Day 2 – Mar Del Plata to Bahia Blanca

Day one results have elevated Denise and her crew to 21 in the Classic car section. So far so good.
518 kms to cover today and we have to include lunch, a visit to the Fangio museum and a race around the Juan Manuel Fangio race track.
We commence a little earlier today at 8.00am and fuelled up at the first fuel station and headed south through the early morning traffic to get clear of the city and travel 77kms to the Fangio museum. The countryside is verdant and the little townships along the way reek of real poverty. There are incomplete multi-story buildings and houses from which the owner has just walked away. They must have had a serious economic storm here and it shows.
Further along towards the museum the poverty disappeared and very prosperous regions appear with beautiful buildings and homes became more abundant. These are farming regions where arable crops are growing in what can only be described as gigantic farm operations consisting of thousands of hectare ranches. Wheat, corn grains etc as far as the eye can see.
The sizes of these operations would leave NZ farmers for dead; I hope they don’t start growing Kiwifruit or putting up dairy farms.
At the museum the tale of the famous racing driver Juan Manuel Fangio is told and the car collection of so many race cars are displayed. A most valuable visit.

Car art made from mechanical scrap.

We then drove to the Juan Manuel Fangio Autodrome where we were tested for speed on two tracks, one quite compact and the other like an International raceway. We don’t know how we got on points wise but we went as fast as Denise could go. Neat!

Then onto the highway again for the next 98kms to a small cafe on the beach for lunch called Sotavento Mar Del at Necochea on the coast.
Hereafter the highway of 239 kms opened up before us in a seemingly endless straight road that just didn’t end.
The wind became stronger and stronger and the temperature increased so open windows were in the order of the day but uncomfortable in the incessant trade like winds.
Denise was purring and she performed magnificently. Cruising on the highway at 110 easily with few  competitor cars passing or catching up. A good ride but really monotonous. Tedious.
We had to be in at the time control station at 1840 hours but due to the planed extra speed in anticipation of heavy traffic in the city at this time of day that didn’t eventuate. Got in at 1741 hours.
Good hard day. Fades into insignificance though with 769kms to be covered on day 3!