Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/128311
By SCOTT SCOOr£RMAN'A R O USSEAU Ode to the Ridiculous o l th ink I've figured out what the problem is with this w hole AMA Pro Racing penalty fiasco that is taking place in the THQ Sup ercross Se r ies . In r e c e nt weeks we have see n the sanctioning bocly slap AmsoiVChaparral Honda's Kevin Windham with a ID-point penalty at the Phoenix round , and now it has seen fit to rob Red Bull KTM 's Grant langston of fove seconds wh ich equates to tw o pos ition s on the trac k and a whopp ing two points - for contact w ith Chevy Trucks Kawasaki's Michael Byrne . The problem is that in all of this controversy, the real culprits in the whole mess S are getting off scot -free. Since Windham 's heino us crime at Phoen ix occurred before Janet Jackson's Super Bowl nipple-tacu lar and the U.S. Sen ate ricin scare , making it only the third-largest scandal in recent weeks (no t necessarily in that order), let's brush up: Wind ham, whose history would lead you to believe that he hadn't hit anyone since the second grade, executed a block-pass that was sooo good , it made Bob Hannah, Kent How erton and Rick Johnson allweep nostalgically like Chevy Chase in Christmas Vocation. Windham won the race , he celebrated, the n he got penalized IDpoints after AMA official Steve Whitelock loo ked at Team Y amaha's camera footage of the incident and then made a ruling based upon fil m that was shot at the wrong angle, kinda like that Pam and Tommy Lee video. Whitelock later claimed that the ESPN footage of the incident, which was in the te levision produc tion truck, right downstairs, w ithin a Michelin's throw of where the riders' meeting to ok place - footage that clearly showed how Vuillemin struck Windham, not the all Windham 's points be comp letely reinstated, and not because eithe r choice would be the right thing to do based on who proved the ir case. Rather, it will be about money, namely the money that it costs the AMA to hold such a hearing. If Windham wins his appe al, the n he gets all his money back, and the AMA has to foot the enti re bill for having the hand-picked yet randomly selected (so unds like the makings of the next Juan Valdez coffee bean commercial) appeal board panel there in the first place. By giving him back partial points, the AMA will save face and not have to give back Windham's ent ire appea l bond. I co uld be wro ng, but I've watched far too many of I'd also do away with berms, because those banked curves have failed time and time again to contain Vuillemin (at Phoe nix), langston (at Anaheim I) and Tyler Evans (also at Anaheim I and, coincidentally, soo n after langston crashed ). But it would be nice if, unlike langston, the offending obstacles were at least notified of the ir infractions before they were yanked out. Of course, this all may sound ridiculous to you. After all, you can't just place blame any old time t hat someone hits the ground . Nobody would take you ser iously if you did that. Y that's just what is happen ing in et AMA Supercross right now, and if you think about it, that's really the most dangerous move being made in the sport. eN thes e follow that exact path in AMA dirt track racing to believe otherwise. Since this is being writte n on Monday, February 9, and the hearing is scheduled for tomorrow in Ohio , we' ll just see, won't we . Fast forward to the AHA's treatm ent of the Byrne/langston contact, which clearly suggests that Whitelock deem ed it to be que stionable . I think that's fair - as in I question if contact really took place at all, and if so, was it sufficient enough to knock Byrne off the trac k? After all, everyone in attendance could plainly see that Byrne didn't actually fall until after he hit the Tuff Blox. Alas, we get to the true offenders in this who le mess , the obstacles . It happens: Andrew Short (32) and Tyler Evans (58) got up close and personal during THQ World Supercross GP action at Arnhem, Holland. Short wasn't penalized. Nobody cares. I say we should go after the Tuff Blox, those cheatin' lumps 0 ' polypropylene! I just know that said Blox (or is that Blok?) took out Byrne fo r the extra TV time that would be focused on its sponsor. I can't be sure, but I think I actually caught that one creeping close r to the whoops as the night wore on, presuma bly to have a summit meeting with whoo ps to discuss the pain and emo - other way aro und - was not available to him. That much is water under the bridge, nipple under the shield... Uh, w here was I? Oh yeah, so now, by the time most of you tional distress that they'd planned to inflict on the innocent, unsuspect ing riders who read this, Kevin Windham will have finally had his day in court , or rather in front of an AMA appeal board . Not having the benefit of knowing the outcome, I'm betting that if Windham's hearing goes the way that most the moguls. And speaking of the moguls, I think the AMA appeal board hear ings do, here's what's going to happen: He's going to tell his side of the story, then Whitelock is going to tell the AHA's side of the story, and the n Windham is going to get a reduced penalty. The ID-point penalty won't stand, nor will happened to wande r too closely to the edge of the track or dip a wheel too low through AMA is on the right tra ck with its langston penalty. Hell, I'd take away at least five of them from the section that nailed both Lusk and Windham in San Francisco, and I'd never let the ones that caused Team Honda's Ernesto Fonseca to tear his knee at San Diego or Team Y amaha's Tim Ferry to spra in his wrist at Anaheim II ever wo rk in those two towns again. \AI\AI\AI rllrl~n t:\AJc:;, rnm CYCI ~ N~W~ • FFRI1IIAI1V III ?MA 0 ..