The organisers of Rally Guanajuato Mexico have published the approved entries for this year’s event, round three of the World Championship season, which starts on 7 March.
A total of twenty-seven cars are on the list, including 13 in the top-flight World Rally Car category. Mexico also counts as the third round in the FIA’s WRC 2 championship.
Mikko Hirvonen and Dani Sordo top the list as DS3 drivers for the Citroen Total Abu Dhabi World Rally Team. Sebastien Loeb, the winner of the last five WRC rounds in Mexico, has not chosen the rally to be one of the four he will contest in his retirement season.
Chris Atkinson also gets a Citroen DS3. The Australian will stand in for Abu Dhabi Citroën Total WRT driver Khalid Al Qassimi, who is unable to take part. Rounding off the French firm’s line-up is Mexican Benito Guerra who will drive a privately entered DS3.
Championship leader Sebastien Ogier and his team-mate Jari-Matti Latvala are the registered Polo R drivers for Volkswagen Motorsport.
This being Mexico, it’s appropriate that Fiestas feature strongly and six of the 13 World Rally Cars on the list are Fords. Mads Ostberg and Evgeny Novikov are the points nominated drivers for the Qatar M-Sport World Rally team, while Nasser Al-Attiyah and Thierry Neuville will represent the Qatar World Rally Team.
Ken Block will make his first appearance of the 2013 season driving a Fiesta RS for his re-named Hoonigan Racing Division, and Martin Prokop will also be in action for the Jipocar Czech National Team.
Michal Kosciuszko completes the WRC runners in his Lotos Team WRC MINI John Cooper Works.
The WRC 2 category features Subaru drivers Yuriy Protasov, currently lying second in the championship standings, and Armin Kremer who is fourth. Other class highlights include local hero Ricardo Trivino (Mitsubishi), Peruvian Nicolas Fuchs (Mitsubishi) and Abdulaziz Al-Kuwari who will make his WRC 2 debut in a Fiesta RRC.
The rally gets underway on the evening of Thursday 7 March, with a 1.5-kilometre Street Stage in the historic city of Guanajuato.