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I am currently listening live via World Rally Radio to the WRC Corona Rally Mexico 2010, which is Round 2 of the WRC calendar. This rally, which debuted in 2004, returns in 2010 after sitting out last year due to the WRC event rotation system. This rally features dry and sandy gravel surfaces, and is apparently very slippery. There has been a lot of rain in the area over the past couple of weeks. At such high altitude, the rally cars will be down about 20% on power, finding it hard to breathe. Stages will be through the Sierra de Lobos and Sierra de Guanajuato mountains, and around the cities of Guanajuato, Leon, and Silao. This is the only WRC event that will be on our continent this year. Right now is as close as a WRC event will ever be to us!
We just heard from Gymkhana-King Ken Block on the radio right after a stage, including the growl of his M-Sport-built Ford Focus RS WRC in the background. (By the way, these cars sound absolutely awesome, definitely compensating for the cold, windowless office room I find myself in on this nice Friday afternoon.) Block, 42, makes his WRC debut in Mexico, and will run 7 WRC (World Rally Championship) events this year for the Monster World Rally Team. He is currently in 9th position. Amazingly, Block has only one test run of about 105 miles in the Ford Focus, which happened only weeks ago near the M-Sport headquarters in Cumbria, England. He says that "testing the Focus RS WRC was one of the best days I've spent in a rally car...it's really an amazing machine. I just wish I could've done more than one day of testing in the Ford Focus RS before jumping in the ring with the world's best drivers this weekend at Rally Mexico. But this is my development year, not that I won't be going flat where I can, but I realize that I have a bit to learn before becoming a really competitive driver in the WRC."
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