Happy new year from Mexico!

The 2010 NASCAR Corona Series schedule was released yesterday, with 14 races scheduled to take place in 8 different cities throughout Mexico. One of the highlights of the schedule is announcement of the first-ever night race in the history of the Mexican stock car series.

I am currently working on sponsorship deals for the 2010 season. I hope I can confirm something in the coming weeks. For this season, I am planning to attempt a limited schedule in the NASCAR Corona Series’ main division (6 at most, to maintain my rookie eligibility for 2011),? as well as select races in the Mini Stock class, together with the possibility of expanding my Late Model program in the United States.

The 2009 season had its ups and downs, but I acquired very valuable experience, and a few podium finishes. In the NASCAR Mini Stocks I had to battle all year long with a less-than-competitive car, and trying to make the most out of it. My best results were three 4th-place finishes.

I was pleased with my performance in some of these races, but unfortunately we didn’t get the results to show for it. For example, at San Luis Potosi I had been running in the Top 3 all the race, and got hit from behind and sent to the wall on a green-white-checkered finish in the final lap. My first podium finish in the series went flying out of the window. Bummer!

But all in all, the season wasn’t bad. I competed in 3 races in the Pick-Up Trucks as well, and finished 2nd at Queretaro, 4th in the WTCC event at Puebla, and 4th again in the season finale at San Luis Potosi. I also ran 3 races in the ST4 Series (4-cylinder touring cars), finishing 2nd in the season opener at Guadalajara.

I made my debut in the NASCAR Corona Series premier division as well, but had to retire from the race with a mechanical problem.

I also had the opportunity to compete in Late Model stock cars in the United States. I attended an event called “Test of the Best” at the Stateline Speedway in Post Falls, Idaho. I finished 2nd in that event, and got the chance to compete in two fully-sponsored race weekends in the Competitive Edge Racing Series. It was a great experience, and I was close to winning a race, but again my best result was a 2nd place finish.

That sounds like a lot of 2nd place finishes, doesn’t it? In 2010 I am determined to get my first win. I have been striving for it for so long, and every time it seems to be closer.

The new season promises a lot of excitement. Be sure to follow my updates throughout the season here!

2010 NASCAR CORONA SERIES SCHEDULE:

1. March 21 – Aguascalientes (oval)
2. April 11 – Quer?taro (road course)
3. May 2 – San Luis Potos? (oval)
4. May 22 – Chiapas (oval) – *night race
5. June 6 – M?xico City (oval)
6. July 4 – Puebla (oval)
7. July 18 – Guadalajara (oval)
8. August 8 – Monterrey (oval)
9. August 22 – M?xico City (oval)
10. September 5 – Quer?taro (oval)
11. September 19 – Puebla (oval)
12. October 10 – M?xico, D.F. (oval)
13. October 24 – Chiapas (oval)
14. November 21 – Aguascalientes (oval)

You can learn more about the series at NASCAR Home Tracks.

By the way, now I have a Facebook page in English, so everyone can understand it. I usually include news and updates there. It would be awesome if you become a fan! Click here to go to the Facebook page!

Coming from a couple of strong finishes in the Pick-Up Trucks at the WTCC event at Puebla (4th place) and Querataro (2nd place), I am feeling really confident heading to the rest of the season.

At the same time, these have been tough days for my country because of the outbreak of the Swine Influenza virus that has affected a few thousand people, and has kept us at home for the past couple of weeks as a preventive measure. School was suspended a few days ago, but fortunately it seems that the situation is now improving, and we will be able to resume our normal activities later this week.

As a result of this, the race I was supposed to run last weekend in the NASCAR Mexico Mini Stocks, had to be postponed.

So now, my next event will be from May 21st to 24th. This will be my first oval experience in a full-sized V8 stock car. For this, I will travel to the United States to take part in the Competitive Edge Racing Series “Test of the Best”, which is a scholarship tryout that offers the winning driver a full season in this stock car series. The test will be on Thursday and Friday, and then during the weekend I will run the first two rounds of the championship.

This event attracts some of the most talented up-and-coming stock car drivers from the Northwestern USA, as well as some from other countries. It will certainly be tough, but I feel I am well prepared for this opportunity, and I am looking forward to learn a lot, and hopefully challenge for the win.

Oh, by the way, I would like to take a moment to appreciate a few race fans in my country, who have started a Facebook page for me. If you would like to join this group of supporters, please visit here:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/FanClub-Rodrigo-Marban/55505036642

Best regards,
Rodrigo

I already had my first race of the season, and I managed to finish in the podium. This year I will be racing in the new ST4 series (Super Touring 4-cylinder), which has the same cars we used to run last year in the NASCAR Mexico T4 series, but with the rule changes they are no longer eligible to compete in the NASCAR-sanctioned division, so a new touring car series was made using those cars. The first race of the season was last month at Guadalajara, and I managed to finish 2nd, together with my teammate Ernesto Guerrero, with whom I shared the car.

In addition, I will be running the new NASCAR Mexico “Mini Stock” series, which is the new series that will substitute the old T4 Series. The series will run a new chassis that features several safety improvements and is purpose-built for oval racing, and I plan to make my debut in the NASCAR Corona Series (the top division in Mexico) towards the end of the season. I will also continue to run in the Pick-up trucks, albeit on a limited basis.

My next event will be the FIA WTCC support races at Puebla on March 21 and 22. It will be a big event, and I will run two races, the ST4 and the Pick-ups. It will definitely be a fun and exciting event, and I hope we can post some good finishes in these races, and also get to watch some exciting WTCC action!!

Take care,
Rodrigo

The past few days have been awesome for me. Last Friday I received my trophies for finishing 3rd and Rookie of the Year in the Mexican Pick-ups championship. It was not without some drama, however

The official awards dinner for the series was held two weeks ago, but for some reason my trophy was mistakenly engraved with another driver’s name, and it ended up being given to him.

I was left scratching my head for a little while, and at the end of the dinner I went to ask what was going on. It turned out that there was a mistake in the calculation of the points, and that I was indeed the third place finisher. So they told me they were going to stage a special ceremony for me the following week, in which they would give me my awards.

Unintentionally, it ended up being better for me! The organizers of the championship staged a very nice ceremony for me, and they even invited the media! As a result, the event got a lot of coverage in some of the most important racing websites and magazines in the country.

My mom, my team owner, and my engineer went with me to receive the awards, and it was a special moment for all of us. As you know, racing is a team sport and it was nice to see our effort being recognized.

In another story, we now have our 2009 schedule nearly figured out. The idea is to run in the new NASCAR Mexico “Mini Stock” division, and also do some races in the Pick-ups and the T4 Series (which will no longer be a NASCAR-sanctioned division, and will run only in road courses). If things go our way, we want to run one race in the NASCAR Corona Series, the top series in the country, towards the end of the year.

The racing season starts on February 22!! Will keep you posted.

Best regards,
Rodrigo

Last week was my final race of the season, Round 11 of the Pick Up’s. It was a tough race as I had a brake failure on Lap 2 that got worse lap after lap. Despite having a nearly undriveable truck, I managed to salvage a 4th place finish in a race that had a huge rate of attrition, as brake issues affected most of the field.

It was a great season for me! It was fun to combine racing in two very different series. I managed to finish in the Top 10 in the NASCAR T4 Series, and I finished 3rd in the Pick Up’s, taking the Rookie of the Year title.

My best race of the season was at Puebla, where I scored my first podium – hopefully the first of many! I love that track! (No wonder why the WTCC goes there every year). But ultimately, it was consistency what finally paid off. Despite finishing in the podium only once, I finished 4th and 5th several times, which helped me climb to the third spot in the standings.

Now it’s time to start thinking about next year. The T4 Series will cease to exist, as it will be replaced with a brand-new series called “Mini Stock Series”, which will feature new cars with a new chassis built specifically for NASCAR-style oval racing. We are expecting to get our cars in January to begin testing!

Being present in the NASCAR Mexico awards banquet this year represented a great motivation for me. Next year I want to be on stage to pick up a trophy!

But the T4 cars will also be put to good use, as another promoter (the same that organizes the Pick Up series) immediately jumped in to build an affordable touring car series using those cars. We still have not decided whether we will run that series, but it definitely should be fun, so we will try to get some sponsors (not an easy task the way the economy is going!) to run there as well.

It will certainly be a tough year, but I can’t wait to start the new season! Yes, despite it has been only one week since the end of the season . I look forward to keep improving, and hopefully climb to the top of the podium next year!

Best wishes for these holidays, and Happy New Year!
Rodrigo

It has been nearly two months since I last blogged, but I’m very pleased to say they have been the best two months of my racing career.

In the past we have had a lot of international racing events in Mexico, such as Formula 1, Champ Car, WTCC, and more; but never before had we had a national series that generated so much excitement among the fans, so I’m really glad to be part of it.

A new racetrack was opened in Tuxtla Gutierrez, a city in southeastern Mexico, and my series was the first to race on it. We arrived there on Wednesday to help with the promotion of the race. The fans went crazy about the event, and more than 20,000 people showed up for the race on Sunday! The track is a highly-banked D-shaped oval at the pure NASCAR style.

The practice sessions saw me near the bottom of the time charts as I was just trying to stay out of trouble and learn the track (which was good because there were at least two wrecks in practice), but by the time the race started I had acquired enough knowledge about the track to gain some positions and finish 8th for my fourth Top 10 of the season.

The season finale of the NASCAR Mexico T4 Series was at my hometown. We raced at the famous Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, in the oval layout. The support from my family and friends who went to watch me race really motivated me, and I drove one of my best races so far, finishing 8th again, but this time only 3 seconds away from the winner, who incidentally was my teammate and mentor Ernesto Guerrero. As you can see, the race was very tight, with the Top 8 drivers separated by just a few meters. This result allowed me to make it into the Top 10 in the standings.

I had little time to rest, as one week later I raced in the Pick-up Truck Series at Puebla. This is a very nice racetrack – the WTCC races there every year – and I consider it among my favorites. My performance far exceeded my expectations, as I was the fastest in two of the practice sessions, and qualified 2nd. At the start of the race I made a little mistake that cost me the 2nd position, but I managed to hold on to third place for my first podium finish!

I see the trophy at home every day, and it definitely motivates me to keep improving. There are still two races left in the Truck Series, and I think I have a good chance of finishing in the podium again.

It has been a long season – 20 races so far – but I’m very happy with my progress, and I look forward to finishing the season with more good results, and keeping this momentum going for the 2009 season.

I don’t have any races next weekend, so I will go to the USA to watch the season finale of the NASCAR Sprint Cup at Miami. It will be a fun weekend, that’s for sure!

I’ve got to admit that the first half of the season brought nothing to write home about. Mechanical breakdowns, pit-stop woes, and being involved in multi-car pileups were just a few parts of an incredible streak of misfortune that had become a thing of everyday. Considering that the 2007 season was pretty much the same, this was becoming too much for me to handle, to the point where it started to affect other aspects of my life, and in one of those “low” days I even started wondering why I didn’t call it quits.

But I’m glad I kept working hard, ignored the nay-sayers, and kept doing my best in every race. The reward would eventually come with a career-best 6th place in the NASCAR race at San Luis.

From a fan standpoint, in any series it’s nice to see the guys who despite finishing 40th in all the races, don’t give up and keep coming back to try again. However, from a driver standpoint, it’s not a very pleasurable situation to be in even more so when the series you are racing in is broadcast on TV to all the country.

It’s really amazing how a good result can boost your confidence and your performance. A much-needed Top-6 finish was just what the doctor ordered. Since then, I have added a few more strong finishes, which have helped me climb several spots in the championship. With two rounds remaining, I’m now 12th, and can still crack into the Top-10 in the standings, which would be remarkable.

As for the Pick-up Truck series, I am very pleased with my latest result, a career-best 4th place two weeks ago at Guadalajara. With this, I have almost secured the rookie-of-the-year title in the series, as the math says I just have to show up for the final three races for it to be official.

Now it’s time to keep pushing harder than ever. With just two rounds remaining in NASCAR, and three in the trucks, I have to show that I can be a top finisher next season.

At least the joy of racing is back, vowing never to leave. At the end of the day, that’s what matters the most. And certainly, why not think about battling for the title in 2009?

When we raced in the NASCAR event at Guadalajara, I was invited to visit a rehabilitation center for children with disabilities. It was a very rewarding experience to be able to spend a couple of hours with those kids, who for some reason have not been as fortunate as us. We are really blessed to be healthy and to be able to do what we enjoy, which is racing cars, so seeing those kids do their best to improve their life condition was a real eye-opener.

It was very satisfying to be able to share a moment of happiness with the kids. They were very impressed with the visit from the drivers, and for a few moments they paid more attention to us than their doctors. In the end, I learned a lot from them.

The result in the race was not what I had hoped for, especially after I had finished a career-best 6th in the previous race, but the visit to the therapy center was an experience that really made the weekend worthwhile.

I am happy that I have improved a lot since the start of the season. After a slow start in the first four races, I have managed to finish in the Top 12 in the last 3 races, which has moved me up to 14th in the standings, which is not bad considering the difficulty of the series. I?m looking forward to keeping this momentum going for the rest of the season!

My name is Rodrigo Marb?n, and I am a 21-year old driver from Mexico. I am currently competing in the NASCAR Mexico T4 Series, and also in the Mexican Pick-up Truck series.

Both series are quite different to each other, which is great because as a driver starting your career, it’s good to get your hands on as many types of cars as you can.

The T4 Series is organized and sanctioned by NASCAR Mexico, which is a regional branch of NASCAR that operates in my country. Almost all the races are held on oval tracks, except one or two every year that are held on road courses. As you probably know, NASCAR racing is quite popular in North America.

The cars we run in the T4 Series are 4-cylinder “mini stock cars” that are built using several of the original components of ordinary road cars. As a result, the series is relatively inexpensive in comparison to others, while there is a very high level of competitiveness on the track. The series uses 2-liter engines, and there are three different car models participating: the Dodge Neon (or Plymouth Neon as it is called in some countries), the Mazda 3, and the Chevrolet Astra (known as Opel Astra in some places).

Our races are 1-hour long and serve as the opening of double-header events that also include the NASCAR Corona Series, which is the premier racing series in Mexico.

To enhance my racing experience, this year I made my debut in the Pick-up Truck Series. The trucks are very powerful (V8, 300 HP), and it is quite difficult to drive them at the limit, so it is a good place to learn. I am enjoying the challenge so far!

With the trucks, this year I had the chance to drive in the support races for the A1 Grand Prix event in Mexico City, and the WTCC at Puebla. It was unbelievable to be racing on the same track, on the same weekend as some of the greatest drivers in the world!!

So this is it for now; in my next blog post I will talk about how racing is in my country, and how we use racing as a way to help disadvantaged people. If you want to share your thoughts, please be sure to drop me a line: rodrigo@rodrigomarban.com

Have a nice week!
Rodrigo