RallyRACC: Beca Junior R2 & Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica

31/10/2018

Many of the Spanish drivers participating in the 54 RallyRACC were entered in the Beca Junior R2 of the Spanish Automobile federation, the Real Federación Española de Automovilismo, as well as in the Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica single brand series, although five of them were entered in both. Those drivers only participated in the first two days of the race, the Thursday stage in Barcelona and the six stages on gravel held on Friday.

Of the six teams that took part in the Beca Junior R2, the already crowned champion Jan Solans, together with his co-driver Mauro Barreiro, was the fastest in five of the seven stages held. Although Josep Bassas won the Barcelona stage, on gravel it was Solans who set the fastest pace, except for the last stage, where he caught up with the drivers in front of him and lost the Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica, but he achieved his sixth win of the season from the six rounds of the Beca Junior R2, thus completing a great performance in the last round of these series.

The second place was for Josep Bassas/Manuel Muñoz while Álvaro Pérez/Brais Mirón completed the podium, with Roberto Blach/José Murado behind, although the Galician driver had suffered a lot due to a back injury. The classification closed with the driver Julio Martinez, with his driver Diego Corta, the only ones competing on a Ford Fiesta R2 as the rest used a Peugeot 208 VTI R2. The only retirement was that of José María Reyes/José Antonio Barrán, who were starting the third stage of Friday when they crashed.

At the Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica, that had its fifth and last round of the calendar at the 54 RallyRACC and that included teams from various nationalities, mainly from Spain and Portugal, started under the dominance of Pedro Antunes, who set the fastest time in the short Barcelona stage. Despite the pressure from Jan Solans, who won three stages on Friday, the difference between them were so little that Antunes was still in the lead with three stages left, with only a 1-second advantage over Solans.

Two fastest times and Solans was already in the lead just before the last stage, the longest and with mixed surface, combining gravel and tarmac, but then he caught up with other two participants and lost what could have been his second victory of the season at the Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica. Pedro Antunes/Paulo Lopes were the ones that finally won, with Jan Solans/Mauro Barreiro behind and accompanied on the podium by the Portuguese Diogo Gago/Miguel Ramalho.

The fourth place was for Josep Bassas/Manuel Muñoz, followed by Oriol Gómez/Axel Coronado (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), with the 1994 Spanish Rally Champion back at the RallyRACC after many years away and that had his participation costs paid by his friends as a present. All the Spanish teams were able to finish except Reyes/Barrán, so the seventh position was for Álvaro Pérez/Brais Mirón, Roberto Blach/José Murado were tenth, Iván Medina/Ariday Bonilla eleventh and Miquel Labarias/Cristian Muñoz, twelfth.

Final classification of the Beca Junior R2 at the 54 RallyRACC
1-Jan Solans/Mauro Barreiro (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), 1h 50'46''6
2-Josep Bassas/Manuel Muñoz (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 42''6
3-Álvaro Pérez/Brais Mirón (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 8'37''5
4-Roberto Blach/José Murado (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 9'55''8
5-Julio Andrés Martínez/Diego Corta (Ford Fiesta R2), a 18'00''8

Final classification of the Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica at the 54 RallyRACC
1-Pedro Antunes/Paulo Lopes (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), 1h.50'25''4
2-Jan Solans/Mauro Barreiro (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 21"1
3-Diogo Gago/Miguel Ramalho (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 54"0
4-Josep Bassas/Manel Muñoz (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 1'03"8
5-Oriol Gómez/Axel Coronado (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 5'45"7
6-Luciano Bonomi/Laureano Grigera (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 7'26"2
7-Álvaro Pérez/Brais Mirón (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 8'08"7
8-Hugo Lopes/Nuno Ribeiro (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 8'26"6
9-Alberto San Segundo/Juan Luis García (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 9'34"5
10-Roberto Blach/José Murado (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 10'17"0
11-Iván Medina/Ariday Bonilla (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 11'04"2
12-Miquel Labarias/Cristian Muñoz (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 12'03"5
13-Nabila Tejpar/Max Freeman (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 15'00"0
14-Abel Torrelles/Xavier Carulla (Peugeot 208 VTI R2), a 15'06"3

Provisional classification Peugeot Rally Cup Ibérica (after RallyRACC)
1-Roberto Blach, 60 points
2-Diogo Gago, 58 points
3-Pedro Antunes and Josep Bassas, 51 points
5-Jan Solans, 46 points
6-Hugo Lopes, 34 points
7-Álvaro Pérez, 33 points
8-José María Reyes, 29 points
9-Víctor Senra, 26 points
10-Ricardo Sousa and Daniel Pereira, 24 points,
Up to 27 classifieds