The third round of the 2022 Spanish Autocross Championship was held on 11 and 12 June at the Cerro Negro circuit with intense heat and prominence for the different Speed Car models present in four categories of the event. In Car Cross Junior, Quim González achieved a new victory for the always fast Xtrem while Joan Salichs took the podium in the highly competitive Car Cross category after being third with the new Wonder and Eduard Bañeres was third in the Division III with the powerful TTX. In addition there was also presence of Speed Car in Car Cross Promotion with Josep Aranda finishing one step from the podium with his Wonder.
After the unfortunate outcome of the previous round of the championship, Eduard Bañeres returned to the action in Cerro Negro with a consistent weekend in which he could run without problems to regain pace and confidence behind the wheel of his Speed Car TTR. Eduard was improving all over the two days and, although in the timed practice he was a bit far away from the first two, he was already second in two of the three heats before completing the final in third place just a second from reaching second position. With the points scored in the competition of Talavera de la Reina, Bañeres is third in the overall championship standings, fourteen points from the leader.
The participation in the Car Cross category decreased in Cerro Negro compared to the previous races but still proved very numerous, with more than thirty competitors in search of the fifteen places that gave access to the final A. Among those who reached the decisive race were four of the six drivers who competed in the Toledan event with the Xtrem and Wonder built by Industrias Lahoz.
The best placed Speed Car driver was once again Joan Salichs, who this time finished in third position with his Wonder, a result that allows him to stay in front of the overall championship standings. The next Speed Car to cross the finish line at the end of the seven laps of the race, which first lap was interrupted with a red flag, was the Xtrem of Josep Vila, who finished eighth.
The initial incident knocked out the Wonder of Alex Martínez while Josep Arqué was also harmed by some contact produced in the center of the group but managed to finish the race with his Wonder in the twelfth position, adding a few points that allow him to remain in the top ten of the championship, in whose classification he occupies the ninth place after the Toledo event.
Third victory for the Speed Car Xtrem in the increasingly crowded Junior category, which counted in Cerro Negro with seventeen participants including four drivers at the wheel of the popular Car Cross manufactured by Lahoz Industries. The four reached the final, in which Quim González won, achieving that way his first victory in the Spanish Championship with the Xtrem. With this win, Quim gets to third place in the overall standings of the series, which is still led by his teammate Pol Durán. The winner in the first two rounds of the season did not have his best weekend in the hot event of Talavera de la Reina but finished sixth with his Xtrem adding some points that can be very important at the end of the year.
Aleix Costa had much worse luck, as he was starting from eighth on the grid but was involved in an incident during the first lap that forced him to retire.
The fourth Speed Car representative in the Junior final was Joan Aranda who starred in a weekend in constant progression with his Xtrem, moving from 17th place in timed training to 13th after qualifying heats to finish the Final A in 10th position.
-> CarCross Junior results (pdf file)
The category of Car Cross Promotion has always more followers. In Cerro Negro it recorded the best participation so far this season with 22 drivers on track in search of the fifteen spots for the final. Among those who reached the decisive race of the weekend was Josep Aranda, who crossed under the checkered flag in fourth place at the wheel of his Speed Car Wonder after running in second position for much of the race.
Pictures: CEAX RFEdA press service
