Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

American Suzuki did not maintain possession of the suspect second set of forks used on racer Chris Peris’ 2004 GSX-R750 during last weekend’s World Cup races at Road Atlanta, having sold the bike (with its forks) to a local racer who took the machine home Sunday and was asked to return the forks and shock for inspection Wednesday.

After taking apart the second set of forks and inspecting the internals, G.M.D. Computrack’s Ken Soignier declared them illegal, later retracting that judgement when he realized the fork internals had been compared to the internals from a 2003 GSX-R750, which uses a different shim stack.

Soignier told Roadracingworld.com today that he also inspected the first set of forks, at the track, and stated that the forks had been fitted with a preload ring with an inner shim, a upgrade part. According to Soignier, he was asked by World Cup technician Vic Fasola to inspect the fork internals without knowing whose bike the forks had come from or who had worked on them.

Soignier confirmed that possession of the second set of forks was lost between sale of the bike and return of the forks to his shop in Atlanta.

The controversy started when Peris’ tuner-for-the-weekend Max McAllister was accused by Suzuki World Cup official Cliff Nobles of sliding a pair of forks under the side of the circus tent that World Cup competitors were pitted under at Road Atlanta. In fact, McAllister said today at Homestead-Miami Speedway, he openly walked into the tent with the forks in his hands and didn’t know that he wasn’t allowed to take the forks to his trailer to work on them. McAllister said he was not trying to cheat and did not try to hide the fact that he took the forks off site. McAllister also said that he did not add any parts to the forks and that all he did to the shock was bleed it.

The story is evolving as more information becomes available.


See related post:
10/22/2004 Updated, Corrected Post: Forks Used By Canadian Chris Peris In Suzuki World Cup Races Were Legal After All