Urcera beat the San Juan heat and became champion of road touring

José Manuel Urcera was crowned champion of Road tourism, finishing fourth in the last race of the year in San Juan, in a race which he dominated from the start until the first meters of the last lap – when he suffered a problem with his car – and which Leonel Pernía ended up winning. The 31-year-old from Rio Negro won his first title in the most important category of Argentine motorsport and the first of Turin after 51 years.

The last time that brand had won a championship was in 1971 when Ruben Luis DiPalma He got his second consecutive crown.

Urcera was the only one of the candidates who depended on himself. All it took was a podium finish for him to win the Gold Cup, in which he led by 10.5 points, having won the fastest series on Sunday. But the man from Rio Negro didn’t want to risk it.

At the start, after 14:00 on a hot Sunday in El Villicum (with a temperature of 34 degrees, the thermometer showed more than 60 inside the cars), he excellently defended the first position against Gini’s attack. that he needed a win to dream of the championship (he was the only one with a chance of being crowned who didn’t yet have the mandatory win).

While, Marco Landa He started very well and stole third place from Pernía. Y Mariano Werner Y Agostino Canapino they made up one position: the man from Entre Ríos moved up to sixth and the man from Reef moved up to ninth.

Urcera finished in front, including the lap record, and by the second lap he had already gained more than a second and a half lead over Gini.

In the final stretch of that turn, while Gastone Mazzacane having become the first eliminated in the final (he had suffered an engine failure in the morning heats), Canapino showed off his talent and recovered two other positions, finding a gap between John Paul Gianini Y Juan Catalan Magni.

The fifth lap started with four comfortable Torinos in front. He will be in first place, managing the race as he pleases and running intelligently, not risking the lead, but not over-accelerating.

It was followed by Gini, Landa and Pernía. Werner, with Ford, was fifth, but too slow a pace to fight for fourth place. And Canapino was still seventh.

Landa, the only one in the top 7 who had no chance of winning the title, went too wide in turn 7 and Pernía took the opportunity to move up to third place and stay behind the man from Rio Negro and Gini.

Shortly afterwards the Safety Car entered due to an oversight (without major consequences) by the Ford of Julian Santero. While the race was neutralized, the banderilleros were in charge of cleaning the track, where there was a large oil stain.

Urcera was once again intractable at the restart, on lap 11, and left Gini behind. Pernía held on to third place as Landa, once again, went too far into the corners. The front four took a small lead over the others, led by Werner. Meanwhile, Canapino dropped to eighth position.

In that part of the test, the most interesting thing was the fight for second place. Pernía – who also needed victory to dream of the title – stepped on the accelerator and went to put pressure on Gini. He was about to overtake him on lap 12, but the man from Quilmé defended his position well.

Meanwhile, Urcera took advantage of the one-on-one behind him to escape and increase the distance. The man from Río Negro also set a lap record in 13th place and stretched the difference with his escort to almost two seconds.

Pernía does not let up the pressure and, from time to time, returns to look for space for a maneuver that allows him to pass Gini. But the quilmeño didn’t worry and did his race: on lap 17 he had halved the distance with Urcera. But when he saw him coming, the man from the Rio Negro quickened his pace and walked away again.

Canapino – with a broken windshield – didn’t give up and on lap 18 he left behind Catalán Magni and finished seventh.

The closing of the test touched the heart. Because Gini and Pernía went looking for first place and Urcera had to defend himself. At the start of round 22, the man from Río Negro was just 0.441 ahead of the man from Quilmeño and 0.661 ahead of the man from Tandil.

However, the leader recovered and started the final lap with a good lead. But in the first meters of the last lap he felt that something was wrong with the car and in the blink of an eye he lost the lead. Pernía, Gini and Landa overtook him in order.

The man from Rio Negro thus finished in fourth place, but since Werner – his biggest threat in that last race – finished fifth, that position was enough for him to shout champion for the first time in the top category. “I can’t even talk,” he commented, happy and tired, on the radio, seconds after securing an historic title.

Urcera, who took two victories this season (on the ninth round, also in San Juan, and on the 13th, in San Nicolás), finished the Gold Cup with 223.5 points. According to Werner, champion in 2020 and 2021, with 211.5. And third, Gini, winless in this championship and with 192.5 units.

Fritzler won the TC Track

In the preview of the TC final, eight fritzlerswith Fordwas crowned champion of CT tracefinishing second in the last race of the year, which he won Jeremias Olmedo, also with the oval sign. The Bella Vista native, aged 19 years and 10 months, became the youngest rider to win the title in that category.

It was enough for Fritzler to escort Olmedo to the podium (Pedro Boero third, with Torino) to secure first place in the Silver Cup standings, ahead of Santiago Alvarez (Dodge), who remained with the runners-up. The two earned direct promotion to TC for the upcoming season.