Heres a update about a story Mike posted last year!!

Recently I have been contacted by Andrea Tomba. He asked me to help him out about a story Mike posted on his site. He wanted to use my site to tell his side of the story since this site is used to spill the truth about Mr. Overcast. So below is the story that was on Mike's site and then Andrea's response below it!!!

http://bajasafari.blogspot.com/2008/02/cabo-500-sponsors-atracing-for-2008.html

Thursday, February 28, 2008
CABO 500 Sponsors ATRacing for 2008
CABO 500 Sponsors Andrea Tomba and ATRacing

The CABO 500 is sponsoring Andrea Tomba and ATRacing for the 2008 race season. Andrea ran into hard times recently, when the State Baja Sur taxes he was paying became so great, he no longer could keep his family small business going. Andreas ATRacing cant express their gratitude enough to the CABO 500 sponsor supporting us in 2008.

Andrea Tomba said, "The Governor of Baja Sur is corrupt and the rest of La Paz cannot be trusted". Thanks CABO 500 for bailing us out!

ATRacing would also like to welcome some new sponsors whom have joined us for this season: Laboratorios Armstrong took the step to run the first Super Motor Sports sponsorship Program this year through CABO 500. Also helping are SPARCO Race wear this year, as style and comfort go hand in hand in their products. OGIO Racing is also participating in this years race program, and we are happy to have their support this season.

The whole team currently has their hands full with getting ready for the Baja racing season. Everybody at Banda Race Fabrication are busy making some changes to the new addition to the ATR fleet, the ex-champion Class 6 FORD Bronco, previously raced by our friend Filli Diaz from Loreto. The truck is being fine tuned, and having some suspension changes, so that it will be ready to give our new driver Bert Tjeenk a chance to clench the victory in Class 6. Class 6 will be the team's main goal this season, with Andrea & Bert signing up as joint drivers in the Bronco, and Andrea will most probably pilot the truck in Short Course races whilst Bert will tame it in the Desert races.

The FORD Explorer known as "La Iguana" will be competing in Class 8 in most of the Championship races, so we will see two trucks sporting the ATR and its sponsor's colors this season. Russ, our ProBaja President, has also been working overtime, rebuilding a whole new website to make it more user friendly, and more attractive. It will be ready in a few months. We will be participating in the ProBaja Southern Baja Off Road Championship and State Association again this year.

There are two of the races that will be shared between both State Association and ProBaja, the 2008 Dos Mares CABO 500 and the CABO 500 in the Fall, so the turn out on these races is bound to be huge, so book your stay early!

We have also invested in a FORD Ranger CLASS 7 truck, which will be used for pre-running, but may also compete in some of the National Mexican races depending on their schedule. Our super nice wide open Offroad Cabo $100,000 race buggies are ready for you! Call us to book your tours at 619-251-9486 or eMail caboclub@cox.net


http://bajasafari.blogspot.com/2008/03/andrea-tomba-totals-atr-truck-race.html
Baja Sur Blows Chunks with five destroyed race trucks at race
At the recent race in Baja South, Andrea Tomba blew his season by reportedly turning over his Explorer, when he totalled his trashed Explorer. Two more former American race trucks, destroyed in Mexico, by Pacenos.
Atr racing crash story
FROM OUR REPORTER AT THE RACE:

The report from the team: "Andrea 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."

Another report: "Just outside El Rufugio, there was head problems with the Ford race motor, the Class 8 Explorer slowed to a crawl and Tomba started partying with the locals watching the race, thinking he was out. The problem was fixed after x beers and on a straight section at great speed, Tomba at 80 miles an hour, turned upside down, a very bad wreck, the truck wasted. Tomba and his co-driver, not hurt. But, it was obvious after the motor problems, Andrea was drunk when the crash hit him."
The former Class 1 Steve Barry rig was also destroyed, the frame bent to hell and totaled motor and tranny. These were two notable destructions out of five reported bad crashes. With Tom Bradley out of the race season, the race teams in southern Baja are running out.
From La Paz:
Pepe Lopez


FYI... their were Pictures attached to this story to show the damage to the truck but I could not attach them (damn 2002 computer) but you can probably check them out on Mike's site.


Here is Andrea's side of the story about this!!!!!

It is sad that anyone can feel the need to lie and distort posted newsletters, especially when these lies are really detrimental to a race team’s efforts, and even worse when these can damage a person’s image in ones local community. I have been living in Southern Baja for over 15 years, and am very grateful to the local community to have welcomed me with open arms, making me one of their own, as well as various government bodies, whom not only I work with on an almost daily basis on a professional basis, but whom also do an enormous effort to support the local off road activity. Lies such as those posted in these articles do nothing but harm people involved, however fortunately the source has become so know globally that there really isn’t a need for a explanation.

And if Cabo 500 sponsored ATRacing, where is the Cabo 500 presence on our vehicles? Or even better, where is our check??

I don’t think that there is anything wrong with people having disillusional dreams of greatness, however please do not have them on other people’s expense.

So a few truths:

ATRacing is not sponsored or has any affiliation to CABO 500

Andrea Tomba has never expressed anything negative about local government.

In the race where Andrea suffered the crash, the Class 8 never broke down prior to the crash ( although the Class 6 truck and never continued), and at no moment did Andrea stop, or drink before crashing. Again, I really can’t understand why anyone would want to say something so low, when loosing a race vehicle is an expensive and tough reality for a race team, especially when you have a co-driver who also has to suffer an accident, why dream up something about drinking and driving?

I understand that some people feel that lies and embezzlement is part of their daily business, and I guess that is a choice that each person makes, however if this is your M.O. ( in this case modus operatis) why would you want to do so at the cost of other people’s hard work or effort?