Although there is still a lot of the year left, the co-pilot from Santa Lucia has put the finishing touch to a year full of positive news at a sporting level
Home of the WRC, a record-breaking Rallye Islas Canarias and now home to the recent WRC3 world champion, Rogelio Peñate has decided to add to the many achievements that the island has scored in recent months.
The co-driver, originally from Santa Lucía de Tirajana, took the cake alongside Paraguayan Diego Domínguez at the Rally of Chile this past weekend. An expected achievement, since the Spanish-speaking couple had been leading the classification for several events and could even have been crowned champions at the Rally of Greece held at the beginning of September.
Peñate, who has a career spanning more than 25 years after making his debut at the 1998 Rallye El Corte Inglés, has already climbed to the top of the podium in his category at this year's Rallye Islas Canarias (the previous Rallye El Corte Inglés) alongside Lanzarote's Yeray Lemes and his Citroen C3 Rally 2, and everything indicates that he will continue alongside Paraguayan Diego Domínguez in 2025, where he will compete in the first edition of the WRC on his island and in his municipality. A race in which we may even see him in a higher category than the one he recently won.
With this outlook, Gran Canaria will enter 2025 with a scenario full of possibilities not only at a sporting level, but also at an international image level; with the first Canarian world rally champion in history and with the organisation of an internationally renowned event.
To put things into context, the WRC event held in Portugal earlier this year attracted almost 900.000 people over the three days of the event. Many of these spectators obviously came from other countries to watch the rally. Will Gran Canaria be able to match these figures and sign off on an even better 3 than this year in terms of one of the most beloved and followed sports disciplines in the archipelago and in full expansion at an international level?
