Downtown Buenos Aires was closed to almost all traffic Saturday – except for a few cars doing way beyond the speed limit.

Thousands of spectators crowded the capital’s core for the warmup to the Super TC2000, an unprecedented street race that will run through the city’s roads tomorrow.

The race is the second round in a 2012 championship. Roads were closed all day for the warmup, and will be closed through tomorrow as well.

The circuit follows Avenida 9 de Julio, Avenida Roque Sáenz Peña (Diagonal Norte) and Avenida de Mayo.

Argentine sports news outlet El Mundo D reported that on the tracks straightaways, the speeds could reach as high as 235 km/h.

On the morning after the National Day of Remembrance, Lillo Montalto Monella joined more than 3,000 runners gathered in Buenos Aires for the annual Carrera de Miguel, an 8km run in memoriam of Miguel Sanchez, 25, marathoner, poet and political activist who disappeared during the last dictatorship, in 1978.

Created in 2000 by an Italian journalist, Valerio Piccioni, it is a trans-national event that takes place annually in various Argentine cities – Tucumán, Bariloche, Quilmes – as well as having also been run also in Barcelona, in the United States and in the earthquake-hit city of L’Aquila, Italy.

Elvira and Ramon Sanchez were also present at the event to give their testimony about the figure of the disappeared brother. “Miguel’s name is already known in many different places. We are here to make sure it will never be forgotten,” Elvira Sanchez said.

Valerio Piccioni summed up the spirit of the event: “We are here to promote Manuel’s values: it is not important to win, but that everybody has shoes to try.” He also shared his disappointed in the municipality of Buenos Aires for not being supportive enough in terms of proper advertising of the event.

“Many people did not even know about it. We came all the way from Italy with 5,000 flyers that we distributed in the streets in the last few days. I’m a guest, so therefore I’m deeply grateful for what the city government has done so far. Still, it is a bit hypocrital: an event of this kind has to be organised properly.”

On Friday, the street where the run took place, Crisólogo Larralde, has been renamed after Miguel Sanchez. “This was important for the event promotion, as many journalists came down and spred the word around right before the run,” Piccioni said.

Elvira Sanchez, sister of Miguel Sanchez, with an older runner.

A few moments before the start.

Stretching to warm up for the race.

The starting point.

La Carrera de Miguel was open to disabled people as well.

Posters of Miguel Sanchez

A child offers support along the Carrera de Miguel.

After the run.

Two children brought about by activists of the group La Poderosa.

Piccioni and Elvira delivering the final speech in remembrance of Miguel Sanchez.

The creator of the run, Valerio Piccioni, and Miguel's brother, Ramon.

A sound tower fell yesterday morning as spectators gathered to watch the end of a marathon at the corner of Figueroa Alcorta and Monroe in Palermo. Eleven people were injured as a result of the accident.

A strong gust of wind blew over the metal structure, which was several meters high, trapping several people underneath. Runners who had just completed the race and other bystanders worked together to lift the tower in order to rescue the victims. Ten ambulances were needed to transport the injured to local hospitals.

The race was put on by the Club de Corredores and the University of Palermo. According to Sebastián Tagle, head of the club, he claimed the responsibility lies with the University of Palermo. In a statement made to Clarín, he said, “We took care of the technical part of the race. The sound was contracted by the University of Palermo.”

The university issued a brief communication to the public stating, “Our university community is very saddened by what happened and hope that those affected have a quick recovery.”

According the race organisors, nearly 7,000 runners participated in the event.

Photo courtesy of The Dakar Rally

The 31st annual Dakar Rally took place between the 3rd and 17th of January in its new home, Argentina and Chile.

The Dakar Rally is a world-famous rally raid (a long distance, off-road motor sports race, often lasting several days) which is aimed to test the endurance of its competitors. The rally is split in to four vehicle categories: bikes, quads, cars and trucks, and there are often several classes of vehicle within these categories. Typically the vehicles will cover up to 700-900km a day.

The yearly competition started in 1978 as the Paris to Dakar Rally and, bar a few years when the course changed but still ran between France and Western Africa, kept the same route until 2008. However, after the death of four French citizens and three soldiers in Mauritania that year, the race had to be cancelled for security reasons and a new course was required.

Argentina and Chile, with their stunning open landscapes and lack of security concerns, offered to host the competition and the first Buenos Aires-Valparaíso-Buenos Aires has, largely, been considered a success for all concerned as fan, José Alberto Gonzalez Garcia, 44, from Buenos Aires, told me: “The Rally has been a great spectacle, look how many people have been to watch it, it’s a phenomenal effort. I think it’s good for the sport and for Argentina.”

The Course

The course ran south from Buenos Aires to Puerto Madryn, curling east to Jacobacci and then heading north through Neuquén and Mendoza before the pilots got a chance to take a day’s rest in Valparaíso. From Valparaíso, the competitors headed north to the Copiapo in the Atacama Desert where they did a loop before driving south west through La Rioja and Córdoba to finish back in Buenos Aires.

Over the course of the route, the competitors were subjected to varying terrains and, with them, varying challenges such as rocky passageways and rivers in northern Patagonia, mountainous sections in the foothills of the Andes, sand dunes and large boulders in the Atacama and, typically, traffic jams in Buenos Aires.

Photo by Alex Fuentes

Dutch driver Chris Leyds, with the famous MacRae team, gave me his thoughts on the new course.

“I really enjoyed the new route, it’s beautiful and the amount of spectators completely eclipsed any other Dakar before. The course may not require as much skill as the old rally did but the terrain is a lot heavier and therefore, technically, it was a lot more challenging. I would say that we learnt more doing this course once than we would have in two runs of the African course.”

The Winners

Clichés aside, the adage ‘it’s not about the winning, but the taking part’ is very fitting for the Dakar Rally as many vehicles are written off and are left unable to fully ‘take part’. Indeed this year, of the 235 bikes that started, only 113 finished, of 29 quads, only 13 finished, of 195 cars, only 91 finished and of 85 trucks, only 54 finished.

The winners were the Spaniard Marc Coma with the KTM team in the bike category, the Czech Josef Machacek with the Yahama team in the quad category, South African Giniel De Villiers and German Dirk Von Zitzewitz with the Volkswagon team in the car category and the Russians Firdaus Kabirov, Aydar Belyaev and Andrey Mokeev of the Kamaz team in the truck category.

After the race, an exhausted but victorious Marc Coma said: “There were so many days of racing, so much work. I am really very happy. It was a very tough race. We did not know the terrain too well and it was, therefore, hard to have a good race strategy.”

Meanwhile, Leyds and the MacRae team, driving a new class of car, never before seen at the Dakar, were thrilled with their result. Although they finished in 39th, 40th and 88th positions, the MacRae cars were the only ones of their sort and therefore finished 1st, 2nd and 3rd in their class by default.

Photo by Alex Fuentes

Christopher Bibb, who developed the new class for MacRae, told me about his creation. “There were previously two classes: the production car, which tends to be very expensive (£800,000 upwards) due to the work that needs to be done to prepare it for a race, and the prototype, which can work fantastically but is often unreliable. We made a hybrid between the two classes, called the T1-2.

“I’m extremely pleased. If you look at some of the bigger teams like Toyota, they started with 44 cars and finished with just 22. We were using a brand new type of car and a new team, and we came back with three out of four intact. We played it pretty low key this year but, now we know what the new car can do, we may look to market it on a larger scale.”

Tragedy

The Dakar Rally has always been known as a dangerous, and sometimes fatal, competition. Sadly, this year was no different as the race was blighted by the death of one competitor and two non-competitors, as well as injuries to many of the competitors.

The deceased competitor, French motorcyclist Pascal Terry, 49, was found dead in the early stages of the rally, having died of a pulmonary oedema. Two Peruvians were also killed as a Dakar Rally support truck, carrying tyres, swerved in the road and collided with them.

Although these deaths were not directly caused by competing in the race and injuries are commonplace in rally raid, eyebrows have been raised. Samuel Wring, a 20-year-old tourist from New York, not in Buenos Aires to watch the Dakar, told me: “It is immoral hedonism. When there is an economic crisis crippling the world and oil shortages in Europe, we have million dollar vehicles being trashed, fuel being wasted and, even worse, people being killed by it. Does sport really have to come at such a cost?”

Photo by Alex Fuentes

However, on the subject of safety, Leyds did remark: “The old course in Africa was far more dangerous than this one.”

Argentina and Chile: the verdict

At the awards ceremony, cars parading, corks popping, scantily clad vixens glistening and pilots entertaining the rapturous grandstand with roaring engines and deft manoeuvres, all to the sound of Queen’s ‘We are the Champions’, I was fondly reminded of the Daytona arcade game where, on gaining victory over your cyber adversaries, you are given a hero’s welcome back to the Florida town, saturated in Bollinger and encircled by a gorgeous harem of animated beauties and applauding fans. I loved it.

Bibb, for other reasons, also thought it was a triumph: “The course was great, the landscape was beautiful, the people were friendly and, importantly, the recovery of vehicles was very smooth. I think holding the rally here has opened everyone’s eyes to new possibilities. I could even see the race going roaming in the future, perhaps being held in Australia or China.”

However, with smiles glued to the faces of everyone around the grandstand and the Dakar signed on for another year in South America, Argentina and Chile can be very pleased with themselves.

For more information, visit www.dakar.com

 

Photo courtesy of Circuito 9 Karting

I am a modest guy; but I like to think that behind the wheel of a car I am the fastest man (I mean person) around!

I had my chance to prove it at ‘Circuito 9 Karting’.

The adrenalin was pumping round my body. My sweaty palms gripped the wheel so tight that I began to get cramp in my hands. The flag dropped, and I was off.

I won (albeit against only one opponent) and I proved that I am the world’s undisputed driving champion!

‘Circuito 9 karting’, which can be found in Av. Rafael Obligado or the more common name of Costa Salguero, offers a range of deals from a ‘show up and go’ style 20 laps for $50 to a ‘Super Grand Prix’ that constitutes six qualifying laps and a 30 lap race. If you are over 12 years old and in a group smaller than 12 strong then there will be something that suits you. Be warned though… laps go by a lot quicker than you might expect!

The track is the largest in Buenos Aires with a lot of turns. While this makes it harder to pass other drivers, it is a lot of fun to drive. The karts are four cylinder Honda engines. That mean absolutely nothing to me; so in layman’s terms, the karts are fast!

All events are catered with food and drinks and Susana the owner of the circuit makes a point of trying to fulfil your desires: “If you want a parrilla, you get a parrilla. If you want sandwiches, you get sandwiches.”

More importantly, if there are ten or more drivers, the winner of the grand prix event is presented with a lovely trophy!

The staff were all very friendly and importantly they are able to carry out the standard ‘safety talk’ in English if need be. All in all if you are a fan of go-karting you will be a fan of ‘Circuito 9’.

Contact ‘Circuito 9 Karting’ on 4801 0079, email info@circuito9.com.ar or check at the website at www.circuito9.com.ar