Caution: Flammable Topic

Click the following link for a video clip of Pete Hann, the Director of Engineering at MDK Speed, talking about the fuel issue.

Last week following the press conference at Anaheim 3, I stopped by the AMA truck to pick up results, and while there I was joking with Michael Byrne's mechanic, Jason Thomas. He was there with Michael's bike as a random selection for an AMA post-race tech inspection, following Byrner's fifth place finish in the main event. An AMA official with surgical gloves on was laying out a series of glass vials onto a towel as they prepared to take fuel samples. When I suggested, "Ah, your bike has to pee in a cup," I had no idea that a week later, the parallel to testing humans for performance-enhancing drugs wouldn't be that far off.

During late afternoon on Friday we started hearing rumblings that, for the fourth time in the past year, there was going to be a press release forthcoming about a penalty for "out of compliance" fuel. But this time, it was a total of three riders (Nick Wey, Josh Hill, and Jason Thomas) who were handed penalties, which meant that a full third of the riders who'd been on the podium at A2 had been DQ'd.

Here's the text of the AMA release:

THREE RIDERS PENALIZED FOR ILLEGAL FUEL AT ANAHEIM 2 SUPERCROSS

PICKERINGTON, Ohio (January 25, 2007) – AMA Racing has announced that riders Joshua Hill, Jason Thomas and Nick Wey have been penalized for using illegal fuel at round three of the Amp’d Mobile AMA Supercross Series at Angel Stadium in Anaheim, Calif., on Jan. 20.

Fuel samples from nine motorcycles were collected at the Anaheim 2 round and the samples from the motorcycles of Hill, Thomas and Wey were found to be in non-compliance. Fuel from the motorcycles of Steve Boniface, Michael Byrne, Kyle Partridge, Chad Reed, James Stewart and Jake Weimer was found to be in compliance.

As is required by the AMA Supercross/Motocross rulebook, the samples were sent to a certified testing lab which confirmed the results of the testing.

Hill, Thomas and Wey have been disqualified from the event and have forfeited their event points and purse.

AMA Racing instituted new, stricter procedures for fuel testing beginning with the 2007 racing season. Information regarding AMA Racing’s fuel specifications and testing procedures for Supercross and Motocross can be found beginning on page 10, sections L and M, in the on-line rule book at www.amaproracing.com/rulebook.

For your ease of surfing, we've added the referenced items from the AMA rule book below.

L. Fuel Specifications

1. All motorcycles must use unleaded fuel corresponding to petroleum-based fuel as defined by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), designation:D4814, with the following clarifications:

a. The specific gravity must fall within the range:.715 - .765 at 60° F.

b. The maximum oxygen content is 4.0% m/m.

c. The maximum allowable level of lead is 0.025 g/l.

d. The only allowable oxygenates are ether and alcohols, as listed and characterized for oxygen mass fraction in ASTM D4814.

e. Epoxides (i.e.propylene oxide) will not be considered ethers. Nitrogen-bearing compounds are not allowed.

f. Lubrication additives are permitted provided the resulting mixture would meet all other requirements.

M. Fuel Test Procedure

1. Fuel tests may be carried out at any time during the course of any AMA Supercross or Motocross event.

2. The Chief Technical Inspector, in consultation with the Race Director or the Series Manager, has sole authority to direct the administration of fuel tests during the course of any AMA Supercross or Motocross Event.

3. The criteria for selection of the machines from which samples are to be taken will be at the sole discretion of the Chief Technical Inspector.

4. The motorcycles selected for fuel sampling and testing will be placed in the impound area.

5. The Chief Technical Inspector will supervise the collection of the test samples.

6. Only officials under the supervision of the Chief Technical inspector may take fuel test samples.

7. Containers for holding samples:

a. Must be clean and constructed of robust, fuel non-reactive, impermeable material.

b. Must be sealable.

c. Must have provision for identification.

8. The extraction of fuel from machines must be directly from the fuel hose leading to the carburetor from the fuel tank.

9. Three (3) test samples will be collected from each selected machine.

10.The containers must be immediately sealed and identified by reference to the machine from which the sample was taken.

11. This information must be entered on the AMA Fuel Sample Certificate, which must certify the date, place and time of taking the sample, the identity of the machine from which the sample was taken, and the identity of its rider.

12. The samples (A, B and C) must remain in the control of the Chief Technical Inspector. The rider or a representative of the rider/team must sign the AMA Fuel Sample Certificate acknowledging that a sample was taken, and rider or representative must receive a copy of the Certificate.

13. The Chief Technical Inspector must arrange to deliver the samples (A, B and C) along with the AMA Fuel Sample Certificates to an express service for transportation to the AMA office. After the samples(A,B and C) and the certificates arrive at the AMA office:

14. Sample A and its certificate will be sent by express service to the official testing laboratory where the sample will be tested for compliance to the fuel specifications in accordance with standard scientific procedures.

15. Sample B and its certificate will be safeguarded at the AMA office and will be sent to the laboratory for testing if Sample A is found to be in non-compliance to the fuel specifications.

16. The results obtained from such testing must be attached to the laboratory’s copy of the Fuel Sample Certificate and delivered to the AMA as soon as practicable after the results have been obtained.

17. Sample C will be safeguarded at the AMA office for future testing if necessary.

18. The AMA will appoint one or more laboratories for testing fuels.

19. Upon receiving the report from the laboratory that a fuel sample or samples are not in compliance with the rules, the Series Manager will inform the rider or team and assess a penalty.

20. The competitor may only request a re-test to verify the results. The re-testing will be at the competitor’s expense.

21. If after the second test the fuel is found still out of compliance, the competitor may not appeal the results or the penalty assessed by the Series Manager.

22. The independent testing laboratory, in issuing the results of the test, must also verify that the samples were received in good condition and with the seal intact.

We haven't had a chance to talk to Jim Perry at Team Yamaha yet, but have checked in with the other two team, the MDK / Xyience / Honda squad (which uses VP MR9.1 in Nick's bike), and the DNA Energy Drink / BTOSports / BBMX team. The interesting part is that though both teams were using a different fuel, they had both been tested at Phoenix, but were only found to be out of compliance for the Anaheim round. Forrest Butler, the team owner at BBMX said, "We have one brand new 15 gallon VP Pro 4 tank for JT, we opened it at A1 and we have three races on it." At this point, that makes it appear that the composition of the fuel has changed over time, due to evaporation, or some other factor. We can only imagine the hassle, as well as time and expense incurred by VP Fuels every time a bout of "non-compliance" occurs as they try to chase the source of the issue to respond to the teams and the AMA.

Since we were already in town to visit with Pete Hann, the Director of Engineering at MDK Speed (who builds the engines for both Nick Wey and David Vuillemin) we obviously had a little extra to talk about during our visit, but one of the things that he mentioned was, "We don't even have any idea what we're going to run in the bike that we deem as compliant. 'Cause Nick's planning on being on the podium and so is David." (DV actually chooses to run a different VP formulation than Nick.) "I don't even know if pump fuel is going to be compliant, for that matter."

You can check out some of Pete's comments in a video, and the link is at the top of this article.

While everyone involved in the most recent rounds of penalties is unhappy with the disqualifications, at this point they seem equally unhappy about their inability to know whether they're compliant, or how to stay compliant with the fuel rules. Testing for compliance is a huge and costly undertaking...not something that the privateers have the resources (or desire) to do, particularly if the perception of an issue about the stability of the fuel over time is found to be true.

We'll obviously be following this story closely over the weekend, and will update you as we hear more.