Cinco de Mayo Special – Rojas Gives Mexico Something New To Cheer About
As those of Mexican descent celebrate Cinco de Mayo this week, Lexus driver Memo Rojas has given Mexican fans something else to celebrate – the first Mexican driver ever to win a major international championship when he won last year’s Rolex Sports Car Series driver’s championship along with co-driver Scott Pruett.
While Rojas’ championship may not quite equal the Mexican army’s defeat of the French at Puebla back on May 5, 1862, the response from Mexican fans has certainly been overwhelming.
“It’s been great,” said Rojas. “Race fans in Mexico are very passionate. For me to bring back a championship to my home country was an honor. The people of Mexico really deserved it. For whatever reason, we’ve never had that championship. The last few months have been great for me.”
Rojas co-drove with Pruett to six victories in 2008, including the Rolex 24 at Daytona as the duo led the championship race from wire-to-wire. His special season has led to a new-found celebrity.
“It’s really cool when people recognize me back home,” relays the Mexico City native. “I enjoy sharing the championship with the fans. I think the good things in life need to be shared with your friends, your family and if I can share them with my whole country – all the better. The way people have embraced this championship has been terrific.”
Yet, as great as the reception has been to his 2008 championship run, Rojas has already put that title behind him and is focusing on adding another championship to his resume. The team scored a runner-up finish at the Rolex 24 and has qualified in the top-two and led at each of the next two races before unfortunate incidents. Rojas and Pruett will enter the next race at Laguna Seca fifth in points.
“I have only two goals for this season - win races and win a second championship,” said the third-year Ganassi driver. “When you taste success it just makes you hungrier. The problem after you win one championship is you become greedy and you want more – but this is a good greedy. It’s great motivation for everyone at the team.
That hunger has driven Rojas to new heights in preparation for the 2009 season with an extensive work-out regime that resulted in his running his first triathlon earlier this year.
“I’ve been working with the people over at Pit Fit and having been going back and forth to Indianapolis since the end of last season and I think I’m really in the best shape I’ve ever been in,” said Rojas. “Scott Dixon and I have been working out a lot together. In fact, this winter I did my first triathlon. It was a great experience. It was a professional triathlon, swimming in the ocean, running and biking. For the triathlon, I had to give up a lot of strength training and worked harder on endurance training for a month. The last two months, I’ve gone back to more conventional strength training to prepare for the race car.”
Rojas also is enjoying reverting back to an aggressive style of racing after the huge championship lead resulted in more conservative approach late last season.
“Admittedly, we got caught up in a situation where we had a really big lead and we really became a little conservative. We were focusing too much on staying out of trouble and probably not focusing enough on winning races. It’s good to come back into the new season, re-set and just go for it and push to win races again.”
Rojas used that approach to win the pole and Virginia International Raceway last month on the way to leading the most laps during the event. He’s looking to parlay that success into something bigger at season’s end.
“I believe we have the best team, a great engine in Lexus and I have one of the greatest drivers in the sport as my teammate. All the ingredients are in place to try bring back another championship to Mexico. One thing is for sure, nobody is going to out-work us.”
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