“The region’s motorsport is like a big family,” the two agree. Theirs are two of the many personal stories of how the female presence has gradually made its way into a highly masculinized sport. Carla Álvarez, a runner since she got into a kart as a child, graduated in Telecommunications, gives a clairvoyant example. “Sometimes it happened to me. Typically, you go to a workshop to ask for a piece, they don’t know you and are surprised to see you. They look at you as if to say, ‘but what will he say?’ and they want to show you everything they know. When you tell them that you run in rallies and mountain races they are ashamed and they freeze “, explains Carla with humor, although she emphasizes: “Everyone always treated me great and colleagues are an example.”
It is impossible that the previous anecdote happened in the Tino Manjoya workshop, in Oviedo. Eva Suárez has been working there since her father retired.
His father is his own Tino Manjoya, one of the most recognized Asturian pilots of the seventies, who still runs around the workshop and follows the cannon’s foot. “When my brother, who also competes, left him, I was going to take him (the workshop), but another person was needed and I came. In the world there are more and more women ”.
Eva was always attached to motor racing – “I grew up surrounded by cars -“, but her father did not insist much on her racing either. “He retired in 1981, before I was born, and spent a lot of the whole motor world. I went to see a rally and a mountain climb with my friend, Borja. He saw everything unattainable. I didn’t see myself competing, but the years went by and As a driver I started several seasons ago at the Tineo rally (It was played this weekend) ”, recalls the pilot, who also acts as a co-pilot. “Changes a lot. I prefer to drive, but being next to it you learn a lot, “he says.
Carla was racing in karting circuits from 7 to 17 years old. Then he started with rallies and mountain races. He will never forget when the Princess of Asturias raced. “It is a source of pride for any Asturian.” Now he combines his work in an engineering company with speed. The two take stock of one of the enemies of motorsport: the (little) money. “It is an expensive sport. I recently started playing paddle tennis and people complain that a shovel can cost 100 euros. A tire without a rim can cost 500! “, indicates Carla. Eva secondes her. “It is a very expensive sport that requires a lot of sacrifice. You need to have the support of your family and your friends, if you are not lost ”. The sprinters think about it and recite their three favorite moments in the competition. “When I started in the Tineo rally, the first time I raced a mountain climb, in 2013 to Muncó. It was a tremendous experience and the first race I finished. The last of my moments is when I completed the mountain racing season. ”
Carla thinks less of her three moments “2003, starting in Karting. 2015, the climb to Fito, and 2018, the Rally Princesa ”. Both say goodbye: “There is a lot to run.”
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