Talking to Malcolm Wilson was becoming increasingly difficult. Back in 2004, he was definitely going up in the world. Markko Märtin and François Duval cared little for the fact that the Cumbrian was mid-way through answering a key question when they placed him on their shoulders.
Three days on from the very first World Rally Championship stage in México, the Estonian and his Belgian team-mate found the perfect way to celebrate a Ford one-two first time out in León.
Back down to earth, MW paused briefly.
“Where was I?” he said, smiling, before collecting his thoughts and returning to a more serious tone.
“That’s right. I honestly believe, David, that this event has laid out the blueprint for future rounds of the world championship. It’s phenomenal what these people have achieved.”
Given that North America had sat outside the WRC since the end of the Olympus Rally 16 years earlier, March 12, 2004 was a big moment for the championship and for the rally. And a very big moment for two people: Gilles Spitalier and Patrick Suberville. It was those two guys who shared a beer and a eureka moment. Yes, they could.
And yes, they would.
Rally México had run on the Guanajuato gravel since 1999, but it was Harri Rovanperä’s arrival in 2002 that raised eyebrows and woke the world up to the Suberville and Spitalier way of thinking. If Peugeot Sport was sending a factory car, the full set-up and even its charismatic director Corrado Provera to Mexico just days after celebrating a Marcus Grönholm-Richard Burns one-two on the Cyprus Rally, México must be serious.
Bound for Dallas and a hook down to León, I couldn’t help wonder what was waiting for us
It was. And is.
The importance of México and North America to the WRC manufacturers is key to this story, but it’s a chapter. It’s not the narrative.
Flying west out of Europe twice in a season was something of a novelty in 2004 (unless you went to New Zealand via Los Angeles, but that doesn’t really count). Bound for Dallas and a hook down to León, I couldn’t help wonder what was waiting for us. Not since Indonesia and China in the late 90s had there been a new and exciting rally outside of Europe. Japan would come later in 2004, but México was a genuine voyage of discovery. The last thing we wanted was a rally which would ape an everyday European round of the series in an effort to ingratiate itself with stakeholders who sought conformity at every corner.
What we needed was hardcore México. México in its rawest and most unedited form.
And that’s exactly what we got. Ten minutes out of the León suburbs and you might as well have been on the moon. It was utterly spectacular and colorful on a near-hallucinogenic level. It was just what we wanted. Just what we’d hoped for.
Suberville and Spitallier had an immediate and complete grasp of what was needed. As much as they knew the crews wanted a challenge, they knew the teams wanted an infrastructure which worked on both a commercial and sporting level.
Back to the recently grounded Wilson. By now, we’d left the time control and headed back indoors.
Yes, indoors.
Rally México provided the first indoor service park in the Poliforum exhibition hall. Such a thing might sound a touch unnecessary, when you’re dealing in wall-to-wall sunshine and blue skies, but the associated 40-degree heat wasn’t always a winner with the mechanics.
“Look at this place,” said Wilson, gazing around the cavernous hall which housed everybody and everything. “And the stages are, what? Half an hour in each direction. To have these kinds of roads, this kind of challenge and this facility all in one event, incredibly compact event is just fantastic for me. Like I said, it’s the benchmark for new rallies.”
For the next 16 years, México grew and grew in stature in the championship. It didn’t just become part of the furniture; it repainted and remodeled that furniture. Rally México became one of the cornerstones, one of the WRC’s crown jewels.
How?
Simple, by never standing still. Having become the first event to take the service park under one roof, this rally became the first to take a competitive route underground when the famous Guanujuato tunnels were pressed into action for what has become the series’ yardstick superspecial street stage. The atmosphere on a Rally México Thursday night still takes my breath away – and I’ve been going there for years.
Not content with the best, Gilles and Patrick had to raise the bar and make it even bigger, even better. So, they went to México City and took over the Zócalo main square – the very same place made even more famous by James Bond and Spectre.
Now that really was something special. To see a North American capital city taken over the WRC is a fairly rare thing. Rare like never before has this happened. And it happened because the organizing team behind Rally México is as dynamic as it is fearless.
When the rest of the world was scaling down final days to little more than a Sunday drive, México delivered a 50-mile Guanajuato stage to wake the girls and boys up on a Sunday morning in 2016.
That Rally México attitude is typical throughout the state of Guanajuato.
Back in the early noughties, León was an intriguing place with its industry focused almost entirely on a leather industry which was responsible for 70% of México’s shoes – hence the cowboy boots for the winner. Now, it’s grown into a vast city of global commerce. In the time Rally México’s been in town, the US has invested in excess of US$10bn in León and its infrastructure. The state now hosts factories for Pirelli, Volkswagen, General Motors – it has the inland port (known as GTO) which helps reduce international barriers to trade in the area. And to improve transport, a rail hub was built and is now operated by the largest rail company in the country.
León, Guanajuato is just ginormous now.
Bumping into Suberville on a WRC round somewhere around the middle of the season was always an absolute pleasure. There’s always another adventure on the horizon. And then came 2020.
Landing into León Guanajuato airport, I switched the phone on and was greeted by an excited-sounding Colin Clark (I know, is there any other sort of Colin Clark?).
“Just spoken to Motorsport Italia,” went the message, “they don’t know how they’re going to get home. Italy’s closing its borders…”
As the week progressed, Italy rapidly became the rest of the world and the focus faded from what was another Méxican masterclass from Sébastien Ogier. But just as the Frenchman was pulling on yet another pair of winning cowboy boots, the vast majority of the service park was looking to cut and run in an effort to get back to Europe as coronavirus reached out and locked its pandemic grip on the world.
It was impossible not to feel a significant degree of sympathy for Rally México. Shortened by a day, the WRC upped and left in record speed and due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19, it hasn’t been back since.
We’re missing Rally México this year because WRC Promoter and FIA were understandably nervous at putting all the team’s kit on a boat across the Atlantic at a time when countries were opening and closing their doors almost on a daily basis.
Running Rally of Nations Guanajuato (April 1-3) is just the latest example of the Suberville and Spitalier resourcefulness. They know they have to remind the world that León and its stunning roads running up, down and around the Sierra de Lobos and, of course that ceremonial start slap, bang in the centre of a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Almost two decades ago, the WRC landed in the place where México made its shoes. Today, the series is a shade greyer without León on its roster.
That has to change next season. The world championship needs the fun, the flavor, the fever and fiesta of Rally México.
