A 22-year-old Costa Rican motocross racer was murdered on a highway in Guatemala a few hours after he won the first stage of the National Motocross Championship and his two companions were wounded, police said Sunday.
Oscar Diaz’s vehicle was attacked for unknown reasons, the National Civilian Police, or PNC, said.
The two men accompanying him, Lewis Boniel, a 20-year-old Costa Rican driver, and Carlos Zuñiga, a 30-year-old Guatemalan mechanic, were wounded.
The attack occurred near San Lucas Sacatepequez, a city in southwest Guatemala, as the three men were returning to Guatemala City from the Entre Volcanes track in Alotenango. Latin American Herald Tribune
George Babor of Brooksville’s BPM Racing Engines says Oscar Diaz was a bright star with an even brighter future. Babor says he first saw Diaz racing as a teenager.
“When I hear Oscar Diaz he’s got this grin,” Babor says.
Before too long, Babor says he convinced him to join his team. Today his shop is full of Oscar’s bikes. But he says over the years Oscar became more like a son than a teammate. “Oscar Diaz was the kind of kid you wanted your kid to be like.”
Babor tells that Oscar and his dad Mario moved here from Costa Rica to pursue Oscar’s dream of becoming a professional racer. He worked his way up the amateur ranks winning many races across Florida and the country, turning pro this year.
Then Oscar got a call to race in Guatemala’s biggest national race.
“You get invited to these national event and you don’t take it as a threat, you take it as an opportunity,” Babor says.
When racing wrapped up on Saturday night, Oscar was on pace to win. Sadly he would never finish. That’s when George says he got a call from Mario Diaz. “He told me that they took my son.” ABC Action News
