Rally Mexico was created in 1979 through a spirit of co-operation by Club Automovilístico Francés de México (CAF) and the Rally Automovil Club. It was originally hosted in the State of Mexico and ran continuously until 1985.
After a six-year absence, the event ran again in 1991, following the route of El Paso de Cortés, between two of Mexico's largest volcanoes. The CAF then opted for a short rally with a high percentage of special stages, resulting in a successful 1993 edition held in Valle de Bravo under the direction of Gilles Spitalier, which was awarded the Rally of the Year title by the Mexican National Rally Commission.
The Organising Committee then took over the running of the Rally de las 24 Horas, the CAF's flagship event, and Rally America was not staged again until 1996, when the internationalization of the project began. The CAF and its new promoting partner, Rallymex, moved the event to Ensenada, Baja California, for two years, attracting international entries.
In 1998, the organizers decided to rename the event and move it to Leon, Guanajuato, with a long-term business plan focusing on inclusion in the World Rally Championship. The event ran again in 1999 and 2000, stepping up a gear each year. From 2001 to 2003, the organizers sought observation by the FIA, successfully running the event on each occasion.
The 2003 Corona Rally Mexico – the 17th in the history of the rally – proved to be a turning point. New facilities at the Poliforum Expo Center and a compact route put the event firmly in the frame for World Championship status. A total of 45 crews representing 11 countries crossed the start ramp in Guanajuato during one of the most spectacular opening ceremonies seen in the sport.
Corona Rally Mexico made its debut in the expanded 16-round World Rally Championship in 2004, running successfully as the third round of the series and implementing a raft of regulation changes introduced by the FIA for the season. In 2005, the event again ran as the third round and was the first full gravel event of the year, attracting 44 crews representing 17 nations.
For the 2007 edition, the route was re-designed, making it more compact for a total of 850 kilometers. The rally was also made the centrepiece conclusion of the new NACAM Rally Championship regional series when it was created in 2008. After that first year the NACAM championship shifted its Mexican round to the Rally Sierra del Tigre. In 2009, the Rally was run as the International Rally of Nations. In 2010, the WRC returned to León amid a year-long fiesta to mark the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and the 200th anniversary of its independence.
The corpus source for this article is a single Wikipedia article on Rally Mexico. No primary archives, autobiographies, period programmes, or specialist publications were consulted.
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