Monday, September 24, 2007 Alessandra Racing Team on karting ‘controversy’ By Blue Reyna Manager-Alessandra Racing Team
WE are writing in connection with your article entitled “Marcelo conquers turf; heat mars race” which appeared in your Sept. 10, 2007 issue.
Considering that said article put our team and Gerard Madrigal in a bad light without even bothering to secure our side of the story, we are constrained to write this letter in order to put matters in the proper perspective.
In the first place, while your article stated that “complaints were raised on why Marcelo won the second heat despite allegedly being last on the pole”, we wish to put on record that we did not raise any complaint whatsoever against Marcelo.
We are fully aware that the reason Marcelo won was that he was using a more powerful engine than all the rest of the competitors. This was within the rules and we have no grounds to file any complaint against him.
Your article then alleged that Madrigal, who is the owner of the Alessandra Racing Team, tried to bribe and threatened a mechanic of the Marcelo Racing Group to sabotage the kart of Marcelo. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The record will show that over the past few years, our team and Gerard Madrigal have invested a substantial amount of time and money to raise the standards of the sport of kart racing in the Philippines to world class level. We will not degrade nor debase what we have built up by any misdeeds.
It should be pointed out that as in other competitive sports there is a lot of friendly bantering or “trash talking” going on between competitors. It seems that some of this bantering was taken out of context and blown out of proportion, whether intentionally to create conflict between the parties, or unintentionally as a result of “rumor mongering”. This may have reached the Marcelo Racing group and they over-reacted by filing a complaint with the race stewards and asking for security.
Moreover, contrary to the article, there was no “commotion” to speak of, other than that caused by the complaint filed by the Marcelo Racing Group and the arrival of the police.
The article also unduly exaggerated the situation by implying that three (3) police cars were needed to pacify the situation. It stated that “Three patrol cars had to respond to the request for security backup to pacify things”. In the same breath, however, it quotes the police base control operator who stated that “the other cars just joined probably to watch the race.”
Similarly, the statement that the “Madrigal group was allegedly armed and dangerous” has no basis whasoever. No one witnessed any person carrying any firearms.
It is also a complete falsity that “Gerard Madrigal, the head of the Alessandra Madrigal Racing Team, was later escorted out of the race track to prevent further commotion”. When the race stewards requested him to leave in order to defuse the situation, Madrigal immediately and voluntarily left the track in utter disgust at the unwarranted and baseless complaint of the Marcelo Racing Group.
Finally, the article states that “none of the members of the Alessandra Madrigal Racing Group was able to refute the claim of their opposition”, implying that we had been given the opportunity by your reporter to refute the allegations of the Marcelo Racing Group and we were unable to do so, thus giving the false impression that indeed we were guilty of the misdeeds attributed to us. The fact is that your reporter did not even exert any effort to interview us or request for any comments before going to print. It appears that your reporter did not even ask the race stewards about our reply to them regarding the allegations of the Marcelo Racing Group.
In the interest of fairness, therefore, we request that you print this letter in its entirely in order to rectify the injustice your newspaper and your reporter have already committed against the Alessandra Racing Team and its owner, Mr. Gerard Madrigal, without prejudice to whatever action before any tribunal Mr. Madrigal may later wish to take regarding this matter.
(Editor’s note: Below is Rommel C. Manlosa’s reply)
AS A reporter for more than 12 years now, seeing two mobile cars in a venue, which was supposed to be a competition among kids, was alarming enough.
Although the PNP’s Mobile Patrol dispatcher confirmed that only car 014 was assigned to secure the venue, I saw car 014 and car 018 there and later joined by car 010. Anybody who has the instinct of sensing trouble must believe that the condition was not normal.
I had covered karting events before at the same venue and I had never encountered any police car or policemen at the place long enough to finish the event.
My report about the “bribery and threat” and the escorting of Mr. Gerard Madrigal out of the race venue were basically taken from the context of my interview with Jed Neri, who happened to be the technical director of the Madrigal Racing Team, and a former mentor of Guidicelli, who is now a member of the Alessandra Racing Team.
But there was a complaint letter of such action filed to the race steward that led to the call for police protection.
As for my failure to get the version from any member of Alessandra Racing Team, I would like to tell Mr. Reyna that I tried. After the race for the 125 Open Division, I went to your paddock but nobody wanted to talk about it.
