Comments on: Mat Mladin Disqualified Over Engine Rules

By: Frankoh

Frankoh — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:27:12 +0000

Isn’t it peculiar that only Mladin’s crank but Spies AND Tommy Hayden (the 2nd and 3rd place finishers) cranks were NOT further scrutinized by the AMA, esp considering Mladin’s vocal dissapproval of DMG taking over AMA racing. I firmly believe that whatever modifications the AMA felt were perfomed to the cranks were done to the letter of the rules as interpreted by Mladin’s team, or Team Suzuki (if they supply cranks to the teams)engines.

By: 2phast

2phast — Tue, 26 Aug 2008 23:15:01 +0000

Does that mean that Ben Spies, Mladin’s Co-Suzuki Rider, is disqualified too? I wonder if Michael Jordon’s Team will step up in the raking? He has always complained that he couldn’t afford t keep up With Team Suzuki…

I say keep the dream of John Britten alive and have no rules racing! Not only will the bikes be faster but the engineer’s will have to keep their thinking hats on to keep up with the new ideas of traction control, breaking handling, etc. and we will end up with better street machines…

By: Skizick

Skizick — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 19:03:38 +0000

Most racers don’t own the company that they race for. I think Matt does. To me, it seems less likely he wouldn’t be aware of scale tippin’ to his advantage. Provided there actually was an advantage knowingly sought. Will we be clued in to what the irregularity was, and how it played to Matt’s advantage? All that aside an OPEN class would be groovy. Skizick

By: tim

tim — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 00:19:26 +0000

would the allegation be making the crank lighter to make it spin faster (higher redline = more power)?…. assuming the valvetrain holds up and nothing else fails.

Did it sound different than a stocker? maybe they made it into a “big bang” engine? (more available traction = faster laptimes)?

Fascinating stuff.

By: Peter

Peter — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 13:01:43 +0000

I noticed Matt has appealed the ruling, but if this decision stands it hands the title to Spies and makes the rest of the season not worth watching. As it was, even if Matt got pole position, led the most laps of every race and won every race, he would still be one point short at the end of the season if Ben finished second. AMA should have issued a fine or something instead, just to keep it interesting, but they seem intent on undermining their fan base.