Promoter Gonzalez pushes for WEC to return to Mexico

Mexico's promotor for the World Endurance Championship's 6 Hours of Mexico hopes the event will run again next year, but there's no certainty that it will take place with the potential looming for a shortened WEC season in 2018.

"I think that how the WEC brand is growing in Mexico, it's quite nice," Ricardo Gonzalez told RACER. "We have a very good product and we have to put it out there for people to see. We just need to work on a better TV package for Mexico to keep everyone better informed. People here are passionate about this kind of racing, they love it. We just need to give it time.

"The deal is for three years to run this race (next year is the final in the current contract). But every year we can revise the contract. I still have some meetings with the WEC and sponsors to understand what's going to happen next year. We're going to have news today about what's happening. But I'm still waiting to know more.

"For sure we want this to continue, but there's a lot of things that have to glue together in order for it to happen. It's not just me or WEC who decide. We'll see what happens.

"In terms of this year though, for my promoting team it's been much easier. The first-year learning curve pretty much meant everyone stayed in the team to ensure that doing it the second time made it a lot easier. We're looking at much worse weather than last year, but hopefully it holds and we put on a good show like last year."

In 2016, Gonzalez pulled unique double duty, promoting the event while competing with his RGR Sport team in LMP2, winning the class – which made it a tough weekend.

"Last year was really hard," he said, "because I was under so much pressure with promoting the event and racing, it meant that during the race weekend I couldn't work with the team as I normally would."

This weekend, as well as promoting the six-hour race, Gonzalez is also spending race day with a number of students from Arkansas State University, giving prospective engineers a chance to get a flavor for the WEC and a chance to meet some of the personalities involved.

"On race day there will be 200 students here; there's a big learning curve with the Arkansas State University and its students," he said. "We're working hard to ensure that it keeps on growing.

"We have eight programs, and we're looking at doubling it for next year to get a bigger base of students. They all live on campus, so a weekend like this is a chance for them to get out and have fun."