midday time control. The road was long and largely straight, running through the wetlands of the Parana Delta, the fluvial plains harbouring hundreds of animals, including horses, cows and water buffalo, not to mention extensive populations of waterbirds and aquatic life. To break up the monotony of following the RN12, halfway along the distance a left slot took the cars back onto the familiarity of gravel tracks, for a section of route controls on the tracks and through the communities that inhabit this part of the Delta. As we had found yesterday, the locals were excited by the oddity of vehicles passing through and clapped and cheered the cars on, as we enjoyed the roads that they call home.

Finally, the Time Control came into view, located at a Shell fuel station that may hold the record for the largest forecourt in the world, that unfortunately wasn’t matched by the number of staff present ready to serve the hungry crews. Well, you can’t have it all. It was a precious opportunity to recharge though, after a long morning in the saddle. The afternoon would be shorter, but would feature a time control section, that would need maximum concentration levels from both drivers and navigators.

The STC would take place on the dirt backroads to the east of San Luis del Palmar, a small town just half an hour from Corrientes, where the day would finish. It was set to be a 40km loop, that would be foreshortened to a 21km sporting section after Deputy Clerk of the Course Guy Woodcock found himself travelling a little too quickly when setting the section up. There was still more than enough to satisfy the thrill seekers amongst the group though, whilst all were reminded at the start to drive within their own ability, after all, talent decays exponentially as speed increases!

Predictably, some were faster out of the blocks than others, the mornings Test Hero Lars Rolner for example could have woken the dead as he tore off the line in his faithful Porsche Safari, the perfect machine for this sort of job. Richard Walker also ripped through the section, as he and navigator Faith Douglas went about their business like two people who had forgotten to buy a loved one a birthday present, and were now desperately trying to get to the shops before they closed. Whilst many of the competitors were happy to take on the role of Hare, some were more comfortable playing the Tortoise, but most importantly everyone made it through safely, including Marco and Stephanie Fila, who just made the section start on time, after suffering some fuelling issues in the Porsche.

A short run to the flag followed, and an earlyish finish with plenty of time to fettle cars before dinner, followed by an early night with a big day in prospect on day 9. There was perhaps just enough time to have a browse of the leaderboard, with a bit of movement after the mornings test shenanigans. At the top of the tree, Filip Engelen and Ann Gillis are now leading after putting in the best performance on the day, leapfrogging Stephen Hardwick and Ian Riley who maintain their second position. The Woofs, who have lead the field for the past few days were one of the unlucky thirteen from the mornings test, and after picking up nearly five minutes of penalty across the day have dropped down to seventh, though with only a minute to the leaders and such a long way to go there is still plenty of time for all of that to change.

Syd.