Ricardo Cordero has seen enough.
The three-time NACAM champion came to Oregon Trail Rally as a warm-up event for his next championship round north of the border in Canada and did the unexpected, winning outright when the Subarus retired early on.
A fair dose of luck was required to win. But that victory has changed Cordero’s perspective. His first order of business after spraying Champagne on the podium in downtown Dufur was how to come back and do it again – this time on pure merit by beating the Subarus in a straight showdown.
Brandon Semenuk was unbeaten in the ARA for over a year until Oregon Trail Rally - Cordero thinks he could be the one to match the Subaru driver
His Citroën C3 Rally2, in its standard specification, isn’t going to cut the mustard. So Cordero is already plotting a comeback to the States to show he can beat the factory Subaru cars on pace alone.
“It would be really nice to rent a faster car,” Cordero told DirtFish. “We haven’t done anything about it yet – we’ve just discussed within our team how much enthusiasm there is in the U.S. for rallying and it would be great to go back.
“I know that the Subarus are practically unbeatable unless you have a WRC car. So since Oregon I’ve been thinking about returning to the U.S. to battle it out with the Subarus. And that would have to be in a faster car than a Rally2.
“There are a couple of options in North America for this – maybe Barry McKenna’s Fiesta, if he’d consider renting it, or maybe the i20 N Rally1 that Ken Block used to drive.”
Subaru is rarely beaten but Barry McKenna has run both factory drivers close on multiple occasions with his Ford Fiesta WRC – and has trumped them in a modified Škoda Fabia Rally2 previously. In the right hands and on the right rally, a 2017-specification WRC car undoubtedly has the potential to defeat the WRX.
Cordero has one goal in mind for a potential return to the American Rally Association National series: use Semenuk as a benchmark and beat him.
“To be honest, we didn’t figure we would win, we were just hoping for third,” said Cordero. “But now I know how well Brandon can drive, and I know I am at his level and I can fight it out with him. So we only need a faster car.”
Renting Barry McKenna's Fiesta World Rally Car could help Cordera with his aim to beat the Subaru WRX
“It takes a lot of logistical effort, so we need to understand how to make it a reality. Maybe we’ll aim to do the last round [Lake Superior Performance Rally]. I don’t know, it depends on how our title bid in the NACAM championship is going.”
Cordero currently lies second in the NACAM championship, 14 points behind WRC2 regular Alejandro Mauro, after scoring a pair of second places in the first two rounds. His next event is Rally Baie-des-Chaleurs in Canada’s Quebec region.
