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/1542343
o E AMA Penal izes Garmichael F or lllega! Fuel o Racint issued a press release announcin8 that Ricky Carmichael had been penalized 25 poinrs for using illegal fuel ar round sx of rhe Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Series at Qualcomm Stadium in San Diego, California, on February ll, all bur end-ing his title hopes for a fifth Supercross title. Fuel semples from eight motorcycles were collected at the San Diego round, and the sample from the motorrycle of Ricky Ca.michael was found to be in non_ compliance. Fuel from the motorcycles of Mike Alessi, Granr Langston, jeremy Mccralh, Nare Ramsey, Chad Reed, Andrew Short and ,ames Stewart were found to be in compliance. As is required by the AMA SupercrosrMotocross rulebook. the sam_ ples were sent to a certified testjng lab, which confirmed the results of rhe tesrins AMA Pro Racint fr* ."qui."A it. ,r" ,:i unleaded fuelin the AMA Supercross Series and the AF,1A Motocross Championship since the 2004 racing season. n Friday, February 24, on the eve of the Atlanta Supercross, AMA pro Suzuki did, in fact, file an appeal, but it was quickly reiected by the AMA, who sa/s this is not an oppeoroble offence. The AHA also denied Yamaha rhe opponuniq/ to appeal Chad Reed's fuel penalry during the 2OO4 season, and it also denied Kawasaki the opportunity ro appeal lames Stewa( s and Michael Byrne s fuel penal_ ties in last year's ouldoor series. At the Atlanta Supercross, the AMAS Steve Whitelock explained how the results came about. "San Dieto, as we always do - we have one fuel test on the West [Coast] and one on the East - a fuel test." he said. .We took eithr bikes in. Of the eight bikes we resr_ e{, one fuel came out wrong. I happened !o be in Ohro for some meetings when we got the test results, and I said, ,That,s impossible. I'm sorry ldon\ atree.,And we pa(ked up our emergency spare sam- ple and sent ir otf, and ia came back with exactly the sarne results. Therefore, the fuel was found Lo be out of compliance. I tried to be sure in the most absoluLe wav ''Of course, I didn't wanr to do this," a difference - one that would benelh us. We got penalized for being L2 percent of a gram over the lead allowance. lf we were tD/ing to do something, we would ruh our oxygen aontent a lot closer to the limit. Our oxyten conlent was 1.79 percent and we ciln to up to 2.8 percent. The AMA limit [on lead] is .00S, and we tested O.O I 7 for one sample and O.O lB lor another. "On lwo-nrokes, lead really helps for deronation, but for four-strokes, a! rhe compression ralio that we run in motocross, it would not make a difference in p€rformance - not that minute amounl "Ricky has chosen not to run our strongest setting on the bike. All of the fac_ tories - they all can make 45Os fuster than they need to be for Supercross. Even as strong as Riaky is, nobody can use a 4S0 to its maximum entine potential. "l have asked the AMA ifthey would do a spec fuel. be(ause it would be a lor easi_ er on everyone if we picked up rhe fuel ar the race location, insread of brinSinS a bunch offuel, Bur. obviously, they halve not oone so yet, "The other chint that yor.r should know is that Ricky had no control over what hap- pened. He never put 8as in his bike. We do that. Even if someone did screw up, for sure ir's not Ricky. "He wants to prove, once more, the champion rhat he is, and he will do every- thing he can ro come back and put uo a fitht for the charnpionship. "lf they keep resring the way they are testing, chances are that some of the other teams will have the sarne problem. The sarne problem happened wrth lames Stewart and Michael Byrne last season dur_ ing the outdoors - in a situation where the championship wai not a factor - and two yeaas ago it happened to Reed and Vuillemin. And the AMA was asked ro reise their rule and look into rhings, so that this couldnr happen a8ain, and they have nor done so yet. So hopefully they will do something soon about it, because ihere is no reason thar thls will not happen 4gain. 'Ar this poin! we dont think ir is the suo_ pfier's fauh. Wb are invesrigating to see what could have gone wront. We use a heat shield between the entine and the fuel tank, and I called Japan la.sr night to see if lhere is any possibiliq/ that there .ould be some lead content in there that som€how could have touched in there when they took th€ sample ou!. We use aluminum containers for our fuel, so *Ere is no chance of lead being in there. And we have containers that have never been used with leaded fuel, because if you use a container thar has had leaded fuel in at and then you clean it out to the iast drop and put in unleaded fuel, i! could possibly show a trace of lead. "Frrst of all. I rhink that the rule E over- ly stri(t. lf you use a funnel where some- body used leaded fuel. theorerically, ir could drsqualify you you almost have to go rn space suks and be in a clean room to do the test to avoid any possible mistake. "lam tryinS to appeal ir. lgave the AMA a form this morning. alont wilh rhe required $500, but ir was relurned ro me an hour later. They don'! want to accept i!. so we basically cannot defend ourselves. "This is bad for everybody, not just Ricky, because if Chad or James wins, everlMy will say $ar *ley gor Bfted 25 points. i \,Vhile ir +pears that rhe AMA will not budSe on irs findints and penalties, fie F[,1 has not yet made a decision about what to do with Carmichaet and the Amp.d Mobile FIM Wo.ld Supercross Gp poinr standihts. Ar of now, rhe FIM has not oflicially taken any points away from Carmichael. The paperwork, however, has been turned in to the FIM council, and a decision should be announced within a day or two. Howeve( it is not likely rhat Carmichael will be penalized the full 25 points, since Carmichael only earned 22 points that day at the San Dieto Supercross_ .The iur/ is still out [as to whar the FIM will dol," says John Gallager, who repre- sents the FIM at the AMA Supercross races. "The FIM doesn't usually take away more poihts than rhe rider earned lon the day of rhe infracrionl. ' As for Carmichael himsell he was iust as surprised as aq/one to get the news that he was being penalized 25 points, and he wrote an open lefter to his fans Friday night. lt reads: _ "lt's amazing what can happen in a dal. The last 12 hours has been crazy. I w:s completely blown away when I received a call from the AMAthis mornint stating rhat my ftrel from rhe San Diego Supercross wes not in complEnce. I inrrially rhought that it was a ioke, because eyeryore B aware that the fuel gets lested, and you would be crazy to push those limits. "We leamed at the Motoaross Des Nations that the bikes can be made to run really well with unleaded fuel. ln fact, the tests that were run on my fuel show€d that we had the lea$ amount of oxygen of any_ one tested. I was also rold Lhat even thoush the fuel rhar was rested didn\ have any pei- lormance-enhancing characteristics, i! was sfill illegal. I was also told that I would not be gven a chance to appeal the decision, but I am not accepting that. Everyone deserves a chance to defend themselves. "The most imporfant thing that I want eveD/oIe to know is that we do not depend on illegal fuel to be comperhive. I have always worked very hard to make sure that I am in (he best phFi.al shape possible. and the leam works jusr as hard to make sure rhat lhe bike is torally com_ Petitive and completel,, legal. ''l stand in f'lll support of my team and will be supponing their ef{ons in findih, out why this sitr-ratfun h* ."-" up. W" ".3 making a formal appeal to the At'1A lwhich wa5 reiected the following dayl and will also be resting rhe samples thar we still have from the San Diego event to verify the findinas. "My hopes for a fifrh Supercross Championship have definitely dwindled a little, but I (an tellyou thar I will do everv_ lhin8 in my power to get back rn the titie chase. Stranter things have happenedl "Thank to allofmy fans for the contin- ued support." - RC Whitelock said. "l don't ever want to penalize a rider. Ever,,body thinks l'm a sadisti- cal [sic] bastard. but l'm really a sofry and I don,r like to penalize riders. lt's one of my worst days when I have to do it. l'm the Suardian of the rule- book, but on the other side, I'm still a fair-minded person, and I'm tD/ing to understand what aould possibly cause these troubles. Now' after the pattern, I think we have anoth- er kind of a problem. "lt should've been a big everyone when we got Chad 20041," Whitelock added. bummer for Reed lin ln response to the AMAS penalty, Suzuki issued this release shoniy after being rold the news: ,.Team Makirisuzuki Racing announced that the team will appeal the penalry imposed by rhe Al.4A for the use of illetal fuel ar round six of Lhe Amp'd Mobile AMA Supercross Series in San Diego, California. on February ll, 2006. The enlire Team l4akita Suzukr Racing organization, including Rick/ Carmichael and his crew, have ,ollowed closely all the rules established for AMA Strpercross and l,lotocross racing. The (eam has purchased the same fuel throughout the last several seasons; it ha5 been tested and was never found rn viola- tion of fuel rules before. The fuel used bv the Supercross team at the San Diego round was supplied by a third-pary ven_ dor and was nor tesled by Team Makita Suzuki technicEns before the race. "Carmichael and Team Makila Suzukt Racing will compete ar round eight in Adanta with the same determination thar earned World and Al4A Championships in 2005. and has kept Carmichael neai the top of the standings in 2006.,' "Everyone should've paid attention when we got Chad Reed. bur everybody ler it ge! explained away: 'Oh, well, they pur rhe fuel into a can rhat had lead in it in the past,. or somerhing like thar. lt,s nor that. lt,s a prob- Iem. I promise you, if lEo over to DeCosrer's truck. and I get rhe fuel from two weeks ato, it's still wrong. lt,s not the 8as tank, it's not anything - straiSht out of the barrel, it s wront. ' Whitelock added that something needs to be done to fix the fuel problem. "l think what has to happen is. at the next advisor), board meeting, we need to address the problem and come up with a solution, and I think (har the only solution is that we request the company to acceDr the idea of havrnS a fuel supplier, and everyone agrees to have this fuel. and this fuel supplier is torng to have to be the offi- cial fuel supplier for the AMA l,lotocross and Supercross Championships., On the Saturday of the Arlanra Supercross, afrer practice, Makita Suzuki,s Roger Decoster, the team,s manager. held a press conference, ''l wanr you guys to know that we are not a cheater team." Decoster said. ..lf we were goint to try to cheat, we would have done it in some way that would have made ;,J I t+ .GIIJ 12 M,ARCH 8, 2006 . CYCLE NEWS 'a {- *r I J F