Munchi’s looking to make waves in Mexico

The Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team will return to the FIA World Rally Championship at Rally Mexico looking to make a big impression and get its 2010 season off to the best possible start.

The event will be the first of eight rallies contested by the Argentine squad using the Ford Focus RS WRC piloted by the crew of Federico Villagra and Jorge Pérez Companc.

Villagra’s last WRC outing was at Rally de España in 2009, where the Argentine driver finished eighth overall, took his tally to six points finishes in his eight-rally campaign and secured his best ever total in the WRC drivers’ championship.

The reigning Argentinean Rally champion will be confident of hitting the ground running in Mexico after getting valuable seat time in the Ford Focus RS WRC by completing around 270km of testing at M-Sport’s Greystoke Forest in early February.

While the conditions in the high plains of Mexico will be quite different from Cumbria, Villagra has previous experience of driving in the Central American event after finishing seventh overall there in 2008.

The 2010 Rally Mexico will begin with a spectacular opening ceremony on Thursday evening, which will form part of the state of Guanajuato’s official bicenteneray celebrations and is sure to provide a vibrant display of Mexican culture and tradition.

Crews will tackle 354.60km of competitive stage distance over the following three days, including repeated runs over the city-centre Coca-Cola Street Stage and León Autodrome Super Special Stage - which are expected to be hugely popular with the enthusiastic local fans.

Due to the fact that Rally Argentina will not be on the FIA World Rally Championship calendar for the first time since 1995 because of the event rotation system, Rally Mexico will be the best opportunity for Villagra’s followers in the Americas to cheer him on, and ‘El Coyote’ will be doing his best to give the crowds in León even more to shout about by securing another impressive WRC result.

Other Munchi’s Ford World Rally Team news:

In addition to his World Rally Championship campaign Federico Villagra will also contest his home event of Rally Argentina in a Ford Fiesta S2000.

Earlier this month Villagra attended the official launch of Rally Argentina. The event will take place on March 19-21 and celebrate its 30th year with a host of new additions, such as an all-new street-based Super Special Stage in host city Carlos Paz.

In 2010 Rally Argentina is the third round of the Intercontinental Rally Championship and will also count towards the South American Championship and the Argentinean Rally Championship – a title that Villagra has won for the past four seasons.

Villagra began his defence of the Argentine Rally championship crown at the Rally de Mina Clavero over the weekend, finishing third overall after his Mitsubishi Evo X suffered from electrical issues on the final day.

Munchi’s Ford WRT driver Federico Villagra said: “I am very happy to be back in the World Rally Championship and starting the new season at a fantastic event like Rally Mexico. There are some very good new drivers competing this year and it will be a big challenge to score points, but I know the conditions well and that gives us a good chance of getting a big result. With some testing in the Focus and driving in the Argentina Rally Championship at the weekend we should be ready to try to get some very good stage times in Mexico.”