"It's an immense satisfaction for me to be called in by the team. I now have only 10 days to get ready for Rally d'Italia", local press quotes Villagra as saying. He is reportedly fulfilling a long time dream to be able to compete on equal terms with the best of the WRC.
Villagra notably won the P-WRC classification in Rally Argentina last weekend, in his VRS Rally Team-entered Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX. The 38-year old put to practice all of his local knowledge to beat Group N gravel specialist Toshihiro Arai of Japan in a latest spec Subaru Impreza WRX STi.
They fought an intense battle on the final day of the rally all the way to the final superspecial stage, a mere 9.3 seconds separating the two at the finish. Veteran Raies was a full minute down on Villagra, driving an ex-works Ford Focus RS WRC06.
Federico Villagra started his motor racing career on two wheels, in motocross and supercross, before switching to rally racing in 1997. Nicknamed "El Coyote", he spent most of his rallying career driving Group N cars at national level and regional level, winning the South American class championship in 2001 and the domestic Group N title in 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006.
Since 2000, the Córdoba-native exclusively entered his home world rally championship event before building a budget for a partial P-WRC programme in 2005 co-driven by younger brother Javier Villagra on board of a Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII, scoring 7 points for 14th in the final standings. Last year he finished first in Group N in his sole WRC entry in Rally Argentina.
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