Yosh Suzukis in the dog house *again*.....

[Spidey]

this makes indy motogp a whole different game. 

You think he went less hard at his last GP stint b/c he still had the AMA season to run? 

[derby]

You think he went less hard at his last GP stint b/c he still had the AMA season to run? 

not necessarily, but i also don't think that laguna motogp was "best of ben." he was feeling horrible all weekend and ended up in the hospital that monday, eventually getting his appendix removed.

i do think that having the title wrapped up before indy, and not having to be overly concerned with racing laguna again the following weekend to cinch up the championship, will pretty much let him hang it all out.

other things to ponder: rizla signed capi and the mole today and ben doesn't have to be nice to his gsv-r anymore. he's also got more laps at indy than anybody else racing the premier class.

this is going to be a very interesting race.

[Spidey]

other things to ponder: rizla signed capi and the mole today and ben doesn't have to be nice to his gsv-r anymore. he's also got more laps at indy than anybody else racing the premier class.

Clear sumptin' up for me, if ya would.  I was under the impression that Ben was *signed* for Suzuki in '09 with some appearances in '08.  Wasn't that part of the deal they announced in late '07?  Or was that more like "this is the plan for Ben, but it ain't on paper."

[derby]

Clear sumptin' up for me, if ya would.  I was under the impression that Ben was *signed* for Suzuki in '09 with some appearances in '08.  Wasn't that part of the deal they announced in late '07?  Or was that more like "this is the plan for Ben, but it ain't on paper."

i think everybody was under that impression.  there was a lot of talk about a possible 3rd bike (reportedly with schwantz) and "if there was a seat"...

somewhat disappointing that he won't be on a suzuki, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. 

[derby]

somebody isn't happy:

http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34046

A spokesperson for Yoshimura Racing stated that the decision stunned everyone, and team officials were bewildered as to why the AMA would make such an onerous request for evidence on short notice and then refuse to consider any of it. "It makes us question the integrity behind the enforcement of the rules and suggests that there was never an intention to assemble an appeal board to conduct an objective and impartial hearing. From all appearances, the AMA had clearly made its decision well before 5:00 p.m. The 'deadline' was obviously a ruse to create the impression of fairness."

[gm2]

not necessarily a bad thing. 

...hellllooo JiR..

[gm2]

AMA Statement On Mat Mladin's DQ

http://www.superbikeplanet.com/2008/Sep/080909yq.htm

[Spidey]

I still don't get Yosh's response.  They're basically saying "yuh-huh, it's stock" despite all the evidence to the contrary.  There must be some technical subtlety I'm missing.  Sucks that MM got DQ'd, but demz da rulz.  This one doesn't even seem to be a close call unless I've missed some critical information. 

[gm2]

seems like Yosh was hoping that "this is also the homologated part.  really!" was somehow going to change their minds.  and not that they don't already have a history of doing such things, but you have to wonder: why?  the real crank sure as hell didn't slow down Spies any @ RA.

[gm2]

yosh: http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34164

edmondson: http://roadracingworld.com/news/article/?article=34166

“Here’s the bottom line to this thing: They gave us [homologated] a part in accordance with the rules that represented the part that was legally used. The part that came out of the [Mladin’s] motorcycle did not match that part.

“They tried to convince us that another vendor made that part. And I think that’s right. I think it’s the vendor that makes [racing] kit cranks, not the vendor that makes production cranks, because in the entire Suzuki nation of motorcycles only three have ever had cranks like that, that we are aware of.

“Now the fact is they got cheating. This was not a rules violation alone. This was cheating. In my opinion, not all rules violations are cheating. Some times people make a mistake. This was cheating. Someone somewhere made a conscious decision to put a crank in those racebikes that did not match the sample they sent us.

“Now I’m tired of this. The answer when asked ‘what’s it going to take to make this go away’ was going to be ‘stand up like a man, admit you were caught and we’ll move on down the road.’ They don’t seem able to do that, and I am fed up with us being preached to about our integrity and our ability to enforce the rules fairly by people who have been caught blatantly cheating with illegal parts.

“All this other bullshit about whether it helped the performance and stuff is secondary. The part didn’t match the sample, period.

“And nobody’s accused Mat Mladin of anything. All he does is ride the motorcycle. If Mladin’s got an issue with anybody he ought to be looking at his teammates and asking them the hard questions and leave us alone.”

[derby]

some interesting stuff here:

http://www.mcnews.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=16981

pd = peter doyle, mat's crew chief.

flood gates open at the bottom of page 3.

[gm2]

"Team finds out later new head tech inspector has and still operates a race tuning business preparing race bikes for customers."

[Spidey]

some interesting stuff here:

Indeed.  So they have a stack of 50 perfect crankshafts they got in 2006?    Interesting . . .

[Jester]

great stuff in that link Derby   

[EvilSteve]

I would have thought that someone with Edmondson's experience in professional sport that they'd do a better job of make the beast with two backsing a team over. You know, less obvious. Apparently not.