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Oscar Nogues is the new king of
the Clio Cup Italia. At Vallelunga,
the track hosting the final round
of the season, the Rangoni Corse
Spaniard was officially crowned,
at the end of a season that also
saw him winning at European
level. Nogues landed at the
Roman venue with the
championship already in his
pocked after his main rival,
Simone Iacone, did not enter the
season finale. To say the truth, for
the Essecorse contender it was
an almost impossible task.
Nogues only needed three points
to mathematically clinch the
honours, and only a disaster,
which would have been really
improbable, would have deprived
him of the title. But, even if the
challenge for the title was
missing, the Spaniard's title was
really well deserved. Fast,
sometimes hard but definitely
consistent, Nogues built most of
his advantage in the penultimate
round of the season at Mugello,
where he got two wins while his
rival experienced his worst
weekend of the year. A seventh
place and a DNF was all that
Iacone was able to achieve. The
few points he scored enabled his
direct opponent to fly away in
standings and break the balance
that had been a key aspect
throughout the whole season. The
rest is history: Nogues also
wanted to put his mark on the
Vallelunga finale, just to remind
that he is the best. Standing on
the podium with him, there were
the other components of his
success, Rangoni Corse. The
Bologna-based team, directed by
Michael Rangoni, prepared
Nogues' Clio which ironically has
the same livery of the WTCC car
of Tom Coronel. After coming
back to the series this season,
Rangoni Corse immediately found
the right chemistry with the new
Clio RS 1.6 Turbo. The
experience and the abilities of
their staff enabled Nogues to
always have a car that was
capable of winning. And that's
exactly what happened in the
Drivers', Teams' and also in the
Gentlemen's standings thanks to
Michele Puccetti. It's been a
triumph. On the other hand,
Iacone must have no regrets.
He's been a top-notch contender,
able to win since its first race.
Together with the small
Essecorse team, he tried to
challenge Nogues. They managed
to do it until the penultimate
round of 2014 and they deserve
some credit for keeping the
championship alive in a
spectacular fashion.
The first season that saw the new
Clio in action will be one to
remember. The top-class duel for
the title didn't hide all the other
stars that were highlighted
throughout the year. Like Simone
Melatini, who raced with
the Clio fielded by Melatini-
Veregra and was able to end up
in third place overall.
Often involved in fights at the
front end of the charts, Melatini
was able to get a great podium
finish that pushed him to top in
the overall standings. It's been
the same for Michele Puccetti,
who cruised to fourth place
overall after winning the
Gentlemen's trophy. Ivan Pulic,
together with Lema, also tried to
attack Oscar Nogues and Simone
Iacone. He even managed to
accomplish the feature, at least
until Mugello, with successful
results. Then, he also had to
surrender. More drivers must be
named, like Lorenzo Nicoli,
Lorenzo Pegoraro, Massimo
Ferraro, Daniele Pasquali, Luciano
Gioia, Massimiliano Danetti,
Zeliko Cumurdzic, Enrico Bettera,
Marco Cassarà. All of them
contributed to keeping the races
alive this year. Also, the spot
appearances of Massimiliano
Pedalà, Cristian Ricciarini and
Simone Di Luca must be
remembered, as of them wrote
important chapters of this series.
And it was great from them to
honour it as much as they could.
The efforts of the teams also need
to be praised, including Oregon
Team, Composit and MC
Motortecnica. These are top-class
outfit made of passionate people
who take sacrifices to follow their
dreams. The engines might be off,
but the future is coming. The Clio
Cup Italia will be back with plenty
more excitement in 2015.
Kingdom of Spain