We don’t cover racing a lot here on The Kneeslider but I noticed over the last week the AMA was inspecting Mat Mladin’s motorcycle after he won both Superbike races at VIR. After a complete engine teardown and much head scratching, the officials asked Suzuki to send them a stock crankshaft for comparison and after a lot more checking, measuring and weighing, they determined Mladin’s crankshaft was not legal and his wins were nullified.
AMA Pro Racing announced today that Mat Mladin has been disqualified from the August 16-17, 2008 AMA Superbike Championship presented by Parts Unlimited round at Virginia International Raceway following the outcome of post-race technical inspections.
The crankshaft from the #6 Rockstar Makita Suzuki was sent to AMA headquarters in Pickerington, Ohio, and was compared to other production crankshafts from the same model. Upon this inspection, the crankshaft was found to be in non-compliance of the 2008 AMA Superbike Championship Rulebook.
It makes a person think my previous post on no rules racing might not be a bad idea.
Link: AMASuperbike
SwaggeringPagan says
So what exactly was done to the crankshaft that garnered the disqualification? I’d love to hear what exactly was done as it occurs to me that if there was this much “head scratching” going on, they must have really wanted to find something…..
Dorzok says
Wouldn’t this fit under your no rules racing? I mean c’mon, DQ for a crank gind or phase out of factory spec. Give me a break. Wonder when they’re going to start limiting rider training and ability. If you got this set of DNA you can’t race. If you train in this fashion that gives you an advantge over other riders then you can’t race.
NO RULES rules.
zipidachimp says
I really like matt, and trust this was done by a backroomer. spies is on the same team, was his bike checked?
same thing happens in nascar, how often does the driver know? hope it’s never, my naivete is showing,lol!
Nicolas says
I’m also probably naive, but when you go down to the crankshaft it’s not a regular inspection. You are not looking for some irregularity, you want to find it. Meaning that there is an insider, a spy inside the team who tips the officials …
FREEMAN says
Help me understand this. If your entire engine is in compliance, what possible modification to your crankshaft alone would give you an advantage?
Derek says
A complete breakdown of the motor does not surprize me. they do the same thing to NASCAR and they have even cut Baseball bats in half right after a homerun. It probibly had been altered to produce a higher compresion ratio so that the cc’s were the same as stock but went down to a 12:1 as opposed to an 11:1 or whatever(not the real numbers im sure). my question is can we get one of those outlawed crankshaft. i want one!
Peter says
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.
tim says
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.
Skizick says
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
2phast says
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…
Frankoh says
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.