AMA Rules ……. Equitable, Reasonable???
Tuesday, April 24th, 2007 at 12:43 pm by rhino
I don’t pretend to be an expert related the rules of AMA roadracing, but it seems like after controlling the series for decades, they’d have it figured out a lot better by now.
The incident that prompts these comments was the crash at the opening of the Supersport race at Barber this past weekend.
Jamie Hacking crashed by pushing the front going into the final turn on the first lap. He valiantly tried to save it using his knee to hold it up, but just didn’t have enough luck and ended up high siding the bike right in front of most of the rest of the pursuing field. Fortunately, only one other rider was victimized. Unfortunately, his bike was destroyed. Geoff May’s Suzuki was catapulted big-time as he ran over Hacking’s unavoidable Kawasaki.
Here’s what I don’t understand about the rules: neither rider was allowed to restart the race. Apparently this is due to rules related returning the pits and not being able to use a back-up bike after the race has started.
I agree Hacking should NOT be allowed to restart, but not for any reason other than he CRASHED without any provocation and CAUSED the red-flag. But May should have been ALLOWED to restart because his crash was entirely beyond his control. He should have been allowed to retreive his back-up bike and assume is original position on the grid.
The AMA needs to start taking into account CIRCUMSTANCE and not just rule based some one size fits all definition. One reason we have judges in our society is to weigh circumstance, intention and guilt. Hacking screwed up, May got screwed! Look at all the ways we video analyze football over and over again to make sure officials make the proper ruling. Something similar needs to exist in roadracing.
I also take exception to Michael Barnes’ drive through penalty for jumping the re-start. Did his front tire leave the “box”? YES. How far, oh…… about 6 inches. Did he pull the clutch back in and completely halt the forward progress of the bike before re-releasing the clutch after the lights had actually changed? YES. The advantage he gained was virtually nil but he was penalized basically to the back of the pack! This is ridiculous! A more appropriate penalty would have been adding something like 1 second to his total race time or docking him 1 place in the final standings.
Hey AMA, the punishment needs to fit the crime!
Rhino
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Didn’t watch the race, ut i sounds like a silly set of rules. I can’t help but think about the Rossi passing in the yellow last season without reprocussion.