This blog went up late Friday, because most of the day was spent shooting a Miss SX feature, and wandering the pits for reactions on the fuel fuss 2007.
Some notes from today, a few from the week, and a summary of what we know on the fuel flap:
-Pit cruising Friday confirmed what Yamaha's side of the story is, and their defense. Yamaha's response to Hill's DQ is that they planned ahead for this kind of thing and had samples of fuel taken too, at A 2, after the race, and sealed and approved by the AMA. They are going to say their test of the fuel was in spec, just as it measured out of the VP Fuels can, a few tenths under the limit of 4%.
Yamaha says they have not experienced composition changes in fuel during an SX and they don't mind racing close to the limit. The fuel they used, the "dash 1" blend of fuel that is spec 'd at 3.8% is fine with them. (This is in reference to a previous blog entry about the light and non oxygen bearing part of fuel evaporating away at low temp and changing the composition enough to throw the fuel out of spec. Yamaha says they don't see it. Other teams have reported it.)
-Suzuki doesn't look at it the same way. Suzuki doesn't like racing close to the 4% oxygen limit and uses last year's fuel at about 2.6-2.8%. Kawasaki says it does the same.
-Honda is waiting to see what Yamaha is able to do as far as defending Hill, because Wey's fuel measured the same over the limit, and they will want to say that was a lab error too, but they didn't have their own samples taken at MDK.
-A source that would know said what Yamaha is claiming doesn't jibe with the AMA's lab's experience. Reportedly the fuel readings that were out of spec were double checked (A and B samples) and were verified at a second lab.
-The AMA has not released the name of the lab or the details to anyone, or commented since their press release a week ago.
Consensus in the pits is Yamaha has its ducks in a row and the AMA can't defend DQ'ing riders on bad lab data. This opinion is found in blue and red corners the most.
-If the AMA sticks to it's guns and says spec violations are not subject to appeal, what if a lab makes a mistake and the mistake isn't verified until after the DQ was handed out? That's a pretty serious case of "after further review." Can a penalty stand if the basis for it is wrong?
-The AMA hasn't dropped any hints about it's reaction to Yamaha's claim, but Reed said at press they were told you could not appeal an out of spec violation.
A lot of team folks outside the factory loop don't like this at all. They are all racing on a minefield and you never know when your turn is up.
The "spec fuel" option seems to come up in every conversation. There are AMA people that like the idea, and some teams that so (MDK really wants it) and some that don't. Yamaha, for example, wants that room to tinker with fuel options. Who knows? We may see a big truck called "MDK Fuel" next to their engine truck.
People do acknowlege the AMA did a lot of work on the fuel rules and got a lot smarter about things for this year. It's also no secret the AMA didn't like VP making fuel close to the new limits, or teams that used it. It makes sense that the first time this fuel appears to not pass test, with two separate teams, seems to verify the concern that racing with this fuel close to the limits is a bad idea. The AMA very likely didn't want to miss a chance to prove it's point. Unfortunately, if this really is a case of bad test results instead of proof that racing too close to the limit causes this, this was the wrong time to prove the point.
Hopefully Yamaha and the AMA can solve this with a yelling match and we never hear about it. If that doesn't happen, MDK's Kvamme is in line next, and that will be a different fight than a fight with a factory the AMA has decades of working with. Kvamme (MDK) may be appeased if the AMA puts a spec fuel in the plan. He wants that as a minimum. Don't be surprised if he takes that on himself if no one else does. You may see an "MDK Fuel" semi with a lab parked next to the MDK semi that used to be the AMA semi (ok just kidding!)
Interestingly enough, the fuel thing gets people talking, but it's not the only thing. It's common to hear people ask "What about the Grant/Lawrence thing?" or "Isn't Tyler Evans on probation, what about the thing with Summey?"
