Carretera Thursday

By the way, I do not speak Spanish, so please do not come to me if you need something accurately translated.



Credit to Auto Moto Club Azul

Jose Pisani's Plymouth sits sometime during the Gran Premio event in 1937. This was the first race in Turismo Carretera, then called the Compeonato de Argentino Velocidad, or Argentine Speed Challenge. Races in these times usually lasted several days, and this event was no exception, taking 11 days to complete. Jose's time of 92h37m was good enough for 13th.



Wikipedia image

The 1939 Chevrolet Coupe was a go to model in Turismo Carretera. The model saw frequent usage well into the 1960s. Chevrolet and Ford dominated the early years of the series, and today, while not as dominant, they still bring home a good chunk of victories.



Credit to Coto Di Salvo

The car of the Galvezes, Oscar Galvez behind the wheel and Juan Galvez his acompañante, or codriver, arrives in the city of Concordia during the 1939 Gran Premio. Concordia, originally the end of the second stage of what was to be a ten stage event, would turn out to be the race's termination point. Heavy flooding led the event to be canned after two stages, with the Galvezes being declared victorious. 1939, by the way, was when the series was given the name Turismo Carretera.



Credit to Diario El Atlantico

Augusto McCarty and codriver A. Pérez sit on the back of their smashed Plymouth after crashing out of the 1938 Gran Premio Argentino Del Súr.

That will be that for now, I'll see you guys next week!

Another edition of Carretera Thursday!

On the last Thursday of the month, I do a big one. Usually I gather 5 images (4 last week due to time constraints), but on the last Thursday I will do more, often 8 but today I'm going to do however many I feel necessary.

I was gonna take a look at "the new" considering last week was "the old", but for no real reason decided not to. This is a look at the cars throughout the years instead.



Credit to HistoriaTC

Vicente Garbarino and Daniel Rostan's Ford V8 coupe during the 1940 Mil Millas. These old coupes were go to cars for many years.



Credit to Corsa

Onofre Marimon and codriver Nicolas Benavidez during the Mar Del Plata race in 1951. This was a prewar Chevrolet Master.



Credit to Raulq

By 1966, the old coupes were still being used, but as were newer muscle cars. Juan Manuel Bordeu finished 2nd in a '38 Chevy at the 1966 Pergamino race.



Credit to Raulq

Sergio Vicente competed in the same race in a Ford Mustang. He did pretty well, finishing 9th. The Coupes were being phased out around this time, and were done circa 1970.



Credit to HistoriaTC

The very late 60s and early 70s were the days of the sports prototypes. This IKA Torino Liebre Mark III was piloted by Oscar Franco at Buenos Aires in 1969, but sadly he was at the back most of the show. IKA, by the way, was basically a way for Kaiser to sell Jeeps and AMCs in Argentina. It was later purchased by Renault. So I guess if you really want to refer to IKA using an American manufacturer, I guess you could call it the Argentine equivalent of AMC. Also used alongside the sports prototypes were more touring-esque cars such as the Peugeot 504 and Fiat 1500.



Credit to Matías Corso

Marcos Loioco in the #65 Dodge GTX and Daniel Corso's #111 Dodge GTX sit during the Olavarria race in 1978. Turismo Carretera settled into a car type during the 1970s: '70s muscle cars. They used the Chevrolet Chevy, based off the Nova, the Ford Falcon, based off the American Falcon, the Dodge GTX, based off the original Dart, and the IKA Torino, which of course doesn't have a direct basis. Some drivers did run the Dodge Polara and Chevrolet 400, but this was mostly phased out when the 70s wrapped up.



Credit to HistoriaTC

...Aaaaand that's honestly how it's been ever since! The Ford Fairlane saw a bit of use in the late 80s, but for the most part those four cars have been the go-tos. Dodge and IKA now use the Dodge Cherokee and IKA Torino Cherokee, but they're still based off the GTX and normal Torino. I could share more, including why they have the same name, but I've gone on long enough. Go read my article for more! It's at the top of the thread.

But yeah, the cars of today's Turismo Carretera are based off of models that were last on the production line in the 80s (though the Falcon lasted a bit longer). And the Argentine public loves them! TC cars are built using their road versions' chassis and body shape, but otherwise they are silhouettes. Here, Jonatan Castellano's Dodge (the orange #6) races Martin Ponte's Torino (the blue #30), Christian Ledesma's Chevy (the purple/orange #18), Néstor Girolami's Torino (the yellow #20), and Mauro Giallombardo's Ford (the green #5) during the 2012 Rafaela round.

Carretera Thursday returns. Let's look through some Argentinian weirdness!



Credit to HistoriaTC

Jorge Boero rounds a corner at the Necochea circuit in 1982. He ended up coming home second in his Ford Falcon.



Credit to Segundoenfoque

Javier Jack pilots...whatever the hell excuse for a paint scheme that thing has...during a TC Mouras lower series race in 2017.



Credit to HistoriaTC

Dante and Torcuato Emiliozzi pilot their #1 Ford over a bit of a jump at Chacabuco in 1960. They ended up winning this event.



Credit to HistoriaTC

Gustavo Tadei flips his car during practice at Balcarce in 1999. The car was demolished, but both he and his acompañante were uninjured.



Credit to Tino Traba

The #57 of Jorge Descotte/Pedro Duhalde crosses what seems to be a makeshift bridge over the Rio Gallegos during the 1949 Gran Premio. They brought their Chevy home fifth at day's end.

...God I wish I knew Spanish.

Carretera Thursday! For this one, we will take a look at races that were cancelled or postponed. There will be a few due to fatal crashes here. I'll try my best not to show anything too, yknow, disturbing, but I'll still suggest viewer discretion.



Credit to HistoriaTC

A fatal crash in the supporting TC Pista race led to the cancellation of the 2006 Turismo Carretera main race at Rafaela, though being as the heats had been held, the round still counted for the championship. Fans really weren't too pleased with the decision, and here's what they caused. The TC Pista race was also cancelled.



Credit to Coche a la Vista

Carlos Nani's car sits demolished after a truly devastating accident during a heat race at Pergamino in 1976. This crash occurred when someone's engine blew entering a small village and the field panicked. The end result saw Nani and his codriver injured, a marshal with massive injuries (he would survive), three spectators dead, and the marshal's post where that marshal had been standing shattered to pieces and in the middle of the track. To make things worse, the scoring tower had collapsed back at the start finish line in a seemingly unrelated incident! Yeah, this race was going no further...




Credit to HistoriaTC

This race at Buenos Aires in 1998 had to be postponed by one week because of very heavy rain.



Credit to HistoriaTC

Raul Petrich leaves the pit lane during final practice at Rafaela in 1998. Petrich had just asked the team's chassis expert, Oscar Lafeudo, to hop into the passenger seat in place of Raul's normal co-driver so Oscar could diagnose what Raul thought was an issue with the car's undercarriage. As they were wrapping up this run, a tire blew and the car crashed, violently killing both men. This race, which was actually the race immediately after the aforementioned Buenos Aires event, was also cancelled, but this one was never rescheduled.




Credit to Misiones Cuatro

The 2016 TC Mouras finale, held at Concepcion Del Uruguay, was cut short when a tornado struck the track! Thankfully, no one was injured at the track or in the surrounding towns, and the race was resumed a few days later and run to completion.



Credit to HistoriaTC

Gustavo Brescia's car lies on its door after a massive crash in the second heat of the Santiago Del Estero race in 1985. Brescia survived the accident and so did his acompañante, but another competitor, Jorge Cosma, was killed, as was Cosma's acompañante Roberto Brizuela. The race was halted after this, and the round was cancelled.



Credit to HistoriaTC

The San Miguel Del Monte round in 1982 was rained out after the heats. I know it looks okay in this picture, which is focused on Emilio Satriano, but it apparently got really bad. The race was eventually picked up again in the coming days.

Carretera Thursday returns. Legendary drivers. Let's go.



Credit to HistoriaTC

Emilio Satriano sits in his car before his debut race at Tandil in 1980 (which was a really fun circuit apparently...hmm, semipermanente circuits sounds like a good idea for Carretera Thursday...). He would go on to have a helluva career, being the Turismo Carretera champion in 1990.




Credit to HistoriaTC

The #14 of Eusebio Marcilla overtakes the #21 of Angel Pascualli approaching the finish line of the America Del Sur race in 1948. Marcilla was a funky character. He was very much against the Perónist government of the day and as such track PA systems never referred to him by his name, usually calling him by his number or his manufacturer and hometown. Eusebio, who was seen as almost a knightly figure amongst his peers, died in a crash in 1953. He finished second in points three times.



Credit to HistoriaTC

People congratulate Roberto Urretavizcaya at Mar De Ajo 2002 after he brought home the checkers. Note the shirtless chap. Roberto was a very longtime competitor in the series who won occasionally, and he's seen as one of the top 100 Turismo Carretera drivers.