Road touring: Matías Rossi made history and gave Toyota its first pole position

Toyota come to Road tourism in the 2022 season and had not taken a pole position since its debut. That streak ended this Saturday in Toay, La Pampa, where Matías Rossi put the Camry ahead of its rivals to conquer the 39th classification of his successful career but the first since 4 May 2019 in Rosario with a Ford.

until this weekend Toyota’s best performance in a timed session was a third-place finish also reached by the Missile at the Viedma racetrack, during the first round of the season.

At Toay, where he is the statistical leader in qualifying with five pole positions (three with Chevrolet, one with Ford and one with Toyota), Rossi set a time of 1m14s290just 165 thousandths below the track record that Mariano Werner has held since 2019, was escorted by Diego Ciantini (Chevrolet) e Julian Santero (Ford).

“not a pole further. These kinds of achievements represent tremendous joy. I wanted this for Toyota, because there are many years of alliances and because we know everything that has generated the brand’s entry into Road Tourism, which is very traditionalist”, remarked the driver who also holds the record for the most contested rankings ( 256) In Radio samples AND AM590 Mainland.

In a ranking fought to the last, and with 22 cars stuck in one secondin addition to the success of Toyota has stood out chevrolet recoverythat in the first two races he had not been in the top 10.

This time with the JP Carrera Chevy, Ciantini managed to finish second, at 135 thousandths. “I’m happy that Chevrolet is back in the spotlight. I’m happy because he has shown great potential from training and I hope this trend repeats itself in competition,” said Bocha’s son.

Santero, who had been second in the standings to Viedma and first in Neuquén, had to settle for third place, separated by just 152 thousandths of a Rossi. “I’m happy to continue fighting,” commented the man from Mendoza.

while on the track Gastone Mazzacane he had finished fourth in the Coiro Dole Racing Chevrolet, was penalized in Tecnica because his car did not meet the regulatory height and dropped to seventh place, which allowed Werner (Ford) and Nicolás Bonelli to move up the standings and give to Ford from third to fifth place.

The best Dodge, meanwhile, was the Castilian Jonathanwho placed sixth half a second from the top, while the fastest Turin was that of Marco Landa (9th).

Since the qualifying series is not foreseen on this date, the starting order of the race, which will be the first special of the year with the obligation to refuel 40 liters of fuel, will be given by this classification. Running for 40 laps or 70 minutes, the final will begin at 1pm and be broadcast on public TV.