Copyright 2002, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

By David Swarts

2002 AMA 250cc Grand Prix Championship runner-up and former AMA Road Racing Horizon award winner Jason DiSalvo missed an opportunity to race as a wild card in the FIM 250cc Grand Prix in Rio, Brazil this weekend because AMA Pro Racing misplaced his wild card notification letter, says DiSalvo’s father and team owner Jim DiSalvo.

Reached at his New York business office Friday, September 20, Jim DiSalvo was asked why Jason was not racing in Rio. “Because the AMA never notified us,” said the elder DiSalvo. “Ironic as this may be, we found out about it (the wild card) on the website(Roadracingworld.com). Connie (Jason DiSalvo’s mother) said, ‘Look at that, Jason got the wild card!’ I said, ‘It’s too late.'”

The DiSalvos learned of Jason being granted the Rio wild card by reading a September 16 Roadracingworld.com post, which was based on an FIM press release.

“We had requested (wild cards at) Rio and Australia, that was the original request because they did not conflict,” said Jim DiSalvo. “I called the ninth of September prior to leaving for France (for the Suzuki GSX-R World Cup) because that was our drop-dead date. They had to notify us before then so we could notify the team in Spain to send the extra bike and then we had to have our flights changed on the 16th (of September) to go right from France to Rio. That was our intent.”

Jason DiSalvo planned to ride an A-kitted Honda RS250 (similar to the bike he raced with the AMA) supplied by the Cibertel Honda BQR team. Cibertel Honda BQR fields Jay Vincent and Leon Haslam in the 250cc Grand Prix series. DiSalvo raced against Haslam in the British National 125cc GP series in 2000.

“AMA received notification (from the FIM) on the sixth of September. It somehow got misplaced (at the AMA office). It never got FAXed to us. All they (AMA) had to do was take the notification, FAX it to us and we would’ve been on our way. We would’ve been in Rio now,” said Jim DiSalvo.

“I called the AMA when I got back on Tuesday (September 17) morning this week, which is naturally way too late. I got ahold of the AMA and they said they found it. I asked them if they would send me a FAX of it. They sent me the FAX, and I could see the FAX date they received it was the sixth of September.”

Jim DiSalvo said he also called Ron Barrick, the AMA Pro Racing Superbike Operations Manager who also serves as a track steward for selected FIM events. “He said, ‘I really apologize. It’s one of those things where it got lost in the shuffle at the office.’,” DiSalvo said, quoting Barrick.

Roadracingworld.com was unable to reach Barrick for comment Friday afternoon.

Another 250cc wild card rider for the Rio GP, French racer Eric Bataille, received his notification and was 21st out of 25 riders in final 250cc qualifying Friday.