ATRacing March 2008 Newsletter
Ready for 2008

It seems that it has been a long preparation for the season, with lots of hopes, hard work and investments, but finally it has all come together.

With the help of our sponsors, many whom have been with us for over a decade now ( sounds scary doesn't it… we aren't old enough for that!!!) and some new, we had a great looking result put together with some excellent components.

Lets go over the new & old companies supporting us:

Bagohepat:
This product from Armstrong Laboratories in Mexico City is the Title sponsor this season, and is the company's first ever involvement with motorsports. We look forward to getting as much National coverage as possible and enhance the company's image.

BFGoodrich Mexico:
In conjunction with local distributor TERSA, we are happy to shoe the trucks with the ever resistant Baja TA, and having a local dealer as well as a selection of tire sizes is a huge bonus for us. We are also working on a Photographic competition, as well as a children's drawing competition, which will be advertised through our web site as well as through local TV, offering a selection of prizes to wining shots and drawings.

K&N Filters, Optima Batteries, Autometer and Fox Shocks:
I put these four companies together as they are indisputably the absolute best in their field in Motor sports, and we are honored to continue to carry their products in our machines.

AWC:
These DesertBead Lockwheels are indestructible!! Made to take on the war with the Desert first hand, they also look super sexy!

Morfo Racing:
Our friend Antonio Maceda of MORFO RACING in Mexico City, supplier to most of the Ntaional Rally teams, supplied us with the prototypes of Leatts Neck Braces, as well as ZAMP Helmets, with beautiful custom paint jobs, and to make sure that the team looked sharp, custom made crew shirts.

Sparco:
Well, I can't deny that I am extremely pleased to be working with a Italian company, especially when they produce the best and most comfortable safety equipment on the market.

Ogio:
Finally, a bag manufacturer who addresses Motorsports travel needs with function and style!

Prisa Paints:
With the amount of painting of race, chase and support vehicles, PRISA Paints helps us keep looking good all season long.

FORD:
As we now have a whole range of FORD vehicles, we are very pleased to be representing FORD and Motorcraft through their La Paz dealership.

GO MARKET & GO CLEAN:
As the newest and biggest service station in La Paz, with it is own cleaning and detailing center, they do the best job in keep us shipshape and full of fuel.

ATRacing sincerely thanks everyone for their continued trust and support and we look forward to doing our best for your for yet another season!

COSTERA 250: Racing rears its ugly head.
The race trucks showed up at the mechanical revision at Cuidad de Constitucion looking absolutely stunning as they rolled of their trailer. As evening came on, the cars passed tech, and were displayed at contingency, with autograph signing, and giving out posters, caps and the bright orange BFG Frisbees, which almost caused too much of a commotion as Andrea virtually was mobbed by kids and adults alike. The race had a good number of cars participate and the fans were already overfilling the contingency, whilst making plans were to go to the desert the following day to best watch the excitement of the race.

The start was delayed to 10.00am, due to heavy fog that had been appearing over the past few days, and as the medical examination the morning of the race was moving at a snail's pace, the start had to be delayed another 15 minutes.

At approximately 10.30am, Andrea and co-driver Jose Hurtado left the start, having drawn the pole position for Class 8, in front of great competitors such as Tom Bradley, Rody Amaya and Stanley Burns. The desert seemed packed with fans, at every jump and every corner. Andrea took on a great pace, and developed a very comfortable lead, and was driving down a narrow straight away at around 85MPH, when it seems that the steering reducer broke, and they lost the control of the vehicle, flipping very hard and several times into the banks, first sideways before gathering inertia to continue end over end. As proof of the great fabrication of Banda Jr. Race Shop the cage remained intact and driver and co-driver were intact, however the truck suffered unrepairable damage. The chassis broke front and rear, broke the transmission, pushed engine into the cab, broke the front coilovers, both fuel intakes were ripped off, and a LOT of bent tubing.

As Andrea and Jose were well, they directed the other cars around the wreck, waiting for the Team's Bronco driven by Bert Tjeenk and co-driven by Salvador Banda.

Unbeknown to them, Bert had managed to gain an impressive 12 minutes on the next Class 6, as well as overtaking a Class 8 Stock within 10 miles from the start, when the engine started spattering & spluttering. Oil pressure was good, temperature was good… what was the problem. They thought that it might have been a bad gasket, however as they stopped to repair the problem, they found that the monoblock had cracked, and that was the end of the race for them.

So, two cars down, the crew and Ana had to tackle the race course to tow both trucks out, and the team was shocked to come to realize that the Class 8 Explorer is beyond state of repair.

However, as usual, the team at Banda Jr Race Fabrication, want to jump straight back in the saddle, and already yesterday, two days after the race, have located a new chassis and have started making plans to build Andrea a new Explorer to hopefully have ready by June.

Meanwhile, ATRacing is looking at some interim options, and are also trying to finish a pre-runner Bronco to at least be able to continue with the points in Class 8 whilst we wait for the new vehicle.

ATRacing also wants to express their gratitude not only to all of ATRacing Team, but also all our competitors and friends who helped us get the broken trucks out of where they were, and who are prepared to help to see us back in the desert ASAP.

And thank God for keeping us safe to tackle the desert another day!


PRO BAJA RACING WEB SITE:
We kept getting a lot of people wanting to be able to follow the Pro Baja Series and the site is now up and running, looking great and powered by Taco Republic! The site is in Spanish, however www.atoff-road.com will have race details and position in our site in English.


Acajoom News 1.5.6, Powered by Joobi.


© 2008 ATRacing
Joomla! is Free Software released under the GNU/GPL License.