Rally / 12 November 2015

Maldonado Takes Paraguayan Championship in JAS-Prepared Civic

Also Takes Category Win on One of the Toughest Rounds of the Year

The Paraguayan Rally Championship finished last weekend with round 8 of the season, Rally de la República based around Caaguazú. The event finally gave championship honours to a Honda Civic built by JAS Motorsport with Luis Maldonado (h) claiming his first ever national title.

 

After 15 stages, the Skoda Fabia driven by Gustavo Saba was again overall winner (2h03m23.22s), while Maldonado got a brilliant ninth and first among 2WD cars. The young driver from Asunción and Jorge González made it to the finish in 2h29m52.59s, beating the Toyota Runx of Jorge Cresta by 16m24.98s in Class 5.

 

The Honda driver rated this round as one of the toughest of the year (excluding the Transchaco, of course), considering its 650-km. total distance which meant that crews tackled twice as much course than any other rally before this. Leg 1 consisted of nine special stages (including one in the night during Friday) and Leg 2 presented six.

 

The beginning was good enough for Maldonado, who was even able to beat all the turbocharged, Production 4WD cars, placing the Japanese car prepared in Italy right behind the top R5 and S2000 contenders in the provisional results.

 

He then chose a steady pace for the third day of action because he knew it was up to him to get to the finish claiming the crown after a very successful season in which he won it almost all. Where the surface would not be that punishing for the car, Luis would push a little more, leaving a more cautious tactics for the rougher sections in an event that offered a wide variety of conditions, rangng from sandy stages to rock hard gravel and loose stones in the road.

 

Maldonado progressively became faster until catching the lead, ending the last day superspecial stage with a 7s advantage over his next rival. Keeping everything under control, it was in the laps around that track where he felt his first taste of being a new Paraguayan champion.

 

Action photo credit: Lisandro García.