FITO HILLCLIMB (Spanish Champ.)


A brilliant start to the Spanish Hillclimb Championship season for Javi Rodríguez in the 'Subida Internacional al Fito' with the Speed Car GTR. The driver from Tenerife arrived at the classic Asturian event with the aim of repeating the podium finish achieved last year on his first visit to the difficult competition in the north of the peninsula. A goal that Javi achieved with flying colours, as not only was he back on the podium in the competitive Category 3 of the national championship at El Fito, but he also improved his 2022 result by one place, finishing second on this occasion.

It is a result with the flavour of victory for two reasons. Firstly, because only the nine times Spanish Champion and record holder in the CM group, Javi Villa, finished ahead of the young Canarian driver, who beat the winner of the two previous editions of the climb, the local Benito Pérez, a perfect connoisseur of the technical track. Secondly, and probably even more important, because Javi Rodríguez set a sensational time of 2'45"962 in Saturday's closing race of the day, a time that until now had only been within Villa's reach on the very complex climb that starts from the outskirts of the Asturian town of Arriondas.

On Sunday, the rain that fell during the night left several areas of the course wet and in one of them Javi Rodríguez could not avoid a touch that damaged the left rear of his Speed Car. Despite the impact, the driver from Tenerife continued to drive hard all the way to the finish line, where he crossed the line with the third fastest time, just one second behind Benito Pérez. The Asturias born driver tried to snatch the second place in the final race, which Javi faced with his Speed Car urgently repaired by the efficient Pep-Motor assistance team, but although Perez was again ahead, the Canarian driver defended his position by only eight tenths of a second, so that he kept the second place achieved the day before by the narrow but sufficient margin of three tenths of a second.

All in all, a magnificent start to the Spanish Championship for Javi Rodríguez, who demonstrated on his second visit to Fito both his progression after a year of experience in the national championship and his rapid adaptation to the Speed Car GTR, with which he felt particularly at ease on the completely dry track of Saturday's race. This bodes well for the next round of the national championship, scheduled for the beginning of June in the Alicante town of Ibi, where the weather is usually good at that time of the year, so close to the beginning of summer.

-> Fito hillclimb results (pdf file)