The Jacksonville Supercross was the most significant
event of the 2011 AMA Supercross series. It was significant for three
reasons: (1) Ryan Villopoto failed to qualify for the main event and put
his chances of winning the 2011 Supercross Championship in jeopardy.
Villopoto eventually fought back from the deficit to take the title. (2)
James Stewart's first-turn crash in the main event ended his night and
was part of a crash-and-burn meltdown that James never recovered from.
(3) The Stewart crash brought up a little-known AMA Supercross rule
about how riders involved in first-turn crashes are scored. When James
Stewart, Matt Goerke and Weston Peick crashed in Jacksonville's
right-hand first turn, the AMA scored Stewart as 18th place (3 points),
Goerke 19th (2 points) and Peick 20th (1 point). When the results were
posted, there were howls of protest. It seemed like blatant favoritism
to the causal fan. But, there is a story behind the decision. How did
the AMA determine the three riders' finishing positions? Should they
have used a different method? You be the judge.
WHITE
THE SECRET RULE BOOK:
Under an AMA rule that is not in the printed 2011 AMA
Supercross rule book, the AMA awards finishing positions to every rider
who fails to finish the first lap based on his qualifying times. Thus,
under this system, Stewart, who had set the fastest time in practice,
was awarded 18th, while Goerke (17th in timed practice) and Peick (20th)
were given 19th and 20th place.
WHY IT MATTERS: In the grand scheme of the 2011 Supercross season, the
awarding of points is important because it is the collection of points
that determines who wins the 450 Supercross Championship. At the end of
the 2011 series, Ryan Villopoto won the title by four points over Chad
Reed. Thus, who gets scored, how many points they are assigned, and the
method by which points are awarded, 'especially on a rider's worst
nightm, are all crucial elements in determining a champion.
WHY THEY DO IT THAT WAY:
The AMA claims that their system is the only method they
can use, because none of the three riders at Jacksonville came around to
the scoring transponder at the finish line; thus none were ever
officially scored.
THE REAL REASON:
The fact that the AMA thought first-turn crashes through,
to the point of developing a rule that resorts back to timed
qualifying, means that they understood that scoring a first-turn pileup
was important. On the other hand, they didn't feel that they could come
up with any other system that would accurately assess where each rider actually finished. It was simpler and easier to fall back on timed qualifying.
BLACK
THE RULE'S INHERENT FLAW:
When questioned about the idea of scoring riders based
on something that happened earlier in the day (timed qualifying), the
AMA said that it was the only fair method of doing it. In truth, the
fairest way of doing it would be to score the rider that went the
farthest on the track more points than the riders who didn't travel as
far. When given this option, the AMA asked how they could determine who
went the farthest. The answer was also in the AMA rule book. Under AMA
rule 4.22, section i, a video camera may be used to aid scorekeepers in
determining finishing order of a close race. Since every AMA Supercross
is videotaped, all the AMA has to do is review the tape and make a
judgment call about which rider went the farthest.
WHY IT MATTERS:
All scoring is based on who covers the most ground in the
shortest amount of time. The winner is the man who gets to the finish
line first, lapped riders are scored by where they finished in terms of
how many laps they went, and riders who fall on the first lap should
also be scored based on the fact that they went farther before they fell
than the other guy.
THE REAL REASON:
Imagine how unfair it would be to Matt Goerke if he
started the race and made it all the way around the track only to fall
10 feet before the finish line on lap one, and then to discover that
another rider fell directly off the starting gate and was scored ahead
of him. That is what happened at Jacksonville. Stewart was 10 feet
behind Goerke. Thus, in
the real world, Goerke beat Stewart. It was not the other way around.
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