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Baja Aragon 2024: Victory for the Viñarás brothers in the Yamaha YXZ1000R at the Baja Aragón
- The brothers from Toledo achieved their third victory of the season in the Yamaha one-make cup, after beating Edesio Caamaño and Carmelo Moliné, their main rivals in the fight for the title, by only 1.2 seconds.
- Caamaño tried to come back until the last meter of the last special stage, but had to settle for a second place that allows him to remain provisional leader with one race to go.
- Double of the Yamaha YXZ1000R in the SSV category in the most important and most traditional event of the Spanish Off-Road Rally Championship (CERTT).
The 2024 edition of the Baja Aragón will be long remembered for the spectacular duel for the victory between Teo Viñarás and Edesio Caamaño in the Yamaha YXZ1000R Cup, which was resolved after much uncertainty by only 1.2 seconds advantage in favor of the rider from Toledo over the Andalusian.
In the Teruel event, the most traditional and historic of the specialty in our country, Edesio Caamaño / Carmelo Moliné -leaders of the competition-, Teo Viñarás / Roberto Viñarás and Joan Gassó / Guillem Godayol focused the attention. The three formations, which have shared all the victories this season in the Yamaha YXZ1000R Cup, offered a great show in front of the cream of the crop of off-road riders worldwide.
In the prologue prior to the start of the race, held on Friday, Caamaño / Moliné set the scratch followed by the Viñarás brothers. Both were also the fastest among the participants in the Side-by-Side (SSV) category of the Spanish Off-Road Rally Championship (CERTT), something that was repeated throughout the weekend.
The real hostilities began on Saturday morning with the celebration of the 163-kilometer SS1. A very fast and technical special, in which it was very easy to make mistakes and in which Teo and Roberto Viñarás took the lead among the Yamaha after being the fastest, with the Andalusian Caamaño at 16.4 seconds, while the duo Gassó / Godayol finished almost seven minutes behind the leaders.
After passing through the service park, the teams faced a new time trial (SS2) of 181 km, the longest of the Baja Aragón 2024. A very broken and demanding section for the mechanics, in which the Catalans Gassó and Godayol flew low with their Yamaha to take the scratch and tighten a little more the classification with one special stage to be disputed. On Saturday night, Viñarás / Viñarás went to bed as leaders of the Japanese one-make with a meager 38.1 seconds over Caamaño / Moliné, with 162 km to go.
On Sunday, with the swords in high, the reigning champions of the Yamaha YXZ1000R Cup, Caamaño / Moliné, went all out for SS3 - the second pass through the section that had already been disputed the day before in the morning. The experienced Andalusian driver was able to close the gap and even overtake Teo Viñarás in the middle of the special stage, who was trying to stay in the lead of the general classification. In an epic head-to-head battle, Teo and Roberto Viñarás were the ones who managed to take the upper hand and win their third victory of the season by a margin of just 1.2 seconds.
Despite the logical disappointment, the duo Caamaño / Moliné valued positively the final second place, which was enough for them to leave Teruel as leaders of the Yamaha YXZ1000R Cup with one race to go. Behind them, Gassó / Godayol could not complete the race as they had to retire in SS3.
On the other side of the coin, the joy was double for the Viñarás brothers, who in addition to keeping alive their hopes for the Yamaha Cup title, relaunched their options for the national title in SSV, a category in which the Japanese brand signed a creditable double in a very tough Baja.
After this intense Baja Aragón, the Yamaha YXZ1000R Cup 2024 will be decided in the fifth and last event of the campaign, the TT Cuenca Rally, to be held on October 4 and 5, a weekend that will also put an end to the CERTT season.
Clasificación carrera Yamaha YXZ1000R Cup:
1. Teo Viñarás / Roberto Viñarás 7h 11’58’’
2. Edesio Caamaño / Carmelo Moliné +1.2’
Clasificación Yamaha YXZ1000R Cup 2024:
1. Edesio Caamaño 218 puntos
2. Teo Viñarás 192 pts.
3. Jordi Esteve 137 pts.
4. Juan Gassó 98 pts.
5. Francisco Javier Castro 36 pts.
6. Lorenzo Valverde 32 pts.
7. Eduardo Aragón 0 pts.
8. Stephen Raphael Edkins 0 pts.
Clasificación carrera Campeonato de España de SSV:
1. Teo Viñarás / Roberto Viñarás 7h 11’58’’
2. Edesio Caamaño / Carmelo Moliné +1.2’
Clasificación provisional Campeonato de España de SSV:
1. Edesio Caamaño 188 puntos.
2. Teo Viñaras 163 pts.
3. Mario Exequiel Morillo 150 pts.
4. Jordi Esteve 110 pts.
5. Jorge Vecino 106 pts.
Automatic translation of the Spanish version
Source: Yamaha RV
Helder