Team Makita Suzuki's Ricky Carmichael has been dealt a severe blow to his 2006 AMA Supercross Championship
title defense after the AMA penalised the 4 time champ with a 25 points deduction for illegal fuel use at
round 6 at Qualcomm Stadium in
San Diego, Calif., on February 11.
Round seven saw Carmichael suffer a very rare mechanical DNF and drop to second in the championship race -
9 points behind leader Chad Reed.
With the loss of the 25 points still only drops him to third in the standings on 120 points.
Team Kawasakis James Stewart now leaps ahead of Carmichael into second on 132 points with Reed on 149. Whilst it
is likely that Suzuki will appeal it appears even Ricky Carmichael will find it
tough to claw back a 29 point deficit in the remaining 7 rounds should all top three
riders finish every round.
Fuel samples from eight motorcycles were collected at the San Diego round and the sample
from the motorcycle of Ricky Carmichael was found to be in non-compliance. Fuel from the
motorcycles of Mike Alessi, Grant Langston, Jeremy McGrath, Nate Ramsey, Chad Reed,
Andrew Short and James Stewart 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.
AMA Pro Racing has required the use of unleaded fuel in the AMA Supercross Series
and the AMA Motocross Championship since the 2004 racing season.
UPDATE:
Late this afternoon Suzuki did in fact appeal the AMA findings saying;
"The entire Team Makita Suzuki Racing organization, including Ricky Carmichael and his crew,
have followed closely all the rules established for AMA Supercross and Motocross racing.
The team has purchased the same fuel throughout the last several seasons; it has been
tested and was never found in violation of fuel rules before. The fuel used by the
Supercross team at the San Diego round was supplied by a third-party vendor and
was not tested by Team Makita Suzuki technicians before the race".
The AMA as yet have made no official statement on the appeal. Yamaha appealed the same situation last year (May 1st - 2005) after
Chad Reed was penalised for having illegal fuel and the AMA refused to hear it.
