Kuipers to play catch-up in Mexico

Dennis Kuipers admits he’ll be playing catch-up on Rally Guanajuato Mexico this week.

Kuipers, who starts the world championship event on a high after bagging manufacturer championship points for the FERM Power Tools World Rally Team on its debut on Rally Sweden earlier this month, has never competed on the Leon-based contest before.

The 25-year-old from the Netherlands faces the added challenge of learning to drive his Ford Fiesta RS WRC on gravel for the first time when the rally runs from 3-6 March.

“This is the first time I drive in Mexico, where my competitors have competed here several times,” said Kuipers. “So I need to catch up regarding my knowledge of the stages and gravel. On the other hand, I debuted last year on Rally of Turkey and I finished ninth.

“I like driving on gravel, here I can feel very well how the car is handling and the car really slides a lot. Furthermore, driving very fast on the dusty roads in Mexico is just a really cool thing to do. We want to get the realistic maximum out of the rally.”

While Kuipers will be a Mexico novice when he tackles the event this week, his Belgian co-driver Frederic Miclotte has competed on the event in the past, finishing ninth overall alongside Estonian Jaan Molder as the second-highest Junior World Rally Championship competitor back in 2008.

“What I particularly remember and love about this rally is the tremendous enthusiasm of the spectators - I signed a lot of autographs then,” said the 37-year-old Miclotte. “The Mexicans are crazy about rallying and they show this from the bottom of their hearts.”

Kuipers and Miclotte will be among 12 World Rally Car crews competing in Mexico. They are set to start 10th on the road on day one of the event.