WRC
Rally Mexico: Production driver Karamjit Singh preview
Singh ready to tee-off on Rally Mexico debut On a high after winning the Malaysian Open Pro-Am Golf Tournament in Kuala Lumpur, rally ace Karamjit Singh hopes his winning streak will continue as he prepares to tackle the biggest challenge in his ...
Edited: Mar 8, 2004, 2:26 AM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Singh ready to tee-off on Rally Mexico debut
On a high after winning the Malaysian Open Pro-Am Golf Tournament in Kuala Lumpur, rally ace Karamjit Singh hopes his winning streak will continue as he prepares to tackle the biggest challenge in his 2004 FIA Production Car World Rally title bid - his first Corona Rally Mexico on March 11-14.
Carrying the flag for Malaysia, Karam and co-driver Allen Oh are supported by the Malaysian Government and Proton this year as they head to North America for the second round of the PCWRC. Since Sweden (Feb 6-8) their newly built Go K.L./Malaysia Tourism and Petronas sponsored Gp N Proton PERT has returned to the UK to Derbyshire motorsports preparation experts Mellors Elliot Motorsport (MEM) to be prepared for the gravel roads of Mexico.
Corona Rally Mexico is a new arrival to the World Rally Championship this year and opens up a whole new era in the history of the sport in the form of new regulations and a more compact rally schedule. With the promise of warm sunny weather, unprecedented service park facilities, fast flowing gravel stages, a friendly Mexican greeting and copious amounts of Corona beer and Tequila, it's likely to become a favourite amongst teams, officials and fans alike.
The event is held in the state of Guanajuato and the Poliforum Expo Centre in the city of León will provide a base for the rally throughout the weekend. Recently completed, the multi-million dollar centre has the capacity to house a fully covered, air conditioned single service park for all competitors, Rally Headquarters, parc ferme, scrutineering and a variety of public entertainment all under one roof!
Like nearly all of their competitors Karam and Allen will be faced with compiling a new set of pace notes for their Mexican challenge. The stages are mostly fast, wide and smooth with only approximately 20 percent characterised as slow, twisty and rocky. A fan of gravel conditions, Karam looks forward to his first trip to North America.
Karam comments: "I'm really looking forward to going to Mexico as a new event and a new challenge. It will be the first time that I've competed there but it'll also be the first time for many of the competitors so we won't be at too much of a disadvantage. It'll also give us a chance to try out the new car on gravel conditions which will provide us with some good feedback for the rest of the season.
"Since coming back from Sweden I've taken part in the Malaysian Open Pro-Am Golf Tournament which is held on one of the toughest courses in Malaysia. Two days before the main event four amateurs, including myself, played against a South African professional and we won! I play a lot of golf in between rallies to keep my fitness up and I'm playing well at the moment, I've even managed to get my handicap down to single figures. Hopefully this good fortune will stay with us as we go to Mexico; we'll definitely be trying our best for a good result."
Rally route
Corona Rally Mexico runs from the 12-14 March and is the most compact rally in the 2004 calendar. Covering 394.43km in a total distance of 1040.67km, 38 percent of the route is competitive and runs over three legs and 15 special stages.
The beautiful old colonial city of Guanajuato will play host to the ceremonial start of the event on Thursday (11 March). Welcoming the World Rally Championship to Mexico will be a whole host of dignitaries and sporting personalities including Mexico's leading Champ Car drivers Michel Jourdain and Mario Domingues.
Leg 1 starts at 09.00 hrs on Friday (12 March) and covers 108.03 competitive kilometres over four special stages and takes teams high into the Sierra de Lobos and Sierra de Guanajuato mountain ranges above the city.
Leg 2, the longest day of the rally, starts at 08.00 on Saturday (13 March) with a drive through a Maguey (tequila) plantation on the way to stage five. Drivers will contest two loops of three stages and 154.34km before returning to León at 21.00 hrs.
The final and shortest day, Leg 3, begins at 06.30 hrs on Sunday (14 March) and contains a final five stages and 132.06km of competition including a double run of the longest stage of the event. The rally concludes with a finish ceremony in León at 14.30.
-www.pert.rally3.com
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Rally Mexico: Ford preview
Next article Rally Mexico: Citroen preview
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Karamjit Singh
Alister McRae FIA Rally Indonesia preview
Other rally
Other rally
Alister McRae FIA Rally Indonesia preview
Fittipaldi, Jones to race in Malaysia support race
A1GP
A1GP
Fittipaldi, Jones to race in Malaysia support race
Rally of Turkey: Mitsubishi leg two summary
WRC
WRC
Rally of Turkey: Mitsubishi leg two summary
Latest news
Toprak Razgatlioglu going through a "difficult time" after shoulder surgery
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP
Malaysian GP
32 min
Toprak Razgatlioglu going through a "difficult time" after shoulder surgery
Yet another DNF for Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas: ‘Sometimes we don’t quite understand it’
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
1 h
Yet another DNF for Cadillac’s Valtteri Bottas: ‘Sometimes we don’t quite understand it’
Diogo Moreira: “From what we saw in the Austria test, Honda could fight for MotoGP title next year”
MotoGP
MGP MotoGP 1 h
Diogo Moreira: “From what we saw in the Austria test, Honda could fight for MotoGP title next year”
Lando Norris' LN4 Fusion granted entry to F2 for 2027
FIA F2
F2 FIA F2 2 h
Lando Norris' LN4 Fusion granted entry to F2 for 2027
Feature
Discover prime content
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe