Paraguayan driver Gustava Saba has been provisionally declared FIA Codasur Rally Champion at the end of the fifth and final round, the Rally del Atlantico in Uruguay.
Two drivers were eligible for the title, Gustava Saba and his Argentine guest Fabia R5 teammate Marcos Ligato.
After the first four rounds of the series, Saba headed Ligato by one point, whoever beat the other in Uruguay was expected to be champion.
Saba led Ligato at the end of Leg 1 by 15.8 seconds, on Leg 2 Ligato attacked. After the first loop, with three stages to go, Ligato had lowered the gap to 0.6 seconds.
On the first repeat stage Saba's gearbox failed and Ligato was well over three minutes ahead of Paraguayan Miguel Zaldivar's Fabia R5. Ligato then also struck trouble and in the two remaining stages fell from first to ninth pace, and on the final stage finished 11th, also out of the points.
Ligato had propshaft failure and due to the big vibration the throttle came loose, they finally found the problem, but stood still for 26vminutes on the stages - costing him the FIA Codasur title.
It is not known why serious Fabia failures happened on the final rounds of both the Asia Pacific and the Codasur series.
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For five of the 13 stages on the final round of the French championship Rallye du Var, Sebastien Loeb led the Rallye du Var overall in his specially restored 21 year old Peugeot 306 Maxi.
Loeb was eventually overtaken by David Salanon’s Ford Fiesta WRC, before retiring on the penultimate stage with engine trouble.
Loeb had taken the lead after the Day 1 leader, Mathieu Arzeno, went off the road.
Loeb’s long time co-driver, Daniel Elena, texted: “No regrets, we gave it everything - even our pistons!”
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The FIA’s 2017 regional Nacam (Central American) championship has been won by Ricardo Trivino.
The final round was the Rally Molinas in Mexico, his own country, but he had become unbeatable earlier in the season after strong results in the first three rounds, including wins at Mexico’s Rally Montanas and then the Rallye Baie des Chaleurs in Canada.
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On Saturday, the third day of the East African Safari Classic, Carlo Tundo took the lead in his Triumph TR7 V8.
This was after earlier leader, Stig Blomqvist, was given a 20 minute penalty for taking a wrong route when returning to service when he suffered gearbox trouble in his Porsche 911.
The event started with the tragic news that Jaideep Singh (JS) Vohra, the Chairman of the organising committee, had died in a road accident.
Ten years earlier, the event was struck by the news that the former International rally driver Tony Fall, who was in Tanzania helping the organisers, had died from a heart attack.
The event is due to finish on Friday, December 1st.
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Lorenzo Bertelli (right) and co-driver Simone Scattolin.
The Tuscan Rewind Rally held in Italy was won overall by Lorenzo Bertelli in a famous 2012 specification Fiesta World Rally Car.
The car had been previously rallied by Jari Matti Latvala, Thierry Neuville, Robert Kubica, Henning Solberg, Mikko Hirvonen, Ken Block, Yuri Protasov and Ott Tanak.
Top placed eligible Tour European Rally driver was Jaroslav Orsak in a Fiesta R5.
This was the final round of the 2017 TER series which had already won by Hyundai i20 R5 driver Giandomenico Basso.
The concurrently run Historic event was won by “Lucky’s” 23 year old Lancia Delta Integrale.
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A surprise victory came on the RACE Community of Madrid Rally in Spain, final round of the national asphalt championship, when Gorka Antxústegi’s two wheel drive Swift S1600 achieved his first ever championship victory.
It had been the final official appearance of the national Suzuki rally team cars, whose driver Joan Vinyes retired.
Final standings in the series are Ivan Ares (Hyundai i20 R5) 324.8 points, Pedro Burgo (Skoda Fabia R5) 242.4 and Antxústegi 191.4.
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Jan Dohnal won the TipCars Pražský Rallysprint in Prague at the wheel of M-Sport’s ex-Suninen and Kremer 2017 Fiesta WRC.
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