A ‘Mundialito’ in Spain

Davide Piano June 14, 2024

0 5 minutes read

The Spanish Rally Super Championship is experiencing its peak this season, with no less than four brands in the mix and a fabulous repertoire of drivers, almost all of them very young, who sportingly, as they say, have just come out of their shell. It has been many years since a season like this has been outlined in our country, capable of arousing such expectation and exciting the fans again. Probably, since the times when a certain Dani Sordoback in 2004-2005, began to take marks comparable to those of a World Championship driver, in the same way that he is doing now in his own way. SuperCER. Without a doubt, one of the competitions with the best lineup on the European scene; a nationwide reproduction of what has been happening lately in each rally of the WRC2.

The cars that compete there and here (Rally2) are identical, and the range of manufacturers that compete in one championship and another matches perfectly. The prominence of the Spanish drivers in the silver category of the World Championship is greater than ever: the current runner-up of Spain, Jan Solanshas sealed his first victory with Toyota in WRC2 in Portugal; Pepe Lopezthe most successful of the Super Championship with three wins (2019, 2020 and 2022), started the course with a Monte Carlo of father and dear friend… And it is clear that the level of driving that currently sets the standard in our country is very high, as has been validated behind closed doors on two occasions since the conflict began.

The first was in Lorca, where the season started in March. A pilot with the British background Gus Greensmithwhich two years ago was next to Sébastien Loeb in the official team Ford, came to prepare his second assault on WRC2, and was not able to see our team competing on gravel. The other demonstration of what is happening right now in Spain occurred last month, in the last European edition of the Canary Islands Rally, prior to his arrival at the World Cup. The best specialists in the continental championship had to work hard to keep the roosters of this Super Championship behind; Incredible as it may seem, three Asturians, literally neighbors – two are from Pravia and the other from Cangas del Narcea – who are monopolizing the Nacional like never before.

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Toyota, Citroën and Skoda, in a fist

José Antonio Suárez, Diego Ruiloba and Alejandro Cachón The podium places have been distributed one by one in the three rallies – one on dirt and two on asphalt – already contested, something unusual until now. Pepe Lopez He was also in the gap at the beginning, but after crashing on the first date, he had no continuity. 20 years after Alberto Hevia will star with Renault The first national title of an Asturian driver, La Tierrina, one of the areas of Spain where this sport has the most roots, focuses a season that aims to be historic.

Cohete, the toughest of the shortlist (33 years old), started the defense of his second crown in a big way in Lorca, which he won last year – in addition to the Dirt Cup – debuting the latest generation Fabia RS. Skoda won the brand title for the first time, after two consecutive almost hegemonic seasons by Hyundai, and currently continues to lead. The countryman of Suárez, Diego Ruiloba (23), promoted the Citroën team in 2023, after scoring the copa Peugeot; Since then, he has gone from being the revelation driver to rising this year as a clear contender for the title, guiding the tireless C3, with which he brilliantly won the first asphalt rally, the Sierra Morena (incorporated into the European Championship for the next three years).

Alejandro Cachón (25) has been chosen by Toyota to land in the Super Championship with the brand new GR Yaris, to which he has adapted in a jiffy. The former Citroën driver in WRC2 confirmed the confidence that the new brand has given him by winning the heroic one in the Canary Islands, where the fight between the three tenors of the Nacional reached the boiling point. After two stages, they ended up settling the victory by the tenth in the last special; cAchón won the final sprint, winning the European podium and the lead in the SuperCER by four points over Ruiloba and Suárezwho arrive tied this weekend to the classic Ourense Rally. The first of a northern journey with four events in a row – two in Galicia and two in Asturias – until October.

New blood in Hyundai

Óscar Palomo (21) and Sergi Pérez (20), champions in 2021 and 2023 of the youth competition organized by the Spanish federation (Junior Rally Team Spain Scholarship), are the exponents of the new batch of drivers supported by the Korean brand. The one that deploys the greatest number of troops each season, with the man from A Coruña Ivan Ares (former national asphalt and dirt champion; now a veteran of the Super Championship at 39) as a reference driver since 2017.

The Madrid native jumped up the ranks last year, supported by the youth program of Hyundai Motorsport, which the Catalan has also just entered (20). The newest driver of a National in which he has placed fourth for scoring purposes –Efren Llarena does not follow the SuperCER – after his first performances with a Rally2.

At the same time, and with the desire to continue shining new talents such as Sergi – current winner of the Peugeot Cup -, Hyundai has once again organized an introductory rally cup three decades later with the i20 N. The Asturian Pepe Alvarezwinner of the first event in Córdobadeparts as the leader to the Ourense sections, where the new Hyundai Ioniq 5 N debuts as the official 0 car of the SuperCER, the first 100% electric vehicle to join the Nacional’s safety caravan.