Rally Argentina 1998

After two tarmac events the WRC returned to gravel in the early winter of Argentina. The rally started on Wednesday with a super-special which gave the initial lead to Tommi Makinen, but the time differences were minimal among the top teams.

On the first 'proper' special stage next morning Juha Kankkunen, glad to be back on gravel, was fastest. Didier Auriol of Toyota was again up to speed; he won SS3. Tommi Makinen hit a rock and hurt the suspension slightly, but after that was fixed he regained the leading position and kept it all through the day. Colin McRae, winner of the two previous events, started an offensive and took three stage wins. Makinen responded by winning the last stage of the day. At the end of the day he was leading by 12 secs over Auriol, who was very closely followed by McRae. Kankkunen had some exhaust problems and he was 4th, 36 secs behind the leader. Then came Carlos Sainz and Richard Burns, who had had a 20 second penalty for staying too long at the service. Bruno Thiry retired with an expired engine.

Colin Mcrae/Nicky Grist (Photo by Subaru WRT

Argentina is truly a rally-loving nation, as the incredibly large masses of spectators on the sides of each stage demonstrated. The difference to some southern European events is that the crowds are controlled and generally stand in safe locations.

On the second day McRae continued charging and took the lead on the second stage of the day, SS11. On stage 15 he hit a rock bending the rear suspension. The repairs took 15 minutes and McRae came into the time control before the next stage only two seconds before they would have been excluded from the event! After all this he was 5th in the rally. The large loose rocks also again damaged Makinen's suspension but he didn't lose too much time, so he was back in the lead.

Others, too, had confrontations with the rocks and missing front spoilers and bumpers were a common sight. Auriol retired with a broken engine and Juha Kankkunen was now second, battling hard with the third place man, Carlos Sainz. Burns was 4th, followed by Subaru drivers McRae and Liatti.

Tommi Makinen/Risto Mannisenmaki (Photo by Ralliart Mitsubishi)

On the six stages of the final day Makinen secured his second win this year. This means that he is again in touch with the championship leaderboard. Behind Makinen, Kankkunen and Sainz were engaged in a huge battle over the second spot. Sainz was gradually eating away Kankkunen's 8 second lead. Sainz overtook Kankkunen on the penultimate stage and despite Kankkunen was a tad faster on the last stage it was Sainz who took the silver, with a margin of 0.7 seconds!

Colin McRae was the fastest driver of the day (and the whole race, as a matter of fact), winning 5 stages, but he couldn't catch Richard Burns and the 4th position. McRae was finally 23 secs behind Burns. Piero Liatti was 6th; he never quite matched the speeds of the top runners. 7th was Polish driver Krzysztof Holowczyc (try that for a tongue twister!) with a privately entered Subaru. F2 was won by Seat's Oriol Gomez and gr. N by Gustavo Trelles.