Cal Crutchlow predicts ‘great racing’ at new Argentina track

Cal Crutchlow believes the new Autodromo Termas de Rio Hondo track in Argentina will deliver great racing for fans when the South American venue joins the MotoGP calendar in 2014.

Crutchlow was part of a historic visit to the new circuit last week and the 27-year-old had the honour of being one of the first to lap the 4.8km track on a prototype MotoGP machine.

A dirty surface and rain that disrupted the second day of testing couldn’t dampen Crutchlow’s enthusiasm for the new circuit, which will host a MotoGP round from next season until the 2016 world championship campaign at least.

The Monster Yamaha Tech 3 rider was part of a special promotional visit to Argentina on behalf of Dorna and he told MCN: “The circuit is really good. It has some really fast corners and there’s an uphill section a bit like the Corkscrew in Laguna but not as steep and it is really nice.

There’s a really long back straight and I am sure it is going to make for some great racing and I think there will be loads of passing. When it is cleaned it will be great. We couldn’t really test too much because of the conditions and you had to come in for new tyres every four laps and you couldn’t stray off line.

But there are two fourth gear corners that I believe in the race weekend will be fifth when the track is in a better condition and the second to last corner is a first gear hairpin and that will open up some great passing opportunities. The interest was incredible too because on the second day the grandstands were packed, so the people behind the track are really putting in a lot of effort to make sure the race is a big success.”