Pepe López, current champion of the Spanish Rally Super Championship (S-CER), has announced this Tuesday that he is leaving the championship immediately. The driver from Madrid, who had finished second in the first test of the season, held in Sierra Morena, has reported on his social networks that he has been forced to leave the competition because he had run out of points on his driving license.
López, who defended the crown in the S-CER 2023 at the controls of a Hyundai i20 N Rally 2, has clarified the facts through a statement on Instagram: "During the recognition of the test section prior to the Sierra Morena Rally, the Civil Guard of Traffic stopped me and told me that I had consumed the balance of points on my driving license.
“I immediately informed the RFEDA (Royal Spanish Automobile Federation) and participated days later in said Rally with their prior authorization, in accordance with a 2018 DGT instruction that so stipulates, provided that the loss of points is due to administrative and not criminal sanctions and -of course- do not drive on roads open to traffic”. In this way, he was able to compete in the first test of the year, but it was his co-driver, Borja Hernández Rozada, who was in charge of driving the liaison sections.
“I have to announce that I have to leave the S-CER. I recognize that it has been the pressures of third parties that have taken me away in the offices, what they repeatedly lose in the stages. However, they allow me to continue competing, as long as it is in other disciplines", the man from Madrid announced, despite the fact that there may still be "some pending federal procedure".
The announcement has surprised a large number of users, who have shown their disbelief at the decision made through the comments. As it is a competition that is practiced in a space closed to traffic, and since it does not break any DGT rule, there are many who have not understood the reason for the exclusion of the "super champion" of Spain from 2019, 2020 and 2022.
However, the pilot did not comply with the RFEDA licensing regulations, by which the S-CER is regulated. Specifically, article 1.9 of Annex 10.1. Regulations for International and National Athlete Licenses, which read as follows:
After the events, the Teo Martín Motorsport team, of which López is a part, has announced the signing of the Catalan Jan Solans to replace him. Of course, the formation hopes that the driver from Madrid will rejoin the competition with a second car once he recovers the points of the card.
Since July 1, 2006, the driving license in Spain works with a points system. Some of the offenses considered "serious", as well as all those stipulated as "very serious", entail the deduction of points, so the DGT prevents us from driving on public roads if we lose all of them, as has happened to Pepe Lopez.
Precisely, one of the objectives of this card model is that all drivers, regardless of their economic capacity, face the same consequences when violating road regulations. In fact, the DGT recalls that "driving with a license without points once you have been notified of its expiration is considered a criminal offense punishable by prison terms of 3 to 6 months or a fine of 12 to 24 months or work in benefit of the community between 31 and 90 days”.
