Aritz Vega, the Vitorian Marc Márquez

Five years ago his dream started. The one that carves at more than 100 km/h every time he lowers his visor and attaches himself to his minibike to dance on the curves and fly on the straights. Aritz Vega is only 8 years old. He is in third year of Primary at the Arantzabela ikastola in Vitoria. But on the circuits he shows a maturity that only great drivers carry. And he is on his way to being one. He has just been proclaimed runner-up in the Yasuni Cup of Spain, made up of eight races. It was his debut in this championship. In front of him he had 24 rivals. And only one hundredth prevented him from bathing in gold. He doesn’t care, he knows what his goal is: “My goal is to be MotoGP champion,” he promises, inviting EL CORREO to his box in Zaramaga.

One might think that this passion is inherited from his father, also a biker. And every time he gives gas he shows that it is in his genes. Only in this way can we understand what happened three summers ago in Lleida. The only coincidence was that stop on the road. «We were traveling on our vacation and we saw that a championship was being held. We decided to sign him up and he did the rest,” recalls his father, Erlantz. That “rest” he refers to is difficult to explain. Two of the five rounds had already been played. But with two third places and one second, he reduced that handicap with his rivals to the astonishment of everyone. With the trophy in their arms, the family set off again towards their summer stop.

This diamond will now be polished by professional hands. «He participated in the Dani Rivas Talent Team selection tests and was one of the two drivers selected. He becomes part of the group, which gives him technical and economic advice for a whole year,” says his father. Just as Toni was for Nadal and Carlos Sainz with his son, Erlantz has been Aritz’s engineer on and off the court from the beginning. The compass in this circuit and your wrench in the event of any breakdown.

Together they have spent endless hours in the workshop they have built inside an industrial pavilion in Zaramaga. Just by entering you know that there is a real engine inside. That the beats are at maximum revolutions. “We share the ship with other car lovers.” Next to one of the walls is Aritz’s box. The number 16 is engraved everywhere. «It’s my number to compete. “I chose it because it is the year I was born.” The same reason that pushed Marc Marquez to choose 93. “He is my idol,” the little boy confesses, while showing his jewelry.

«These are the overalls I wear; this one for training and this one for races. War wounds show use and those falls that time turns into experience. In learning. «I’m not afraid of falling. Nor at speed, and I have gone more than 100 kilometers per hour. “I enjoy riding the motorcycle,” argues this young man. Next to him are his two minibikes; one for training and the other for racing. Both painted red, the color of the devil. Next to them, three trial bikes with which he is learning to drift. The smell in the area mixes rubber, oil and gasoline. But also a lot of adrenaline.

Aritz is of few words. He likes to talk on the court. He got on a minibike for the first time when he was three years old. “It started with an electric trial bike,” Erlantz recalls. A declaration of intent from that lightning bolt he would become. «At four and a half we already got into a gas car, it is the minimum age. At five he placed third in the Lleida championship and at six fourth in Castilla y León. These are some of the joys in his brief career. But as if it were a curve, he does not look at the piano but at the horizon. How much is yet to come.

Jorge Lorenzo School

A career that takes shape in Subillabide. It is the training place, between pavilions and companies. A metaphor for the construction of this talent. To the sound of the machinery in the afternoons is added the sound of the engine of this Polini 910 of 39 cubic centimeters. «The workers of the two factories that are next door are delighted, sometimes they come out to see him driving. And the police usually come too, but they understand that it is training. “Sometimes they have even stayed to follow him.”

That is your clue in Vitoria, but not the only one. Outside the pavilion awaits a van decorated with a huge photo of Aritz as he takes a curve. In it, the motorcyclist travels with his parents (Erlantz and Aintzane Lacalle) every Tuesday to Irún to train at the academy of former professional pilot Efrén Vázquez. They are not the only skilled hands that have sculpted this kid. In the summer they also traveled to Mallorca to learn at the Chicho Lorenzo School, Jorge Lorenzo’s father’s academy. The five-time world champion learned with him to take corners by sliding like a knife through butter. That figure-8 circuit, those donuts that have marked today’s drivers so much.

«Then we dedicate the weekends to and for him, because we are going to rehearse at various circuits. It is an expensive passion despite the help of sponsors – La Hiedra bar, Bobby’s bat, Dulantzi quad and CMF Slider. Even so, it makes us immensely happy to see that he enjoys it and that he also has talent,” the parents congratulate each other. There is 332 kilometers between the Zuera circuit, in Zaragoza, where Aritz was proclaimed runner-up, and the Montmeló circuit, where Jorge Martín was crowned in MotoGP. As if it were another race, but with the same goal: to be MotoGP champion.