Seeping Matter

ABA BMX announced last week the 2009 Hall of Fame induction class, which included such notables as Jeremy McGrath, Troy Lee, and Eddie Fiola.  I really should be posting about Jeremy McGrath, the forever King of Supercross.  But I’m not.  This post is about another inductee, R.L. Osborn.

Scan of the original RL-20 ad. Image Source: www.vintageredline.com

I was way into BMX and BMX Freestyle when I was growing up.  Not that I was any good; in fact, mostly I did pretty good to keep it the wheels underneath the rest of me, and I have some really nice fake teeth as evidence of my insane crashing ability.  But I was into it nevertheless.  When I was about 13 I decided I really, really wanted a RedLine bicycle.  So much, in fact, I found a part-time after-school job that I really hated in order to get one, and I saved and saved my own money until I had enough to buy one.

The one I had my eye on at the local bike store was a RedLine RL-20 ProStyler.  It was named after and designed by R.L. Osborn, a legendary and award-winning flatland freestyle artist who was, at that time, a RedLine factory rider and also a personal idol of sorts at the time.  BMX Freestyle was just becoming a big deal at the time, and while a lot of guys like Eddie Fiola and Mike Dominguez were making big waves in aerial freestyle on quarter-pipes and half-pipes, I was really interested in flatland.  And when it came to flatland, back then R.L. Osborn was the man.

In fact, do you remember the movie “Rad?”  R.L. was in that movie.  No, not during the regular part of the movie.  My dad took me to see that movie, because I was so into freestyle.  But the main reason I wanted to see it was because R.L. was in the only good part of that movie, the part during the opening sequence and closing credits where they just showed clip after clip of awesome flatland freestyle.  Yeah, that was R.L.

I mean, look at that awesome curly hair.

This looks almost exactly like the RL-20 I bought new in 1985. Image Source: www.vintageredline.com

Anyway, after I got that job, I worked for many months and saved every dime I could.  I worried every day that someone would come down to that bike store and buy that bike instead of me.  Finally I had saved up the $330 or so I needed to buy it.  I went down and bought it that same day.  It looked almost exactly like this second picture here. I rode that bike everywhere when I was growing up and even took it with me to college.

Then one day at college, for some reason, I was overcome with a bout of absolute insanity.  It was probably brought on by abject poverty.  Anyway, this day I was riding it around USU campus and this younger kid saw me riding it.  He asked if I would consider selling it.  Like I said, I was insane with poorness, so I agreed to sell it to him for $125.

$125.

Do you have any idea what one of these goes for on eBay these days?  I do.  I’ve been looking for another one.  They are very expensive – say, many multiples of that amount for one in the kind of shape that mine was in.

I’ve kicked myself for selling it ever since then.  Should have never done it.

But I digress.  Anyway, congratulations, R.L. Osborn.  And thanks for making such an awesome bike.

In case you do not follow Formula 1, which is hard to imagine, I will fill you in on this story:  The Renault F1 team, having fired driver Nelson Piquet Jr. earlier in the season, some weeks ago found themselves facing accusations stemming from Piquet wherein he claimed that he had been instructed to deliberately crash his car in the Singapore Grand Prix last year in order to facilitate a victory for his teammate, Fernando Alonso.

I first heard about this Renault thing a couple of weeks ago.  I chalked it up to a Nelson Piquet Jr. temper tantrum, figured he was trying to get revenge on his former team for firing him a few weeks before.  I thought that perhaps there could be some merit — you know, maybe the team suggested the course of action, i.e. “Wow, if we had a safety car right now we could probably win the race, that’d be awesome, don’t you think so Nelson *wink wink* ?” — but surely they did not form a deliberate plan.

I hoped I was right.  I’m just starting to get to where I can stand Alonso again, and I really don’t want any more controversy in a sport I love.

This week’s events are sure to have far-reaching consequences.  Renault fired managing director Flavio Briatore and executive director of engineering Pat Symonds — that’d be like the Jazz firing head coach Jerry Sloan and GM Kevin O’Connor mid-season — and essentially entered a plea of “no contest” to the charges, which is all but an outright admission of guilt.  Piquet’s sworn statement to the FIA, if true, is certainly an earth-shattering piece of evidence, as he describes how he was instructed by Briatore and Symonds not only to “cause a safety car” (which, in F1, only happens if there is a crash on-track that cannot be removed in a timely fashion), but also the exact lap on which the crash should take place and the exact section of the track where it should happen.  The race events played out exactly as Piquet claims he was instructed, and his teammate Alonso went on to win the race.

This sort of thing makes Stepneygate seem like a parking violation in comparison.  Formula 1 is incredibly dangerous, and extensive rules and precautions are put into place in order to increase safety.  To deliberately cause a crash is to deliberately put the life of the driver of the car, the lives of all the other drivers, the lives of the track workers (who are almost always volunteers) and safety crew, and to a lesser extent the lives of the spectators, all at increased risk.

So, the question is, what is going to happen as a result?

Well, in the case of Stepneygate in 2007, McLaren was fined $100M and was stripped of all of their constructor’s points for the season.  This was an incredibly harsh punishment, as McLaren was contending strongly for the constructor’s championship with Ferrari.  This incident is certainly more serious than Stepneygate was.  Some have speculated that Renault will be excluded from competing in F1.  I have doubts about this, primarily because F1 needs strong teams in the sport.  But Renault might get fined so heavily that they end up being excluded anyway.  I would be surprised if the FIA fines Renault less than $500M.

Nelson Piquet Jr., I expect, will lose his FIA Super License for the rest of his life and will never race F1 again.

As for Alonso, well, so far there’s been no evidence that he was complicit or even aware of the ploy.  Certainly he must have been wondering why he was starting 15th on the grid with only twelve laps of fuel.  But for all I know he just followed a “hear no evil” policy and stayed out of the whole thing.  We may never know for sure.

And honestly, I’d prefer to think that he had nothing to do with it at all.  If he’s going to go drive for Ferrari next year, as the rumor mill claims, I just don’t think I can stand to have him driving for my favorite team if I can’t cheer for him in good conscience.

There’s a lot of craziness going on in F1 these days.  This can summed up in a two-word example:  Force India, the perennial backmarker who is suddenly challenging for pole positions and race wins.  Then you have Giancarlo Fisichella moving to Ferrari.  I don’t know what is weirder there:  Ferrari actually wanting him, or him leaving his lead driver spot to go to Ferrari where his best future is probably a few years as test driver.  Ah, who am I kidding?  I’d give up an awful lot to be a Ferrari test driver also.

You’ve got BMW announcing they are leaving the series just when their car starts to get competitive again.  Toyota is also threatening to leave.  As far as I’m concerned, Toyota can stay or go, but won’t somebody please pony up and buy the BMW team and bring Sauber back?  Just sayin’.

Image Source: urbansportstalk.wordpress.com

Then you’ve got four new teams announcing that they are coming into F1 for 2010, including the USF1 team headquartered in (where else?) North Carolina.  USF1 is of particular interest, first off because they are going to be the first US-based F1 team since, uh, never?  Since Dan Gurney’s Eagle?  Who knows.

That team is also interesting because of their stated goal to only hire American (read: U.S.) drivers to race their cars.  This seems odd:  Ferrari doesn’t hire only Italians, Renault doesn’t hire only French, McLaren doesn’t hire only English, Force India doesn’t hire only Indians.  But I don’t so much have a problem with the loyalty thing.

I have a problem with the selection.  Names like Scott Speed, Marco Andretti, and Danica Patrick have been tossed about in the rumor mill.  But if there is one thing we should have learned over the past twenty years, it is this:  Success in American racing series (Champ Car for example) is hardly a good indicator of F1 promise.

Consider as examples Michael Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Cristiano da Matta, and Sebastien Bourdais.  These four drivers have a total of nine Champ Car titles between them since 1991, and yet they share as a group only 27 F1 points, one podium finish and zero — ZERO! — wins.

So let’s examine the named USF1 candidates.  Scott Speed was a flop in F1 when he drove for Toro Rosso, getting fired for poor results and blaming the car and team.  A year later, his replacement driver became the youngest to ever win a Grand Prix, making you wonder if it was really the driver after all.  And Marco and Danica?  Hey, I like them both, they are both legitimately fast and talented.  But they have only one win apiece in IRL, and if the history shows that champions of American race series tend to struggle in F1, how can we expect greatness from those two?  I mean, I get the market value of having them on the team, but there’s also market value in having competitive drivers that have a chance to win.

Some of you might be NASCAR fans.  You might be thinking that Jimmie Johnson or Jeff Gordon or Kyle Busch, the kings of the roundy-rounds, would be great in F1.  Uh, get real.  Did you know that you have to turn right in F1?  Did you know that they also race in the rain?  Did you know that F1 cars also feature such things as Brakes, Downforce, and Handling?  The NASCAR peeps know nothing about that stuff!

Ah, who am I kidding?  NASCAR fans don’t even have the internet.  They can’t get a broadband pipe to their double-wide.  Kinda makes you feel sorry for them.

No, if USF1 is smart, they will hire at least one experienced driver.  From the sounds of things, both Robert Kubica and Jarno Trulli will be looking for rides next year.  Both are incredibly fast and are proven F1 winners.  Rumor has it that Ferrari is going to pick up Fernando Alonso, which means that either Kimi Räikkönen or Felipe Massa would be available also.  Another possibility could be someone like Mark Webber, who might not exactly be relishing the supporting role for Vettel and might relish a new opportunity to be the main guy on a hot new team.  That is, if USF1 becomes a hot new team.

Ah, yes, it’s been a crazy season.  Mostly, it has been great.  I can’t wait to see the new teams, the new cars, and who ends up on which teams next year.  I’ve loved seeing the tight competition and all the new faces on the podium.  In fact, apart from Ferrari’s struggles and Massa’s freak injury, the only dark spot I can think of is the appalling Renault scandal.  But that deserves its own post.

What was the first car you ever rode in?  You know, the car that brought you home from the hospital after you were born? In my case, it was a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang that looked exactly like this one.

1970 Boss 302 Mustang = Awesome

This ruined me for life.

There wasn’t too much I could do about this while I was growing up.  I couldn’t afford my own car (or motorcycle) even after I was old enough to drive.  So mostly I would just ride my 20″ Redline around, in full aero tuck down big hills until that time I lost my balance, crashed, and broke my fall with my face.

Now as an grown-up, or at least an adult, silencing this addiction is much harder.  I’ve been to supercross races, motocross races, NASCAR races, ALMS races, World Superbike races, and AMA Superbike races before the Daytona Motorsports Group ruined it.  I watch every Formula One, World Superbike, and MotoGP race that gets televised.  This helps but doesn’t fully address the problem.

So about ten years ago, I bought myself a used 1988 Honda CRX Si with my annual bonus from IBM.  This car was not pretty at all.  But it was fun to drive, and pretty fast.  This really helped my addiction problem. Then the CRX died.  That was a sad, sad day.

I bought my 1998 Kawasaki KX-250 to feed the addiction.  And boy, it works.  My adrenaline rushes every time I throw my leg over and kick it started.  I shift into first, crack the throttle about 1/4 open, and release the clutch and that thing will climb through the gears just about as fast as I can shift.  What can compare to motorcycle acceleration? Nothing.  Well, a Ferrari, I guess, or a Corvette.  But I can’t afford a Ferrari – not yet, anyway. So yeah, my motorcycle will address this problem, except I never get to ride it.  It’s too hard to get enough free time all together to go ride.

So my addiction is not getting fed again. Which is why I test drove this.

2003 Nissan 350Z Track Model = Awesome

Boy, am I in trouble. My only hope is that someone buys it before I break down and get it myself.

P.S. I stole that picture from Innovative Motors, I hope they don’t mind too much.

So the word on the street is that 2009 will be the last year of F1 as we know it.  With the FIA holding firm to what the Formula One Teams Association (FOTA) considers to be unreasonable new rules and restrictions for the 2010 season, FOTA decided this weekend that they will be holding their own racing series in the future instead of racing the current F1 series.

I’m not going to say too much about this, because nobody cares about my opinion on the matter.  What I will say is, as far as I’m concerned, it isn’t Formula One without McLaren and Ferrari, and I don’t think I’m the only one.  So the FIA can continue being obstinate if they want to, but I’m willing to bet that without the bulk of the current F1 teams racing with them next year, whatever the FIA tries to put together will be about as meaningful as the AMA Road Racing series is this year.

With that in mind, it occurs to me that FOTA probably is looking for suggestions.  I’d be happy to take the job, for a lot less than what Bernie and Max get paid, and it’d be a good old time.

To show my qualifications, I present my proposed race schedule below.  It’s a longer race schedule – 25 races – not the marathon of drudgery that is the NASCAR season, but a little bit longer than the current schedule to make the season a bit more substantial.  I’ve included sample dates for the 2010 season, but dear FOTA, this is certainly negotiable.  I’d also propose reducing the sanctioning fees for each race to about $10M-$12M US, down from the current amount (around $40M?) and would allow the venues to keep their signage revenue, which makes hosting a Formula One race much more palatable than the FIA’s current bloodsucking scheme.  This means that there’s a lot more venues to choose from; now the series can be picky about choosing interesting, high quality race tracks at both traditional and new venues.

Also, the races will be held on Saturday instead of Sunday, so I can attend without feeling poorly about myself.  And as you’ll notice, the series stops by Miller Motorsports Park, which is probably the best road circuit in all of North America and one of the best in the world, which also happens to be within day-trip distance of my house.

Yeah, this is going to be great.

• Pacific Leg
  • Albert Park, Melbourne, Australia – February 27, 2010
  • Sepang International Circuit, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – March 6, 2010
  • Marina Bay Street Circuit, Singapore – March 20, 2010
  • Suzuka Circuit, Suzuka, Japan – March 27, 2010
  • Shanghai International Circuit, Shanghai, China – April 10, 2010
• Mid-Eastern Leg
  • New Delhi Circuit, New Delhi, India – April 17, 2010
  • Yas Marina Circuit, Abu Dhabi – May 1, 2010
  • Losail International Circuit, Losail, Qatar – May 8, 2010
    • MotoGP and World Superbike both race here. Formula One should too.
  • Bahrain International Circuit, Sakhir, Bahrain – May 22, 2010
• Greater European Leg
  • Circuit de Monaco, Monaco – May 29, 2010
    • It can’t be F1 without stopping at Monaco on Memorial Day weekend.
  • Istanbul Park, Istanbul, Turkey – June 12, 2010
  • Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain – June 19, 2010
  • Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, San Marino – July 3, 2010
    • Why did F1 stop racing at San Marino? This is a great track.
  • Nürburgring, Nürburg, Germany – July 10, 2010
  • Flins-Les Mureaux, Paris, France – July 24, 2010
  • Silverstone Circuit, Silverstone, Great Britain – July 31, 2010
• North American Swing
  • Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, Montreal, Canada – August 14, 2010
  • Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, Indiana, USA – August 21, 2010
  • Miller Motorsports Park, Salt Lake City, Utah, USA – September 4, 2010
    • Besides being probably the best road course in North America, this track has the additional advantage of being close to my home.
• Second European Tour
  • Spa-Francorchamps, Spa, Belgium – September 11, 2010
    • My favorite race track in the entire world – Spa is AWESOME.
  • Hungaroring, Budapest, Hungary – September 25, 2010
  • Magny-Cours Circuit, Nevers, France – October 2, 2010
  • Autodromo Nazionale Monza, Monza, Italy – October 16, 2010
    • One word – Parabolica.
  • Valencia Street Circuit, Valencia, Spain – October 23, 2010
• End, of course, at:
  • Autódromo José Carlos Pace, Interlagos, São Paulo, Brazil – November 6, 2010
    • The last few F1 races at Interlagos have been so incredible, I can’t imagine not keeping this one on the calendar.

So, FOTA – feel free to give me a call.  I think the choice is obvious.

I found out today that I have a new blog follower, oddly, since this person also told me, “I don’t really follow racing.”

???

That last sentence – can you even use those words together like that?  It doesn’t make any sense to me at all.

Anyway, this makes me quite pleased, because now I have three followers, including myself and my imaginary friend, and this new person.  We’re talking about 50% growth – now to sustain it!

Ducati is to motorcycles what Ferrari is to cars – a dominant Italian world champion many times over

… mmmmm, Ducati …

Is it possible that the Aprilia RSV4 Factory is even better looking than the Ducati 1098R?

Is it possible that the new BMW S1000 RR is as awesome as it looks?
Oh, those are the Germans, in the background, that sat next to us in the Tooele grandstand. Pure coincidence.

WorldSBK made it’s only North American stop last weekend at Miller Motorsports Park (MMP).  I think it goes without saying that I was in attendance to witness the Awesome.  And also the Dumb.  Unfortunately I don’t think WorldSBK can come to Utah without some Dumb included in there.  So without further adieu, the Dumb and the Awesome of WorldSBK at MMP:

• AWESOME – The track.  To say that this facility is world-class is, I think, an understatement.  It is not only the best road course in North America, it is probably one of the very best in the world.
• DUMB – Utah people who do not attend.  These same people think that BYU is a national-championship-caliber football team every single year but don’t even care to come to the track to watch the best superbike racers in the entire world compete.
• AWESOME – Great attendance from out of state.  I met really cool people from California, Minnesota, and even sat next to some guys who spoke German.  Thanks for coming, and I hope to see you again next year!
• DUMB – The family that sat next to me who painted BYU logos on their kids faces before they came to the track.  Yes, really.  What the freak?  Stop it – you guys are embarrassing me!
• AWESOME – Ben Spies winning a world-record seventh pole in a row in his rookie season, and then taking the double at home.  In his rookie season, Spies has yet to NOT win pole.  Incredible.
• DUMB – Not having any racing of any consequence on Saturday.  Help me out here, people.
• AWESOME – Watching motorcycles fly by your face at 200 mph.  You don’t realize how fast this is until you watch it.  I realize you think you know.  You don’t.
• DUMB – No AMA presence.  I heard they pulled out of going to MMP at the last minute because they heard they would not be the headlining act.  Uh, AMA?  You would never be a headlining act over WorldSBK at any facility – but especially not since the freaking stupid DMG started turning it into “NASBike” (and a big shout-out to the guy from Minnesota that gave me this term, I love it).  So the AMA (DMG?) refuses to race at the best track on the circuit because WorldSBK is there the same week?  L-A-M-E.  Although, this is what we’ve come to expect from the new NASBike.  I mean, nothing else they’ve done so far makes any sense – it only stands to reason then that they’d also choose to not race at MMP, which also makes no sense.
• AWESOME – Walking through the pits and talking to the mechanics as they are making repairs to factory World Supersport bikes.
• DUMB – Waiting fifteen minutes for the shuttle to take me from the Tooele Grandstand around the track to the paddock.  I could almost walk that far in that much time, and that’s saying something, because it is a long, long way around.
• AWESOME – A killer vendor area with a really strong showing by BMW, Aprilia, and Ducati as well as Honda and Yamaha.  European sportbikes are TO DIE FOR.
• DUMB – Ducati bikini girls.  I didn’t even notice them at all, but for the record I think they are really, really dumb, and not good-looking at all, and they absolutely do not make me want to visit the Ducati tent or buy an awesome new Ducati 1098 R Baylisss Limited Edition, in case my wife reads my blog.

So I haven’t seen the Las Vegas Supercross yet (I have my reasons – I know, there is really no excuse). But before I see the end, I had to comment on the pre-race interviews the SPEED channel broadcasted, because it will make my comments more genuine.

SPEED started off by highlighting a race replay from the Salt Lake City race which very clearly shows Chisholm looking back, seeing both riders racing for position, moving out of Stewart’s way, and then immediately racing Reed to impede progress.  This is not just a smoking gun; in addition, there is gunshot residue all over Chisholm’s hand and his fingerprints are on both the gun and the shell casing.

Next they shows some interviews with regard to last week’s team tactics incident.  SPEED first tried to interview Stewart for his reaction, but he declined to be interviewed.  My guess is he knows he’s not a very good liar and he knows nobody is believing his story anyway, because it is obviously not true.

Next they interviewed Team Suzuki’s team manager, Roger DeCoster, and Chad Reed himself.  DeCoster said that after seeing the replays on TV it is obvious that Chisholm intentionally tried to impede Reed’s progress, and since this is out of character for Chisholm it seems likely that he was ordered to do this by the team.  DeCoster gave no indication of any retaliation planned or resolve to stoop to the level of the L&M Racing team in order to help Reed get the title – just that it was pretty apparent what had happened.  If you saw the replay, you can’t deny what DeCoster is saying – it is pretty clear.

But the best of them all was Reed’s interview.  He began his answer by saying, “You have to find your happy place.”  I wondered what he was talking about.  Then he explained that immediately after the race was over, he was fuming mad.  But instead of losing control of his emotions, he took a few moments of time-out by himself to find his happy place.  He said after he took a moment to himself, he was really fine with it.

Understand this – it’s big.  This guy is competing for the world title, and he’s fine with it.

His words were, “The joke is on them.”  How true.  Once he found himself, he realized that he’s bigger than one race or even one championship.  It’s more important for him to compete aggressively but fairly and to be true to himself.  He wouldn’t want a championship that he wasn’t proud of.  The joke is clearly on L&M Racing and James Stewart.

Later on, when he won his heat race (I did watch some of it), SPEED asked if they could expect any team tactics or retaliation, to which Reed simply replied, “You can expect a hard-fought, clean race.”

All of this made Larry Brooks all the more stupid when they showed his interview later, when he spent all his time talking about how Team Suzuki was whining and complaining about how unfair everything was and kept trying to deflect the conversation toward how Stewart is faster.  I’ve never heard anyone deny that Stewart is fast, so I don’t get what he’s trying to defend.  I do know, however, that before Chad Reed came along, Larry Brooks was nowhere – team manager at KTM, the clear afterthought factory team of supercross.  Whoop-de-do.  Their factory guys are rejects from many of the factory support teams.  Then Reed shows up and they form L&M Racing, and Reed gives them a supercross title, after which they get rid of Reed in favor of Stewart.  Or maybe Reed realized they weren’t really good sportsmen and wanted to align himself with a more respectable team.

Larry Brooks clearly needs a lesson in gratitude.  And humility.  And sportsmanship.  And intelligence.

But no matter.  I’m proud to be a Chad Reed fan this year.  He sets a great example for my son, who watches the races with me, in many ways.  He competes aggressively but fairly.  He is a good sport, always showing respect for his competitors.  He only worries about the things that he can change.  And he doesn’t lose sight of what is most important – in this case, being true to himself and happy with the choices he makes.  If he has to give that up, like Stewart did, to win the title, I’d rather have him lose it and continue to be that kind of man.

The AMA brought Supercross back to Salt Lake City, thank heaven.  My life is complete again.

We sat on about the third row right in front of the most critical rhythm section of the track – a series of seven jumps, increasing in size to the fourth (where the tunnel is), then symmetrically decreasing on the back half.  K-Dub (pictured) and Stewart both were able to do this section 2-3-2 in practice, but nobody else could do it.  Reed tried and failed a couple of times before giving up.  Most fast guys went 1-2-3-1.

When the main event began, Reed grabbed the holeshot, and within a few turns Stewart was right behind him.  It went like this for a good 12-14 laps or so, I can’t remember exactly.  Stewart passed Reed on the rhythm section shown above by going 2-3-2 through it while Reed went 1-2-3-1.  Reed passed him back a few seconds later, and on the next lap Reed suddenly started going 2-3-2 through this section as well – and doing it better than Stewart could.  It was awesome to see him just start doing that in the main event, and watching that happen about 50 feet away from me was really cool.

Some of the racing got pretty close and aggressive.  Stewart took issue with it, because he doesn’t think people should be able to race him the same way he races other people.  Reed passed him pretty hard on one occasion; it reminded me quite a bit of a number of passes Stewart has put on Reed.  Usually when this happens to Reed he just takes it in stride, and usually when this happens to James he takes the liberty of pointing out what a dirty rider he thinks Reed is.  Stewart is a flat-out hypocrite, but I can cut him a break I guess, because that’s not his biggest flaw.

Everything fell apart for Reed, though, when they caught up to Stewart’s teammate, Kyle Chisholm.  At this point Stewart was barely leading with Reed catching up again.  Chisholm was given the blue flag as the leaders came by.  Chisholm was not racing anyone else for position at the time.  Expected behavior in this case is for the lapper to pull off while the leaders pass, then continue.  Chisholm did this as Stewart passed, but then inexplicably started racing Reed as though they were competing for a position, running him high into one turn, taking the racing line through the next rhythm section, and finally attempting an obvious t-bone takeout move in the next 180 degree turn.  There was no way Chisholm would have made the turn with the line he was taking.  He was obviously trying to take Reed out of the race.

He failed, but by this point the damage was done.  He had taken almost two seconds off of Reed’s lap time, putting Reed that far behind Stewart.  With each rider running within one or two tenths of each other on lap times, there was no way to make that up in the few remaining laps.  So instead of having a chance to win the race and go into Vegas tied in points, Reed had to settle for second and go to Vegas six points down.  Stewart only needs a podium finish in Vegas to take the championship; he doesn’t need to win.  Chisholm’s riding tactics likely cost Reed a meaningful shot at defending his title.

Chisholm was black-flagged a couple of laps later and rode off the track in deserved shame.

If Chisholm always rode this way we might be able to attribute this behavior to his riding style, like Eric Sorby, who was an idiot who tried to take anyone out just for the fun of it.  (He’s retired now, and I say good riddance.)  But Chisholm isn’t usually like this, he’s always seemed to be a pretty decent guy and a talented rider.  Having watched it live and again on TV, I have to think that he was intentionally trying to take Reed out.  And since he doesn’t normally do that, I have to figure he did it in this case because L&M/San Manuel Yamaha told him to do it.

I can’t be convinced that this was anything other than team tactics.  Stewart claims he doesn’t need help to beat Reed, but there’s a lot of evidence to the contrary this season.  Stewart, along with his team manager and anyone else who gets asked, claims there were no team tactics and they don’t know what Chisholm was thinking.  What else will they say?  There’s no hard evidence of team tactics, it’s just the most logical explanation for what happened.

Part of me wishes the AMA would penalize the team, take points away from both riders or something.  Since I’m pretty convinced there were team tactics I think that is appropriate.  Some say Stewart wasn’t involved, but he’s on the team, and he should be standing up for a fair race.  But the other part of me doesn’t want the AMA giving out penalties without proof.

Regardless of what happens, I think this taints Stewarts championship, assuming he wins, which is likely at this point.  His 2009 championship will always have a little asterisk by it, where the footnote reads “He secured the championship by cheating.”