TCR World and life

34 SOUTH AMERICA PepeOriola strengthenshisposition TCR South America’s inaugural season is receiving a boost from the guest participation of international stars, including the likes of Esteban Guerrieri, Tom Coronel and Santiago Urrutia. As far as the title fight is concerned, Pepe Oriola has strengthened his position after claiming his third victory at Rivera (above). The Spaniard has now extended his lead to 25 points over Rodrigo Baptista. Oriola and local hero Urrutia took a win each in the Uruguayan event. In the first race, Urrutia led the way from pole ahead of Oriola (top right), while Raphael Reis was tipped into a spin by the Alfa Romeo of Fabricio Larratea. Behind the leaders there was a fight between the Scuderia CJ Hyundai Elantra of Rodrigo Aramendia and the Honda Civic cars of Cyro Fontes, Reis and Ayrton Chorne. Rodrigo Baptista, who had started from 13th, was able to benefit from the fracas and passed Larratea for fourth, which became third when Fontes stopped while running in third. After a safety car period, Urrutia was put under pressure by Oriola during the final four laps, but he managed to hold him at bay to secure victory on his and Lynk & Co’s TCR South America debut. Baptista dropped to fifth with two laps to go, which promoted the second of the PMO Motorsport Lynk & Co cars of Pablo Otero to third. Adalberto Baptista started Race 2 from the reversed grid pole but was passed by Otero. Oriola and Urrutia were immediately up to fourth and fifth; they both overtook Otero on lap four and began to pull away. After another safety car period, the threat to Oriola vanished when Urrutia headed into the pit lane with a power steering issue, promoting Otero to second and Larratea to third. On the final lap, a charging Rodrigo Baptista got past both Larratea and Otero to grab second, with Larratea also getting past Otero to deprive him of the final podium spot. INTERNATIONAL STARS TOM CORONEL AND SANTIAGO URRUTIA WERE VICTORIOUS WHILE VISITING THE NEW SERIES