Argentine motorsport is, without a doubt, a hotbed that never seems to run out.
It is that in the land of
Fangio
,
Reutemann
,
Traverso
and
Canapino
names arise with striking naturalness that amazes for their conductive capacity and for their innate talent to accelerate fully.
The last great appearance is a teenager who, without being old enough to take out the registration and drive on the streets,
has just made history at TC Pista Mouras
.
It is
Marco Dianda
, who this Sunday became the youngest runner in history to win a test belonging to the
Road Tourism Corridors Association
(ACTC).
At 14 years and 11 months old -he turns 15 on March 29-, Dianda won the final in La Plata that allowed him
to break a precocity record
.
Aboard a Dodge, he beat the Chevrolet of
Felipe Bernasconi
from Pergamin by 2.336 seconds and the Ford Falcon of
Benjamín Ochoa
from Río Negro by 6.653 seconds to climb to the top of the podium, uncork a bottle of sparkling wine and make history on the fourth date of the category that It works as a kind of quarry for the popular Turismo Carretera.
This prodigy of speed lives in
Guatimozín
, a town in the department of Marcos Juárez, in the northeast of Córdoba, which
has just 2,433 inhabitants
according to the last census spread over a 1.6 square kilometer area, just there the provincial route No. 12.
That is the place in the world of the Dianda, a family that is linked to sports and that has motorsport as its religion
.
His father, Jorge, and his uncle, Javier Doddi, were the ones who put him in a go-kart for the first time when he was just 7 years old.
While he was going to school to learn addition and subtraction, the boy was already speeding up at the local go-kart track.
Thoroughly.
Marco Dianda, the 14-year-old who became the earliest winner of an ACTC competition.
Photo: mdianda_147
Nobody imagined, in those days, that a handful of years later he would become the youngest winner in Argentina.
Now, while he is in his fourth year at the José Manuel de Estrada Institute, the IJME, from
"Guati"
, as he tells his people saving a couple of syllables, this River Plate fan is already an experienced pilot.
Not in vain he spent little more than half of his life competing.
"I started thanks to my old man, who ran rally. He was champion of the Santa Fe Rally in 2010... And I also have an uncle who ran dirt karting. That's where I started when I was a little boy, when I was seven years old. I was afraid to accelerate and brake ... They took me with a rope. I stopped for a year, I was very scared, but, well, at 8 I started with the provincial of Córdoba and I was runner-up",
this little giant tells
Clarín
that he already exceeded six feet eighty and to whom the kartings began to be boys.
Not only for a matter of context, of course.
But better to go in parts.
The boy who looks much older than he is when he speaks introduces himself:
"I was educated knowing that you always have to have a goal in life and, to be honest, cars, noise and speed, I liked them since I was little. Thank you God, my parents could help me to do what I do today. But, in reality, my whole family is linked to sports. Rolando Dianda, my uncle, became coach in the Argentine Basketball League. He became He was chosen as the best coach in some years and directed Nicolás Brussino. My cousin also plays ball. A large part of my family is linked to sports".
The good performances in karting competitions on dirt allowed him to make the leap to asphalt kart tracks and unlock a level in which many dreamers get trapped.
There he continued to talk about confirming all his potential.
And that was how he had his chance to run his first Argentine in Buenos Aires, within the cadet category.
While his name was growing and making a place for himself within the different karting categories, the Cordovan made the decision to leave his team to move to one from Buenos Aires, the
Lacosta Racing Team.
It didn't stop growing.
Marco lifting one of his trophies.
Photo: Turn 1 Kart
"It was then that bigger achievements began to arrive, like the X30 Junior, finishing third in the South American Rotax in Chile and we were also able to do a couple of races in Uruguay, where I finished second. We were also able to do almost 20 races in Italy and participate in three World Cups. Luckily I had to run for very important trophies"
, he recounted.
In Italy he did not only grow up as a pilot. He also had to mature suddenly.
"It was hard. The first year, in 2021, there were seven races and I was able to have the company of my old man. But in the last stretch I was left alone with a mechanic. And it is very difficult to stay alone for three or four months without your old people. Until I spent my birthday alone... But, at the same time, I was able to discover that I am a boy who quickly adapts to others and I ended up having a good time. I learned to speak Italian. I learned other cultures", he reveals
.
Karting is not a boy's game. It's actually a great game.
In Italy, among other categories, Dianda passed through the Italian American Motor Engineering (IAME), a top company that builds engines for kartings and which organizes different competitions that once passed the Spanish Fernando Alonso, the British Lewis Hamilton and the Dutch Max Verstappen.
Do they ring a bell?
They are the great figures of Formula 1 of the last two decades.
His passage through Europe also caused the reflectors to begin to point at his figure.
Two years ago, when he was 13, the Cordovan legislature gave him recognition for his achievements at the national and international level.
Yes, Dianda did not stop growing.
Literally.
"Physically in the last years of karting I was suffering a lot. Measuring 1.82 meters at 13 years old was a weight issue that limited us a lot. I was already in the highest category (senior) and that limited us a bit. I think he had completed a cycle and the idea was to change"
, he details about the decision to take an important turn in his career and make the leap to Turismo cars.
However,
one way or another, Marco had to start over
.
It's just that last year he was ready to drive cars with roofs, but it wasn't that easy.
He is not enough with the scrolls or with the talent
.
The ACTC stipulates that drivers must comply with a period of adaptation to the cars and their power in order to compete for points.
Dianda and his Dodge car.
Photo: Missions Report.
"The physical preparation this year was quite different. It's that I had been driving a karting that weighs 80 kilos and I went on to drive a car of almost one and a half tons. It's a lot. That's why, with my teacher, Gastón Becker, I'm working much more weight, in another way, with more demand with the heat as a rival because temperatures of almost 70 degrees are reached in the car and in karting, on the other hand, you go outdoors. A lot of work was done in the preseason and much improved what is the resistance, both physically and mentally"
, he explains.
This is how he got the license to run in the TC Pista Mouras, which is a training category, with many young and not so young, which leads to Road Tourism.
"It is a long scale that is being done little by little,"
he says calmly, almost without giving importance to the feat he achieved on Sunday after taking the lead from Juan Sebastián Gallo and making history.
"
We closed a good weekend, we were able to take the final
. The truth is that we went at the pace, an error by the other driver gave us first place. With six laps to go we were in the lead and then it was a matter of rounding off, of Go neat and take us to the final. Grateful to all the sponsors and the whole team"
, celebrates the young Dianda, who was getting ready to go to school this Monday while exchanging audios with this newspaper.
And now?
"A goal for the future would be to reach the TC, which is a historic category in the country. Also, if a race can be held abroad, it would be very nice. Formula 1? I love it, it has a lot of physical demands, they are cars that are the best that there are in the world but that would already be a very distant goal"
, she dreams aloud.
And he closes:
"My old man has accompanied me since I started in motorsports. Due to work issues, he could not accompany me last year in Italy. I hope he will be in all the races of the TC Pista Mouras and if I get to be in the TC, he will surely to be a fan and then as a father. He always liked irons. My family is there every day of the week, they give me stamina, they help me a lot. My two sisters help me in everything they can. My uncles are always present . My grandmothers, my cousins, also all the people who support me . My friends who are never left behind. They always send a message and are in all the races".
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