Home Past race seasons
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Andrea first started racing in a Class 9 buggy in 1996, however in 1998, he moved up to a Class 7 Open Pick up. Class 7 was one of the fastest growing Classes at the time, and over the years, Andrea's effort were consistent, however they were competing with a fairly stock unit providing 200HP, against several vehicles in the same class with over 600HP. However, the managed to get second and third places in the Championships.
2006 saw ATRacing take the reins of a FORD EXPLORER 2WD CLASS 6. As the level of the top contenders in Class 7 now require an vehicle investment of over US$70,000, we had decided to race in the slightly more stock class. The Explorer allowed us to use a lot of the technology that we have tested on our previous CLASS 7 Ranger, and gives us a lot more advertising space, whilst staying in one of the more spectacular and competitive classes. The new race truck was quickly named "The Iguana" by one of ATRacing's youngest members, 5-year-old Samuel Hurtado. As always, a new truck needs some time to iron outs smaller problems, but the mechanics and crew always maintained 100% focus and effort, to keep us amongst the top finishers, with only one DNF in the season.
However, our main priority for the our first CLASS 6 season was to continue our endeavors to be one of the teams that attracts the most attention by presence and marketing efforts, by being available for various presentation and poster signings, and by often doing exhibitions where local children are invited to take the co-pilot seat. In short, our aim was to maximize our efforts to get our team and our sponsors coverage and recognition, and with the support of our sponsors, we had a big support of merchandise to give away at contingencies and during race day. We finished in a very close 2nd Place in the 2006 Class 6 Championship.
Determined to win the 2007 season, we decided to move up and put in a FORD 5.0 V8 engine into the unit. This transformation did not work as well as we hoped, as the new engine and drive train seemed to have changed the whole recipe of the truck, and lead us to several blown engines and transmissions, as well as some suspension problems. The "ironing out" period was much longer than expected, and we finally got back onto the podium with a third place in Class 6 in San Jose in May, and a victory in Class 8 in June.
Ending 2007, we finished second in Class 8 Open and 5th in Class 6 in the PROBAJA series.
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