Benito Guerra Jr.

Benito Iván Guerra Latapí (born 25 March 1985) is a Mexican rally driver competing for Citroën Racing, a privateer team in the FIA World Rally Championship (WRC) in 2013, with his co-driver Borja Rozada.

Benito Guerra Jr.

Guerra Jr. with Javier Lozano (left), in 2005
Personal information
Nationality	Mexican
Born	25 March 1985
World Rally Championship record
Active years	2006 – present
Co-driver	Daniel Cué Borja Rozada
Teams	Ralliart, Motorsport Italia
Rallies	42
Championships	0
Rally wins	0
Podiums	0
Stage wins	0
Total points	22
First rally	2006 Rally México
Last rally	2020 Rally Mexico

In 2012 he won the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC) and became a World Champion.[1]

Personal life

His father is Benito Guerra, Sr., a vintage racing driver like La Carrera Panamericana[2] and Notary public in Mexico City, his mother is Mercedes Guerra (née Latapí), a CPA. Benito has a younger sister named Mercedes, a fan of motorsport.

Career

2006 – 2010

Guerra Jr. made his World Rally Championship debut on his home event Rally Mexico in 2006, finishing the event in 26th.[3] In 2007 he started both Rally Mexico and Rally Argentina, but retired from both with mechanical problems. He finished 14th on the 2008 Rally México, winning the Group N category. In 2009 he won the Spanish Production title, winning the Spanish gravel title outright in 2010. He finished 15th overall and fourth in PWRC on the 2010 Rally México.

2011

He began 2011 by finishing 11th overall on Rally Mexico, and then committed to a PWRC programme. He finished fourth in PWRC in Portugal, fourth in Australia and third in Spain. At the end of the season Guerra Jr. finished sixth overall, scoring 47 WRC points.[4]

2012

Benito and his co-driver Borja Rozada, won in México, Argentina and España rallies, plus a second place in Germany, thereby the Mexican-Spaniard duo got the PWRC world championship with 109 points, over the Argentinian team Marcos Ligato and Rubén García (88 points).[5] So, Guerra Jr. became the first Mexican rally driver to win a World Championship, and the second Mexican to earn a title in the world of motorsport. Until then Pedro Rodríguez(†) was the only one who had achieved in 1970 and 1971 at the World Sportscar Championship with JW-Porsche.

Race of Champions

As of the 2012, PWRC champion Benito Guerra Jr. is invited to participate in the 25th edition of the Race of Champions, from 14 to 16 December in Bangkok along with racing legends like Michael Schumacher and Sebastian Vettel. His teammate of Team Americas is the Texan Ryan Hunter-Reay, 2012 IndyCar Series champion.[6][7]

Guerra Jr. said: “This is a great end-of-season challenge and it’s fantastic for my career to be part of ROC 2012. I’m very excited to compete with all of these great drivers and join Team Americas with Ryan Hunter-Reay. See you all in Bangkok!” [8]

In the Nations Cup race Guerra beats Jorge Lorenzo and the ROC Champion of Champions of 2011, Sébastien Ogier but is defeated by Andy Priaulx, due to a penalty. Therefore, the Team Americas is eliminated in the first round because Hunter-Reay is defeated in two of his three rounds.[9][10]

For the Champion of Champions event Guerra Jr. bears little fortune and is eliminated in first round. At the end the overall winner of the ROC 2012 is the F1 driver Romain Grosjean.[11][12]

2013

Due to lack of sponsorship Guerra Jr. did not participate in Monaco and Sweden rallies but in his country México he started with Citroën Racing, a privateer team in the WRC in 2013, with his co-driver Borja Rozada.

On his very first race in the WRC, as a rookie in the category, Guerra gets a great result entering in the top-ten of the Mexican rally, thus he gets his first four points for the championship ending at 8th overall position behind the winner Sébastien Ogier for 12:49.8 minutes.[13][14][15]

2019

In the twenty-ninth edition of the Race of Champions, held at Foro Sol in Mexico City, Guerra defeated French driver Loïc Duval, winner of 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans and 2013 WEC, in the final. On his way to the final match against Duval, Guerra Jr. defeated drivers like Sebastian Vettel, Pierre Gasly, Daniel Suárez, Esteban Gutiérrez, among others.[16]

Complete World Rally Championship results

WRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	WDC	Points
2006	Benito Guerra	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII	MON	SWE	MEX 26	ESP	FRA	ARG	ITA	GRE	GER	FIN	JPN	CYP	TUR	AUS	NZL	GBR	NC	0
2007	Benito Guerra	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII	MON	SWE	NOR	MEX Ret	POR	ARG Ret	ITA	GRE	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP					NC	0
2008	Benito Guerra	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII	MON	SWE	MEX 14	ARG	JOR	ITA	GRE	TUR	FIN	GER	NZL	ESP	FRA	JPN	GBR		NC	0
2009	RMC Motorsport	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VIII	IRE	NOR	CYP	POR		ITA	GRE	POL	FIN	AUS	ESP 30	GBR					NC	0
2010	Benito Guerra	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	SWE	MEX 15	JOR	TUR	NZL	POR	BUL	FIN	GER	JPN	FRA	ESP	GBR				NC	0
2011	Ralliart	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	SWE	MEX 11	POR 18	JOR	ITA	ARG 15	GRE	FIN Ret	GER		FRA	ESP 24	GBR Ret				26th	2
		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX										AUS 9
2012	Ralliart	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	MON	SWE	MEX 11	POR	ARG 11	GRE 19	NZL	FIN	GER 16	GBR	FRA	ITA 24	ESP 18				NC	0
2013	Benito Guerra Jr.	Citroën DS3 WRC	MON	SWE	MEX 8	POR	ARG	GRE	ITA	FIN	GER	AUS	FRA						24th	4
		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X												ESP 14	GBR
2014	M-Sport World Rally Team	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	MON	SWE	MEX 6	POR	ARG	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	AUS	FRA						17th	8
	BAS Motorsport	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X												ESP 18	GBR
2015	Benito Guerra Jr.	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	MON	SWE	MEX 12	ARG	POR	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	AUS	FRA	ESP	GBR				NC	0
2016	Benito Guerra Jr.	Ford Fiesta RS WRC	MON	SWE	MEX 13	ARG	POR	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	CHN C	FRA	ESP	GBR	AUS			NC	0
2017	Motorsport Italia	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX 12	FRA	ARG 12	POR 32	ITA	POL 17	FIN	GER 18	ESP 12	GBR WD	AUS				NC	0
2018	Motorsport Italia	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX DNS	FRA	ARG	POR 15	ITA 20	FIN 18	GER 19	TUR	GBR	ESP WD	AUS				NC	0
2019	Benito Guerra	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX 6	FRA	ARG 12	CHL 16	POR 14	ITA	FIN	GER	TUR						16th	8
		Škoda Fabia R5 Evo												GBR 20	ESP Ret	AUS C
2020	Benito Guerra	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX 20	EST	TUR	ITA	MNZ										NC*	0*

PWRC results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	PWRC	Points
2010	Benito Guerra	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX	SWE	MEX 5	JOR	NZL	FIN	GER	JPN	FRA	GBR	18th	12
2011	Ralliart	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	SWE	POR 4	ARG 6	FIN Ret		ESP 3	GBR Ret			6th	47
		Mitsubishi Lancer Evo IX					AUS 4
2012	Ralliart	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	MON	MEX 1	ARG 1	GRE 4	NZL	GER 2	ITA 6	ESP 1		1st	109

WRC-2 results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	WRC-2	Points
2014	BAS Motorsport	Mitsubishi Lancer Evo X	MON	SWE	MEX	POR	ARG	ITA	POL	FIN	GER	AUS	FRA	ESP 4	GBR		28th	12
2017	Motorsport Italia	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX 3	FRA	ARG 3	POR 11	ITA	POL 4	FIN	GER 9	ESP 3	GBR WD	AUS		6th	59
2018	Motorsport Italia	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX DNS	FRA	ARG	POR 7	ITA 6	FIN 6	GER 9	TUR	GBR	ESP WD	AUS		19th	24
2019	Benito Guerra	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX 1	FRA	ARG 2	CHL 2	POR 6	ITA	FIN	GER	TUR				3rd	75
		Škoda Fabia R5 Evo												GBR 7	ESP Ret	AUS C

WRC-3 results

Year	Entrant	Car	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Pos.	Points
2020	Benito Guerra	Škoda Fabia R5	MON	SWE	MEX 5	EST	TUR	ITA	MNZ	19th	10

References

1. Beer, Matt (November 11, 2012). "Sunday PWRC wrap: Guerra crowned". WRC.com. WRC.com. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
2. "Resultados oficiales/Official results" (PDF). LaCarreraPanamericana.com.mx. LaCarreraPanamericana.com.mx. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
3. "Driver profile – Beníto Guerra jr". eWRC-results.com. eWRC.cz. Retrieved 13 September 2011.
4. "2011 FIA WRC-3 Standings". WRC.com. WRC.com. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
5. http://www.wrc.com/pwrc/results/
6. http://www.periodico.am/aguascalientes/benitoguerraesconvocadoalraceofchampions-53342.html%5B%5D
7. http://www.raceofchampions.com/pages/common/RaceofChampions.aspx?pg=7619
8. http://www.raceofchampions.com/News/general-news/guerra-to-partner-hunterreay-on-team-americas.aspx
9. http://raceofchampions.com/News/general-news/team-germany-win-sixth-roc-nations-cup.aspx
10. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104840
11. http://raceofchampions.com/News/general-news/grosjean-crowned-2012-champion-of-champions.aspx
12. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/104845
13. http://www.wrc.com/results/
14. http://www.wrc.com/results/2013/rally-guanajuato-mexico/stage-times/
15. http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/105939
16. https://www.raceofchampions.com/race-results/

External links

• Official website
• Benito Guerra Jr. on Facebook
• Benito Guerra Jr. on Twitter
• Benito Guerra – Guerra Jr.'s profile at ewrc-results.com
• Benito Guerra – Guerra Jr.'s profile at Race of Champions' official website