Copyright 2004, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.

Racer Chris Peris found himself at the center of a controversy during last weekend’s Suzuki World Cup Finals at Road Atlanta when his tuner-for-the-event Max McAllister removed the forks from the GSX-R750 issued to Peris, took them to his Traxxion Dynamics trailer, and worked on them, installing what Suzuki officials said were non-standard parts. Machines ridden by participants in the World Cup Finals are supplied by Suzuki and are supposed to be identical, with stock suspension. Changing fork springs and fork oil levels is allowed by Suzuki World Cup rules, however.

But the determination of whether or not the forks were actually legal was clouded by the use of one of McAllister’s competitors to examine the forks in question and the fact that the same competitor later declared a second, replacement set of forks actually used by Peris in the World Cup races to be illegal, then reversed himself and said that shim stacks in those 2004-model forks had been compared to the shim stacks in 2003 GSX-R750 forks in error and were in fact legal.

Sorting out what actually happened has proven difficult due to conflicting stories, changing stories and the refusal of some key participants to comment.

Whatever the case, the allegedly illegal forks were detected and replaced prior to the start of practice and were never used on the racetrack.

Peris’ participation in the event in the first place was somewhat unusual, since he did not qualify to participate under American Suzuki guidelines and he has spent most of the 2004 season racing in the U.S. with Team Valvoline EMGO Suzuki under a one-year (2004 AMA season) contract. Told Chris Peris wasn’t eligible to ride at the Suzuki Cup Finals because he rode for a U.S. support team sponsored by Suzuki, Chris Peris’ father Fernando Peris wrangled him a ride as part of the Suzuki Canada team for the Suzuki World Cup, based on the few 2004 Canadian races Chris Peris participated in.

Chris Peris attended the races at Road Atlanta with his father, who hired McAllister as Chris Peris’ designated mechanic for the World Cup event.

This year’s Suzuki World Cup event was hosted by American Suzuki and was held in conjunction with the annual WERA Grand National Finals. WERA officials ran the races.

After World Cup official Cliff Nobles said he saw McAllister sliding the forks under the side of one of the big circus tents World Cup participants were pitted under (prior to the actual races), the forks were confiscated by Suzuki officials, dis-assembled by Kent Soignier of G.M.D. Computrack (a Traxxion Dynamics competitor) and declared to contain non-stock parts. At that point, Peris was issued a new set of unmodified forks, which McAllister installed. Suzuki officials later said that McAllister had attempted to modify the bike’s stock shock, but had damaged it while trying to take it apart, and replaced it with a stock shock he borrowed off a Kevin Schwantz Suzuki School instructor’s bike after telling school officials he needed it to replace a damaged customer’s shock, without revealing that it was for a Suzuki World Cup rider. (Stock shocks are not designed to be dis-assembled for service, and the shock in question actually belonged to a European rider whose mechanic brought it to the Traxxion trailer for revalving without revealing it was for a World Cup bike until after it was broken.) McAllister’s World Cup mechanic’s pass was subsequently confiscated, in effect banning him from the World Cup section of the paddock. Peris used the second set of issued forks installed by McAllister in the actual Suzuki World Cup races.

(A week before the World Cup event, McAllister left a phone message for the manager of an AMA team, seeking to buy a set of stock 2004 GSX-R750 forks. The team didn’t have any forks for sale, and McAllister subsequently bought a set from a salvage yard. But those forks were for a project unrelated to the GSX-R World Cup Final and are now installed on a Buell racebike.)

After Peris crashed out of the first Suzuki World Cup race and DNF the second, American Suzuki officials sent out the replacement forks and shock from Peris’ bike for inspection by G.M.D. Computrack’s Kent Soignier, who told Roadracingworld.com Thursday morning that the second set of forks had been revalved (each leg using the stock piston but a modified shim stack) and that the shock had been opened and the oil replaced, modifications that are illegal under Suzuki World Cup rules. Soignier called back Thursday afternoon–after the original version of this post appeared–and said that he had been in error, that the shim stack had been compared to a 2003 stack by mistake, and that in fact the cartridges in the 2004 forks used by Peris had been taken apart but had not been modified in any way.

Chris Peris denied knowing that McAllister made illegal modifications. “He told us that what he wanted to do to the forks was legal,” Peris told Roadracingworld.com, “and that he had to take them to his trailer because that’s where he was set up with all his tools.”

Pat Alexander, Manager of the American Suzuki Motor Corp. Sports Promotion Department, declined to make any official comment on the incident.

Contacted by Roadracingworld.com, McAllister initially replied via e-mail, “American Suzuki’s comment is ‘no comment,’ and I have been told, so is mine. I ain’t getting into this mess. It will go nowhere.”

McAllister later issued the following statement, via e-mail:

Official Statement:

The scrutineering at the World Cup was as strict as you can imagine. The racing on Sunday demonstrated that no one had a performance advantage. Hats off to the Chief Inspector.

There was some question about a set of forks I built, and they were confiscated by the officials. The World Cup Officials did not DQ Peris and they did not move him back on the grid. I think that demonstrates the magnitude of this “ordeal”. To eliminate any further doubt, they offered Peris the chance to remove the next set of components I built on his bike as a form of amnesty. He refused, in spite of guaranteed teardowns on Sunday.

Chris Peris’ integrity should not be called into question in this matter, as he is completely unaware of anything technical about how motorcycles are prepped to race. He only knows how to ride the wheels off of them. He is a fine young man with a bright future as a racer, and I hope none of my actions cast any shadow over him.

My apologies to the Suzuki Motor Corp for bringing any question about sportsmanship to such a great event.

Sincerely,

Max McAllister


WERA officials say they will no longer do business with McAllister and that he will not be allowed to set up as a vendor in the WERA paddock, but that he has not personally been banned from the WERA paddock. “We’re just not going to take any money from him to vend at our races, and the same thing for the rulebook ad,” said WERA Operations Manager Sean Clarke. “If somebody wants to hire him to work on their forks at one of our races, that’s another thing. But we’re not going to do any type of business deal with him at all.”