The 2024 season in the Goldspeed Spanish Autocross Championship got underway on 6 and 7 April at Jerez de los Caballeros. The Extremadura venue provided a positive start to the campaign for Speed Car with Pol Durán winning the Car Cross with the Wonder and Juan Manuel Pandiella taking second place in the Car Cross Series with another Industrias Lahoz car.
Spectacular start to the championship for Pol Durán in the Car Cross category of the CEAX Goldspeed 2024. The Speed Car Wonder driver won his three qualifying heats and led the final from start to finish despite the strong harassment he was subjected to by his closest pursuers, who were unable to overtake him despite several attempts. At the end of the eight laps, the Escudería Mollerusa driver crossed the finish line in first position with a little more than a second advantage and is therefore the leader of the championship classification.
Two other Speed Car drivers also reached the final of the top fifteen in the always competitive Car Cross category, which had more than thirty participants in Jerez de los Caballeros. Josep Aranda reached the decisive race after being eighth in qualifying and fifth in the heats, in which he obtained a first and two second places. In the final, Josep was always in the close lead group and ended up crossing under the chequered flag with his Wonder in fifth position, just over four seconds behind the winner.
The third Speed Car in the final was the Xtrem of Iván Méndez, who shone in his home race, mixing it with the regulars of the national championship. After having been twenty-fifth in the timed session, the local driver moved up to twelfth place after a seventh, a fifth and a fourth place in the three heats he took part in and he also qualified twelfth in the feature race.
Mixed fortunes for the Speed Car Wonder drivers in the Car Cross Series category. From the start, everything seemed to be going as well as possible for Quim González, who was the fastest in the timed session and secured the first place on the starting grid for the final after winning two of his qualifying heats and coming second in the remaining one. However, after leading in the first few metres, Quim gradually lost positions until he was forced to retire when he was sixth with three laps to go, finally qualifying in twelfth position.
On the other hand, his teammate Juan Manuel Pandiella got better and better as the weekend progressed. After setting the fifth best lap in qualifying, the Asturian driver was second in the first heat and won the next two, which placed him third in the starting grid for the final, from where he moved up to second place after overtaking Quim, a position he held until the end of the race.
In Jerez de los Caballeros Joan Aranda was the only Speed Car representative in the category reserved for the youngest drivers of the national autocross. At the wheel of his Wonder, the youngest of the Aranda family set the sixth fastest time in the timed session and achieved fifth position on the starting grid for the final after finishing second in one of the qualifying heats and third in the other two.
In the decisive race, Joan avoided the incident on the opening lap that forced the race to be interrupted with a red flag, and also avoided the contact in the opening metres that occurred on the restart, although this meant he lost a position and completed the first lap in sixth place, somewhat distanced from the top five, and remained in that position until the end of the race.
-> CarCross Junior results (pdf file)
Pictures: CEAX RFEdA press service
