World Rally Champion Benito Guerra Makes Nitro RX Debut at Season Finale
International stage rally star Benito Guerra joined the Nitro Rallycross fray for the final two rounds of the season at Glen Helen Raceway and made an instant impression.
The 2012 Production World Rally champion and 2019 Race of Champions winner, Guerra arrived with a stellar resume, but Nitro Rallycross proved to be a “whole new experience” for him as he checked off a number of firsts.
“I had never driven in rallycross, I had never driven electric cars, this was my first time driving in the US, the first time with the Olsbergs team, everything was new,” he said. “I never raced with a spotter before either, and I was trying to understand everything in just a few laps to be competitive at the end of the weekend.
“It was fantastic. I think the result at the end, fifth overall, was really, really good for me.”
Fifth represented a fantastic debut weekend for Guerra, who enjoyed his start in rallycross, competing against some of the discipline’s biggest stars.
“I love the sport. It's really, really challenging and competitive,” he said. “You need to fight door-to-door with the other guys, these big names: Bakkerud, Pastrana, the Erikssons, Fraser… everybody is really, really fast, and I'm trying to get the same speed as them.”
Guerra's Nitro Rallycross debut didn't go unnoticed in Mexico either, on what was a huge weekend for Mexican motorsport with Sergio Perez winning the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and the World Rally Championship's Rally Mexico both happening as Guerra raced at Glen Helen.
“The weekend was a great weekend for Mexico because we had the Formula 1 victory with Checo [Perez]; we had the Rally Mexico WRC in Guanajuato, and we got a nice result in Nitro.
“Everybody's gonna talk about what happened this weekend in motorsport for Mexico and I'm pretty sure there are going to be people interested in following Nitro.
Debut out of the way, Guerra is now turning his attention to the 2023-24 campaign, where he hopes to mount a full-season assault.
“It was fun, really, really fun for me, and we are aiming for next year. We're gonna do it,” he said.
“I think this experience helped us get all the sponsors in the same mood as we wanted to get them into. They were here, my managers were here, and I think they are all very happy with the result and the experience with this team.
“It was a very good weekend for us, we were expecting to have fun, we were expecting to have a good experience and we got both. So we are going back to Mexico happy and will try to get it all together to be here next season.
“We're gonna try to put everything together to be in the whole championship, all the races, and fight for the championship for sure.”