ENSENADA BAJA CA MEXICO – Bajarallymoto.com and Rally Playero Entertainment, in a newly formed international alliance to boost adventure tourism throughout Mexico, have announced the creation of a National “rally raid” series for motorcycles, ATVs, and UTVs.

The Mexican National Cross Country Championship consists of 2 rally-raid events in Mexico starting with the BAJA RALLY, held in Baja CA September 28- October 2, 2015. The second and final event comprising the championship will take place in the Southern Mexican State of Oaxaca in December 2015. BAJA RALLY LLC & Rally Playero Entertainment will operate their respective rallies independently while sharing the same rulebook and key personnel including FIM certified juror Romina Addiego, Operations Director for both events. Rally Playero has been hosting FIM style rally raids in Mexico since 2010.

“This is a huge step for the sport of rally in North America,” explained BAJA RALLY’s Competition Director Andy Grider, “We now have multiple rallies forming a new series in Mexico. It’s huge for the riders, Rally Playero and for the future of our sport.”

Grider, a 5-time DAKAR entrant and one of the only Americans to ever stand on a Dakar podium (2009, co-driver), was recently named to the top post of the BAJA RALLY.

Initially, BAJA RALLY’s partnership with Rally Playero stemmed from the work of Mexican motorcycle racer, Octavio “Chivo” Valle, the only Mexican to finish the DAKAR RALLY twice. In December 2013, Chivo invited BAJA RALLY founder Scotty Breauxman on a team effort in RP’s Trans Oaxaca Monster Rally Raid. There, they formed a program and recruited Addiego to lead BAJA RALLY’s operations and Patrick Reyes for advisory consulting.

“We are passionate about Rally, even when times were tough”, explains Rally Playero founder Patrick Reyes, “But this is what has kept us going though the difficulties of promoting a new, growing sport in Mexico and North America. We couldn’t  be more happy to create an alliance with BAJA RALLY to  get more riders , sponsors and Government  involvement in our sport.”

BAJA RALLY’s chief concurs. “We’ve had riders competing in both rally raids for 2 years now”, Grider continued, “So it made sense to join forces and adapt to the same rule book and technical aspects. The next big step is arranging freight shipping to anyone competing in both events.”

The sport of rally raid is much more popular in Europe, Africa and South America than it is in North America but, according to Grider, the inevitability of the expansion in North American is written all over the wall.

“I’ve seen what they’re doing in Greece, Tunisia, Mongolia and South America”, Grider concluded, “Rally is a global sport and North America is the last to catch on. There’s no place to go but up.”

The overall winner of the Mexican National Cross Country Championship will be determined by a simple points chart based a on the overall cumulative points scored for each of 2 races. The points chart can be found in Section 4.4 of the 2015 BAJA RALLY RULEBOOK, which can be downloaded here.