After last year's stormy times over fuel, the AMA rulebook part on fuel got an overhaul. Allowable lead was increased enough to keep quality control errors from busting riders over nothing. Oxygen was increased to 4%, for similar reasons.
Now three rounds into 2007, three riders get significant penalties after fuel tests, but this time, the problems were oxygen on two samples and specific gravity on another.
It's true the AMA wasn't ready for the storm of protest it got last time, or DeCoster's persistence. This time, with a careful rulebook revision, the AMA is more ready.
Teams are in an uproar over behing held responsible for the end result when all they do with fuel is pick a spec to run, open sealed cans, and race. After a race, things it seem change, sometimes quite a bit.
So open a can of fuel, it tests good. Race with it, it doesn't test good and you lose your points and money. That's what you get for not being a fuel engineer!
The AMA side of this is going to be (not a direct quote from anyone) "Hey, we relaxed the specs, and you guys just went for more, don't look at us, we are just making rules and sticking to them."
So who went for more? Not Jason Thomas of Butler Brothers MX, or Nick Wey of MDK. These guys don't know what they are running really, and don't care.
What happened is fuel mixes changed at the supplier to account for relaxed specs. The new mix (or mixes) create new problems, which get found the hard way, because there is no allowance for a learning curve.
The fuel Wey and Josh Hill were using is a "dash 1" blend that pushes oxygen to 3.8%, just under the limit of 4%. What can happen is there are extra things mixed into race fuel that can evaporate at temperature, and these extra things are not what contain the oxygen, and they can be "light," or low specific gravity. So in other words, race with race gas, and some things in the fuel can disappear, leaving heavier fuel behind and the part with the oxygen. There is no telling at this point of this is really what happened at A2, but it's possible, and it just shows the fuel being used is not appropriate for racing in it's intended environment. The supplier hasn't done it's homework.
So riders open sealed cans of approved spec fuel, race, get tested and find they are out of spec. What to do?
Teams are going to have to look to the fuel supplier to keep themselves out of this mess. It will take time to learn what changes and leads to failed tests. The AMA should have gone slower on this and learned to, but it's not in the mood. It covered its side on rules and doesn't think it should have to.
The riders in the middle get a bad deal.
