Thanx, Belatti, nice links, I loved the video. A question I could not answer and has always intrigued me. It's the pit babes. Why do every driver carries around two girls that pose behind him for the camera using caps with the sponsors logo,
one on each shoulder, on every TV interview? "Las chicas de coro" or "Promotoras" (the "chorus girls" or "promoters").
That's one of the unique customs of TC...
Yes, yes, I know they're promoting some franchise, but the take of the camera is
always the same. Who started this custom? Why is it (apparently) mandatory for the camera guy? They never show their incredible bodies.
Bonano and his promoters. This is not a good picture, they normally stand behind the guy, their heads showing over his shoulders on each and every interview.
What do they do with girl drivers? Do they carry two guys?
Sorry for this picture, it's kind of a joke (in spanish only)
Another thing not mentioned: the strong competition between Ford and Chevrolet fans. It's worse than Boca-River antagonism, or so it seemed to me at Rosario.
TC has several latino customs, not easy to understand to other series fans:
Friday, before the race, all the edges of the track are occupied by RV vehicles that arrive from far away (in Argentina,
anything in the provinces is far away), weeks in advance to get the better spot.
The smart organization
only charges one ticket for each family either on the stands or parking zones. This way, the racing "thing" includes BBQ, wine (unthinkable in other series), long family debate and a very latino "what do I know" conclusion to it when the three days of craziness end and the people goes away. The track invasion after the race is amazing: I've seen people rolled over by cars. Well, just once and it was a huge scandal for the organizer, but imagine that: the race hasn't finished yet and a crowd of thousands literally
race to the pits to be besides their beloved drivers.
And what a group of drivers they have! “Pato” Silva,
the “Bocha” Ciantini,
the “Gurí” Omar Martínez, the Di Palma family, with their different races and generations, Norberto Fontana, ex F1, Ortelli, Bessone, Ponce de León, Moriartis, Aventín, Ledezma, y many others are as popular as football players. It's really easy to make an "argentinian selection", at least for me.
Besides TC Carretera and TC Pista (Road and Track), that is some kind of B class, they have TC 2000, modified tourism with super-high technology (as only argentinians have in South America, totally "native") and high investment. The mechanics are like Yoda in overall, some times you find guys that are as old as your grandpa, but covered in grease. They also have a V6 class,
dozens of one-brand races, "Topolino" (Fiat 600) nostalgic races AND Citroën 2CV (hi, Tom, long time no see, how's your trip to the Caribbean? You
did forget everything about the uni in our beaches, didn't you?), incredibly crowded competitions for historical cars including pasta, meat and goals (they play football while they race!) everything on the same sunday.
Beyond a five times world champion, of having Froilán González in the unique role of the first Ferrari winner in F1, of almost getting (and more than deserving) another WDC with the impressive Carlos Reutemann, of being a permanent venue for the WRC and having a very active Formula Renault championship, few people understand why they don't have race drivers in F1, while the humble Colombia has had JPM.
The reason is simple: for an argentinian, to be a king in its home is more important, believe it or not. They earn pretty well, they race weekly, there are not so much demand for young drivers, because it is a mature age racing and it is
deeply popular.
The fans are the more knowledgeable fans I've ever met, much more than NASCAR or NHRA fans (who are incredibly wise and understand every nuisance of their racing, imagine the level of argentinians). Each week every track seems to be full to the flags and it's the most entertaining thing to have a chance to share family time with them. I felt at home, everybody is a friend in five minutes, everybody shares his meat and wine with you. Compared with that, the parade of F1 is... well, I don't know what to say, but you, really, truly, don't feel "warm inside" in F1 the way you feel in TC racing: you end smiling for half of the race (it must have been the wine and the lovely, nice, sympathetic girls!). I've never had a better time in a track.
A toast to TC.
If you ever go to Argentina DO... NOT... MISS... IT.
) In that time I learnt how to regulate valves, how to adjust a torsion bar, and most important, every 2 weeks I missed school for a couple of days 
