This weekend there were I believe 3 supersport riders to have been found with an illegal set up on their bikes according to our rulebook. From what I have heard these riders were fined $50 and no points or positions were taken away from them. These riders finished better than other riders going for Suzuki and Yamaha contingency. Which means that lets say a cheating yamaha rider took 5th place, They were fined $50 but won $250. If another yamaha rider finished behind this person he would have been paid $200. So the cheater still makes $200 and the legit racer makes $50 less than he should. Somehow I don't think this is fair. According to our rulebook

Section 13

C. Upon entering any motorcycle in any MRA class, the rider is responsible for their motorcycle meeting class requirements. If at any time the entered motorcycle is found to be illegal for the entered class, the rider will forfeit points and monies earned in that class for that day, and all points earned previously that year in that same class.

D. Violations of technical and safety requirements judged by MRA Officials to gain a performance advantage will result in the rider forfeiting points and monies earned in that class for that day, and all points earned previously that year in that same class. Violations judged to not result in a performance advantage will result in fines and/or suspension.

Now I understand that if you read both of these penalties they sort of contradict each other. But the bottom line is the 3 riders who were found to be cheating all had the same change to their bikes from what I have heard. This is a change that has been proven to give extra horsepower. Now according to 13.C it is the riders responsibility for their bike to meet requirements. The 3 bikes to have been found to be illegal all come from a motorcycle background and can in no way be considered incompetent in motorcycle technical matters. They knew what they were doing when they altered their bikes to increase horsepower. I knew of the modification to these bikes when I ran Superbike classes and guess what I did them because it was legal because I wanted every advantage I could get. Now I run supersport and I did not do this modification because I did not want to cheat. Even if it only gives you .1 HP it is still cheating and we should penalize according to our rulebook especially when these riders damn well knew what they were doing when they modified their bikes.

In my opinion I believe the MRA board failed us this weekend in their decision of this matter. I think to make it right we should follow what our rulebook says and penalize these riders with loss of points and positions for this last weekend in the classes that were cheated in and loss of season points in those classes.

(Seriously the AMA penalized Josh Hayes after the week of Daytona so why can't we reverse a decision and penalize our riders according to our rulebook after the fact, If this is not done I say Bull Sh!t) I'm sick of our club being considered a cheaters club and it needs to change.