The King of the mountain
His career began to take off in 1979 when he won the Spanish Hill Climb Championship in the car category.
In 1980, he won the National title for the second time, and in the following years he would continue combining the mountain with some regional level rallies, becoming Basque-Navarre rally champion in 1983. In 1984, he became the Spanish Mountain Champion with his single-seater racing car, the vehicle that would mark his sporting career.
In 1985, Repsol began sponsoring Vilariño, premiering the white colours of the Lola T298 racing car with a BMW engine, in which he came national runner-up. In 1986, Repsol decided to take the next step to the European championship, coming in third place in 1986 and 1987, second in 1988, and finally winning in 1989. In the following four years he was unbeatable, picking up titles with the Repsol team, until 1992. Vilariño also participated twice in the Le Mans 24 hour.
Throughout his career with Repsol, Vilariño drove the Lola racing car with three different colours, firstly in white from 1985, in 1988 he wore red, and from 1989 he became known for wearing blue when he swept through Europe over the next four years. That year he also had the BMW 2.5-litre engine propelling his fast single-seater through the winding mountain roads.