Purely a discussion
If you raced, and you knew of someone that you didnt race against was cheating (hard facts not purely opionion), should you raise it to an official's attention?
If you were a business that a racer approached asking for 'hot mods' that would not be legal for the class the racer was intending to compete in, should you do the work? This is a little more complicated as the business also needs to make a profit, in business reputation is everything, even if the reputation is that you can build a cheater motor :lol:
Yes the MRA has a long history of fast/popular/well known racers cheating, heck the MRA probably has the worst reputation in the club racing scene in the entire US.
A few years ago Darren Luck (Florida club racer) was busted by AMA officials for using a GSXR750 motor in a GSXR600 chassis, in the AMA600 class, he was banned from AMA competition (not sure for how long). It's actually prett easy to tell by the note an engine makes (regardless of exhaust system) if it is an overbore if you know what you are doing.
When I raced the Aprilia Cup Series with Formula USA all the classes were dyno controlled, but then people started intalling hidden switches to change the ingition map to reduce the power for the dyno run, like the CBR1000RR and ZX10-R had to do to meet the EPA regs.
Having some sort of system where a racer can 'let an offical know' what is going on wont work, as how do you decide fact from opinion. Speed traps and a radar gun 'might' work but people get out of corners differently which effects top speed.
Spec racing? That doesnt work as I know (an engine builder admitted he just did what was asked/paid for, again, no names) there are people cheating in the 250 series, and no it's not my place to name them.
Moto2 is a good start as the engines are all controlled, BSB is going with spec ECU's, but this wont work for club racing because of the cost. So what is the answer, 'run what you brung' classes might work, but how do you know if a middleweight is really a middleweight bike? The can be bore AND stroked, or a bigger motor can be made to fit if you know what you are doing, the R71 was a perfect example. Dyno controlled classes, or at least making someone go on the dyno to see if you want to protest them? Nope, with electronics and programming these days it is easy to get around.
So how do you control the cheating that goes hand in hand in club racing? Group hugs and a pact at every event? One class, an 8 hour race, all in? Random teardowns to the crank? (but this time the racer wont be informed ahead of time so he can't "bring a stock bike that weekend" :lol: ). I dont have a clue how to control it, but I am sure other people may have ideas. At the end of the day people cheat, other racers who arent cheating walk away from the sport because they are sick of the cheating.
Discuss!