The Spanish Endurance and GT Championship began the 2022 season at the Circuit de la Comunitat Valenciana Ricardo Tormo in Cheste, with the absolute dominance of the couple formed by Josep Mayola and Marc Carol and their Ferrari 458.
The weekend began on Saturday with free practice, led by the rain that had been plaguing the Levantine region for a couple of weeks. So hehe pilots had to take the first references in very delicate conditions, which would end up not being valid for Sunday, the day of qualifying and the races. Because during the Sunday day, the rain did not make an appearance.
This helped the public timidly flock to the Valencian track, but above all it contributed to the show on the track was more attractive. On the track, not only the GT-CER organized by V-Line, but also the Valencian Community Speed Championship, which very logically completed the competitive menu, with GT and touring cars dominating the asphalt.
In the GT-CER first race, scheduled for 48 minutes plus one lap and which began at 1:40 p.m., the pole went to the Porsche 991 Cup of the Carretero-Yeregi couple, accompanied on the front row by another Porsche, José Luis Recuenco’s. The start saw the car on pole hold the lead, while veteran and always tough Dutch driver Cor Euser, in a Ford Mustang, made a good start and moved into second position. Meanwhile, the Mayola-Carol couple had a bad start with their Ferrari and were somewhat behind, beginning a progressive comeback.
In the same way, the Porsche 991 Cup of the couple Faustino Mora and Francisco Freitas Abreu made its way and came in the wake of the leader, pressing him hard, but not managing to overtake him. However, the duel was very showy, but it made them waste some time, what they would pay at the time of pit stop for the change of drivers. At that moment, the know-how of the Mayola-Carol couple became evident.
Not only with a better strategy, slightly delaying the pit stop, but above all with a spectacular pace, they managed to take the lead with solvency, at the same time that the sun began to make an appearance. Setting the fastest lap, they managed to start the year with victory, beating Mora-Abreu’s Porsche by 18 seconds, and Cor Euser, third-placed, by 44.
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At the same time, in the CER, Class 1, it was the couple formed by the Valencian pilot Nerea Martí, who came out of the Ricardo Tormo Circuit Pilot Modernization Center, together with the experienced José Manuel de los Milagros, who gave BMW its first official victory in the championship at the controls of the M2 CS. The pair come from being runners-up in the BMW M2 CS Winter Cup, and they showed their absolute complementarity at the wheel.
Meanwhile, the Speed Championship of the Valencian Community had seen the triumph in the first race of the Frenchman Laurent Puigtmal with the Peugeot 308, which after a safety car, ended with a red flag after a rough finish. The Frenchman endorsed the double in the second race in the afternoon, which was however delayed by the strong accident of the Peugeot 308 of Miguel Sanz De Madrid, which overturned without physical consequences but with great damage to his car. Again Puigtmal took the victory.
Thus, with a delay of 10 minutes, the second meeting of the GT-CER began at 4:40 p.m.. The sun shone spectacularly on the track, and witnessed a spectacular race. With Cor Euser on pole in his Mustang, the Ferrari 458 of the winners of the first race started from the pit lane for a penalty. However, what the Mayola-Carol couple did in Cheste remains a superb driving demonstration. Because once everyone had started the race, the red Ferrari began to put together fast laps and overtake rivals.
Halfway through the race they were already on the podium, while Mora-Abreu’s Porsche was comfortably in the lead, with Euser in second place. When they overtook the Dutchman’s Mustang, it could already be called a great race. However, when with only three laps to go they overtook the leader, the comeback was one of those that should be described as magnificent. The absence of errors and pure speed were evident in each lap for the winners, who thus sealed a spectacular one-two finish at the start of the championship.
For its part, Nerea Martí and José Manuel de los Milagros finished in second position, holding a nice fight with the Audi RS3 LMS of the Portuguese Jorge and Pedro Pereira, who took victory in the second race. Those of Audi were second in the first race, so the championship in this category looks very interesting, precisely now that the championship is heading towards Portimao, which will host the second of the six appointments that make up the GT-CER of this year.