With four important rally titles already to its name the Grande Punto Abarth S200 is becoming a firm favourite choice with privateer rally drivers. Here Michał Sołowow pilots the Cersanit Rally Team's example last year in Poland. The Champion and Fila-sponsored Grande Punto Abarth S2000 will be piloted in México later this month by rapid Czech privateer Jan Kopecký, who has been a familiar sight on the FIA World Rally Championship scene for some years. Jan Kopecký (right) is most closely associated with the Škoda brand having driven on occasions for the factory and Czech national teams since 2002.

The Super2000 Grande Punto Abarth will make its first trip across the Atlantic to the Americas at the end of this month when it will take part in the third round of the 2008 FIA World Rally Championship, the Corona México Rally, which gets underway on 29th February.

The Grande Punto Abarth S2000 will be piloted on this occasion by rapid Czech privateer Jan Kopecký, with co-driver Petr Starý alongside, who has been a familiar sight on the FIA World Rally Championship scene for some years. The car will be run by Motorsport Kopecký while sponsorship will come from Champion, Shell and Fila. After starting life as a touring car driver he switched disciplines at the beginning of the decade and has since carved himself out a successful rally career.

Kopecký is most closely associated with the Škoda brand having driven on occasions for the factory and Czech national teams since 2002; most recently driving for the works-supported Czech Republic Škoda Team at the wheel of the Fabia WRC on the world stage last year where he eventually finished 12th in the drivers' championship.

The 26-year-old also has a string of FIA European Rally Championship wins and podium finishes to his name, as well as a Czech national title, and he will arrive in Mexico with a mass of experience, having now contested more than thirty WRC events since his debut on the competitive world championship scene on the Deutschland Rally six years ago.

A late inclusion into the calendar, overall route of the 2008 Corona México Rally will be mostly unchanged for this edition except for Day 1 where the last kilometres of Ortega and El Cubilete stages have been re-routed for logistical reasons. These changes help the effort to offer the most compact route in WRC history. The total rally distance is 10 kilometres shorter than 2007 (839 kilometres) and the liaisons will be faster and use better quality roads. This is achieved while keeping the competitive distance right below the maximum allowed by the regulations at 357 kilometres. As always, all the rally action will be centred in the vibrant city of Leon, where all the activities are concentrated in the Poliforum Leon. With more than a million and a half inhabitants, Leon is one of the largest cities hosting a WRC event.

Kopecký will be looking for GpN class victory in the Grande Punto Abarth (the compliant class for Super2000 machines on the WRC) in México and is seeded on the official entry list as the top runner in the category, at #61. His biggest challenge for honours is likely to comes from the turbocharged GpN cars of Benito Guerra (Mitsubishi Evo VIII) and Spiros Pavlides (Subaru Impreza N4) in the 19-strong GpN entry list that includes 9 Peugeots, 6 Mitsubishis, 2 Renaults and a single Subaru, as well as the Super2000 Grande Punto Abarth. At the front of the field in México overall rally victory will be fought out between the factory Citroën, Ford, Suzuki and Subaru outfits.

Corona Rally México

Rally America, today known as Corona Rally México, was created in 1979 through a spirit of co-operation by the two largest clubs in México; Club Automovilístico Francés de México (CAF) and the Rally Automovil Club (RAC). It was originally hosted in the State of México and ran continuously until 1985. After an absence of six years, the event then ran again in 1991 and followed the route of El Paso de Cortes, between two of México’s largest volcanoes. CAF then opted for a different concept; a short rally with a high percentage of special stages. This event in 1993 was held in Valle de Bravo under the direction of Gilles Spitalier and was awarded the title ‘Rally of the Year’ by the National Rally Commission.

The event organizing committee then took over the running of the Rally de las 24 Horas, the CAF’s flagship event, and, for this reason, Rally America was not staged again until 1996, when the internationalization of the project began. The CAF moved the event to the US border in Ensenada, Baja California, for two years where it started to amass international recognition.

In 1998, the organizers decided to rename the event and move it to León, Guanajuato. With a long-term business plan focusing on inclusion in the FIA World Rally Championship in place, the event ran again in 1999 and 2000, stepping up a gear each year. From 2001 to 2003, the organizers went for observation by the FIA, successfully running the event on each occasion.

The 2003 Corona Rally México - the 17th in the history of the rally - proved to be the crucial turning point. New facilities at the Poliforum Expo Center were groundbreaking in the sport and this, combined with one of the most compact routes ever, put the event firmly in the frame for World Championship status. A total of 45 crews representing 11 countries crossed the start ramp during one of the most spectacular opening ceremonies seen in the sport.

Corona Rally México made its debut in the expanded 16-round FIA World Rally Championship in 2004, running successfully as the third round of the series. Since 2005, the event has been set as the first full gravel event of the season. For the first time in their series, the FIA Junior World Rally Championship contenders ventured outside Europe to come to México in 2005.

The overall route in 2007 became the shortest in WRC history, with less than 850 Kilometres in overall length, thanks to the compactness of the Rally footprint in the mountainous region north of Leon. Notwithstanding this record, this short overall route was achieved recording the maximum stage distance allowed in the WRC regulations (360 Km) obtaining a staggering 43% road section to special stage ratio.