That is what you call a Sunday recovery. Elio Craparo put together a quiet yet devastating charge through the field in Rosario, slicing up thirteen positions to land ninth in his Ford Mustang. It keeps a tiny, flickering hope alive for a late run into the Copa de Oro through the lucky losers system, sitting 26.5 points away from Luis José Di Palma with just 47 points left on the table.
Things did not look nearly that promising when the weekend kicked off. Saturday was a proper struggle to find any single-lap speed out of the machine. Craparo qualified down in 26th place, 1.2 seconds adrift of Mauricio Lambiris, who took pole position in another Ford Mustang. "The Saturday we were not good, we were not fast," Craparo explained. "I think it cost us to have a good fast lap, it was not a car with too many tendencies."
Sunday brought salvation, courtesy of setup changes focused heavily on alignment. While everyone else saw their tire and race pace fall off a cliff, Craparo's machine hung in there with incredible consistency. After finishing eighth in his heat, he lined up 22nd on the grid for the final and simply out-raced the pack. "What I highlight the most is that the rhythm of everyone fell a lot and ours fell much less," he noted.
Now, the issue is painfully obvious for the Moriatis Competición squad. The race pace is genuinely beautiful, but they cannot buy a lap on Saturday. Craparo admitted that finding a quick qualifying car remains their biggest homework assignment. Earlier in the year, they were fighting for the top ten right out of the box; lately, they are clawing their way up from the twenties and running out of time over the weekend.
Even with the gap to Di Palma and two other rivals standing ahead of him, the driver from Chacabuco is refusing to let the math consume him. After a brutal retirement in San Luis due to a broken exhaust nearly torpedoed his entire campaign, the focus is purely on getting back the ultra-reliable, fast car they had at the start of the season. Looking ahead to Río Cuarto, the mission is simple: find that Saturday leap so Sunday afternoon gets a whole lot easier.
