April is shaping up to be a busy month for western Mexico and Baja California. After the month began with SCORE International’s San Felipe 250, it will end with the World Rally-Raid Championship‘s Sonora Rally and NORRA‘s Mexican 1000. With Sonora set to conclude on the first day of the Mexican 1000, NORRA hopes to reward those who intend to race both.
In collaboration with Sonora Rally organisers, NORRA has launched the Ultimate Ironman Challenge for solo riders doing the back-to-back rallies.
The Sonora Rally will end on 28 April in San Luis Río Colorado, located in northwestern Sonora near the border with Baja California, while the Mexican 1000’s pre-race technical inspection is taking place that same day in Ensenada roughly 350 kilometres away. To help out challenge riders, NORRA will send a van and trailer rig to San Luis Río Colorado to pick them up and take them to their next destination; the van can hold fourteen people while the trailer accommodates approximately seven bikes.
Upon reaching Ensenada, NORRA will expedite the inspection process for the riders so that they can reach the Mexican 1000 driver’s meeting at 6 PM. The 1000 then begins on 29 April. All participants will receive a commemorative plaque from NORRA.
Sonora will be approximately 2,091 kilometres in length. The 1000’s route for 2023 has not been released, though the 2022 edition totalled nearly 1,300 km for cars.
“The heart of rally racing is endurance,” said Matthew Glade, one of the riders attempting the challenge. “A truly great rally is true test of both metal and mettle, and the Ultimate Ironman will ask everything of people and machines as we travel from the mountains of Hermosillo through the beaches and dunes of Peñasco and San Luis, then down the rough and wild Baja to a finish in San José Del Cabo. I’m thrilled at the opportunity to combine these two epic events spanning much of northern Mexico into the longest, hardest, most diverse offroad race in North American rally history.”
Reigning Mexican 1000 winner Matt Sutherland will also enter the challenge, as will navigator Mike Shirley.
Challenge competitors fall under the Malle Moto label at Sonora, which is a subcategory of the W2RC’s Rally2 class for riders without outside assistance. Ironman riders in desert racing, which have longer point-to-point races in a given day than rally raids despite being shorter calendar-wise, do not rotate seat time with team-mates.
The Mexican 1000 runs from 28 April through 5 May.
