Cycle News

VOL. 51 ISSUE 41 OCTOBER 14, 2014 P35 said this was an unappealable or unprotestable decision. I don't understand why that changed when they went back to Florida, but it did. There were a lot of my enemies calling saying I needed to be suspended for Pomona. So it was kind of a deal where if I pushed it I probably wouldn't have been racing tonight. So I just kind of had to take the beat- ing – stripped of all the points, stripped of all the purse money and fined $2000 so it was a sub- stantial kick in the nuts. I'd like to say compared to how they handled the last disqualification a year ago with [Brad] Baker [at the Daytona Short Track], where they let him keep his purse money and didn't disqualify him from the Dash. It just needs to be a little more consistent. But nothing I can do about it." For the most part, Smith's ri- vals sided with him on the issue. "Honestly I would've done the same thing," said Jake Johnson. "I would've stayed out. The way I look at it if he was putting oil down, enough oil down to make a difference, I think he would have been the first one to know it. And being in that position, if you're getting black flagged and you pull off and there's nothing wrong the thing's just smoked the top end and it's just blow- ing smoke, no oil. You can't go back out. It's one of them deals where I guess it kind of applies… it's easier to ask for forgiveness than get permission. I would've done the same thing. I would've stayed out and tried to fight the consequences afterwards. Ei- ther way he was in a bad spot. All you can do is finish the race. If they were that worried about oil being down probably should have seen a red flag. If they were that worried about safety and oil being on the track, I figure a red should've come out. Like I said, I would've done the same thing. It's a touchy situation, but I feel if he was putting oil down he would've known it. Right where it was coming from it would've been all over his boot, all over his tire. He would've known it." Out-going AMA Grand National Champion Brad Baker was one who saw it from the other side, stating that a rule is a rule. "I don't agree with that," Baker said. "He obviously knew he had oil and it doesn't really matter what he thought. They're obvi- ously giving a black flag for a rea- son and basically… he probably did it because he was in disbelief that it was happening - not dis- belief that there was something wrong. He was just like, 'this can't be happening and I'm just going to run the rest of this race and see what happens.' That's not a very good thing to do. It's kind of like your parents tell you to go take out the trash and you tell them to go pound sand - usu- ally you get punished for it. "There definitely should be some repercussions for him go- ing more than half the race get- ting black-flagged and for good reasons. For one the AMA didn't know that thing could've let go any lap, sprayed oil all over the place, locked up in front of somebody and seriously injured him and somebody else. Or the people behind him are getting oil all over them and they couldn't see making all their grips slick, tearing all their tear-offs off and then you can't see because your shield's got oil all over it. So it was a good call for AMA to disqualify him either way and it wasn't a very good call for him to continue go- ing because he got disqualified completely. If he would've pulled off he would've still got last place points… gotten one point. If it came down to the end of the year here and he lost by one point he would've felt pretty silly." Andrea Wilson "IT'S KIND OF LIKE YOUR PARENTS TELL YOU TO GO TAKE OUT THE TRASH AND YOU TELL THEM TO GO POUND SAND - USUALLY YOU GET PUNISHED FOR IT." - Brad Baker PHOTOGRAPHY BY TOM HNATIW

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