Rally Mexico Press Conference

I hate to do this (copy and paste) however I just came back from a party and figured I’d post this and maybe analyse anything interesting tomorrow!

Present:
Jari-Matti Latvala, BP Ford Abu Dhabi World Rally Team
Sébastien Ogier, Citroën Junior Team
Dani Sordo, Citroën Total World Rally Team
Ken Block, Monster World Rally Team

Welcome to the pre-event FIA press conference.

Press conference info for Rally Mexico

The drivers attending tomorrow’s (Thursdays) press conference are as follows…

Dani Sordo
Jari-Matti Latvala
Sébastien Ogier
Ken Block

As with Kimi Räikkönen in Sweden I think we can expect the majority of questions to come Ken’s way. Hopefully h’ell have left that lightsaber thing in his hotel room…

If there are any quotes that particularly stand out for me I’ll post them here!

Rally Mexico Preview

Rally Mexico. A world away from the opening round of the 2010 WRC season. The drivers and teams will be swapping sub-zero temperatures for heat and altitude.

Sharing a border with the United States this rally first appeared on the calendar in 2004 and has become a firm favourite among the fans.
Since then it has been won by three different drivers with two competing this coming weekend (Petter Solberg and Sébastien Loeb) both of whom will be hoping for the win for different reasons.
Rally Sweden was an utter disaster for Solberg from start to finish – the exact opposite to what he was telling the media he was going to produce.
As for Loeb, he resigned himself to second place something that is pretty much unheard of from him. He’ll be determined to put everyone in their places this weekend, and having won here three times in a row previously you’d certainly tip him as favourite.

After a ceremonial start Thursday night in Guanajuato City (to coincide with the 100^th anniversary of the Mexican revoultion) the crews will be tackling 354.60 competitive kilometres over 22 stages many of which are at a height of over 2000m above sea level – a tall order for cars a personnel alike to overcome.

Saturday will see the Ibaarrilla stage, the longest of the weekend, totalling 29.90km – this will be run as ss10/14. A short blast through a Super Special stage will be run twice an evening.  Almost all the stages are the same as 2008 with the exception of a few including one brand new one and another which will be run back to front.

But the talk of the town is the arrival of American rally superstar Ken Block who, unlike Kimi Räikkönen and his disiasterous Arctic Rally, comes off the back of an incredible 100 acre Rally America win. Block has become an internet sensation thanks to his Youtube stunt videos (brought to a mainstream British audience by Top Gear). He certainly has the pace to feature in the top 10 on a regular basis but having little experience in a WRC spec car may hold him back some – although this guy seems to relish challenges so don’t discount him quite yet!

And it’s that time of year again when Sport Relief enters our conscious and asks us to do our sporty best at raising money for charity. The Ford team will be swapping engine power for their own two feet when they charge through the streets of León on Thursday afternoon. The 1.5km Coca Cola stage will be part of the rally on Friday however it will first see the likes of Mikko Hirvonen, Jari-Matti Latvala and Henning Solberg, as well as many other members of the team, as they run in an effort to reduce child poverty at home and around the world.

If you would like to support the team you can donate to their specifically set-up Sport Relief page here
If not, you can always donate on the night of the live show broadcast in the UK.

Selected quotes…

Ken Block

This weekend I’ll be up against the greatest rally drivers on earth and, believe me, I will be truly humbled because I am basically a novice in the WRC…I’m on a good development process to get to the top level and its going to take a while but I’m going to do my best. It’s going to an incredible experience… Success for me would be to finish the event and not embarrass myself too much!

Sébastien Loeb

Is probably the most exotic of the rally championship, with the exception of Japan. The race takes place at an average altitude of 2000m, which means we loose a little horsepower: about 20% less power from the motor. The special stages are interesting and varied. It’s a recent rally and the population are becoming more and more interested. Over there they don’t do things by halves, when they are fans of something, they are real fans! A little like Argentina.

Event Information
Date: March 4-7, 2010
Round: 2 of 13 FIA World Rally Championship
Based: León, Mexico
Stage surface: Gravel
Total stage distance: 354.60kms
Number of stages: 22
Service Park: Poliforum, León

Picture from Monster World Rally Team
Quotes from www.wrc.com and www.sebastienloeb.com
Event breakdown information from www.stobartmotorsport.com