The European Championship has a clear Spanish color this season. Triumph for Nil Solans in the first round held in Fafe and victory for Efrén Llarena in the second in Azores. It’s the turn of the third, the Canary Islands Rally, in which the two winners of the year intend to repeat at all costs and extend their continental reign.
The Canarian event has recovered its date on the calendar after two years moved to winter due to the pandemic. AND, although he has lost his scoring in the Spanish Championship without anyone understanding it, it will bring together a hundred participants this weekend, with Solans and Llarena heading the bill.
The regulars of the National are missed, but with those of the continental competition, among which also stand out Javier Pardo, Pep Bassas, Óscar Palomo, Joan Vinyes or Alberto Monarri, or the best Canarians, such as the tireless Luis Monzón or Enrique Cruz, there is a good squad of Spaniards with the potential to shine against the cream of Europe.
The event starts on Thursday with the qualifying section and the first urban superspecial in Las Palmas, to give way on Friday and Saturday to the traditional sections that so many years of brilliant history have brought to Spanish rallies, in which Carlos Sainz triumphed for five consecutive seasons between 1985 and 1989. The great Canarian sport festival is, after the World Cup event in Catalonia, the most important event of all those held in Spain.