This past weekend’s AMA American Superbike round at Laguna Seca was the scene of a series of controversies.The problems started when Tommy Hayden jumped the start, and the green flag never waved.The riders were eventually allowed to take another warm-up lap, and members of the Hayden family were seen in heated debate with an AMA official during the intermission.Hayden was allowed to re-start from his front row starting position, but came in for a ride-through penalty during the race.
The second attempt at a start resulted in a turn one crash that took out several riders.The yellow flag waved as the riders came down the main straight, but the riders were still at speed.What they didn’t know was that the safety car was parked out of sight on the other side of the hill at the end of the front straight.The riders managed to avoid it, but stopping the safety car on the track had created a dangerous situation.
The race was red flagged and restarted once again with Mat Mladin coming from behind to beat teammate Blake Young for the victory.No mention of the issue with the safety car was made on the SPEED tape delayed broadcast of the race.Colin Fraser, the AMA’s director of competition, explained the pace car situation in the post-race press conference:
“The car came out of the pit lane so what happened is when the field, on the first lap after the incident in turn two, reached the Corkscrew, we called for the safety car and it pulled out just past and under the bridge with a plan to drive it as far up the hill as it could be and still be seen. Then the marshals displayed dual waving yellow flags and a safety car sign and we know that those signs and those flags were shown and seen in (turns) nine, 10, 11 and at the start /finish line. Well, I know they were seen because we asked the marshals and got a call in terms of how some of the people in the field behaved so I can't tell you why people didn't respond. Please understand that the safety car had to be somewhere where it could control the field through turn two, so what we tried to do is put it as far up the hill, past the bridge, where the riders could still see it with the expectation that there were multiple turns with waving yellows and safety cars prior to that location that would allow us when the riders came out of 11 to follow the instructions as per usual with the safety car. There is no set spot where the riders will encounter the safety car; it depends on the flow of the race. Clearly, it didn't work well. I'm not going to pretend that it was successful."
Former world champion Kevin Schwantz asked Fraser several questions about the incident which Fraser answered, but Schwantz got up and walked away while Fraser was still answering one of his questions.
Race winner Mat Mladin had some comments of his own about the safety car incident, “It could have been very ugly. I’m not sure what it’s going to take to understand that the pace car doesn’t belong in motorcycle racing. This isn’t NASCAR, we’re not having a cup of tea in the race car."Mladin had more to say about the organization that sanctions AMA roadracing, "I think the most important thing is that everybody around here is actually scared to say what actually happened out there ... because there's always punishment around for opening your mouth or telling it like it is. Nobody is going to open their mouths until probably somebody dies, so nobody is going to do anything about it. It's a real shame that it has come to this."
Kevin Schwantz interview and Colin Fraser post-race press conference.
Mat Mladin interview and top three post-race press conference.
