Copyright 2003, Roadracing World Publishing, Inc.
More on Sandy Noce being twice black-flagged out of the AMA 250cc Grand Prix race at Mid-Ohio, because AMA Pro Racing officials mistook his bike for someone else’s:
FIRST PERSON/OPINION:
Via e-mail
Just to add a further unfathomable series of events to the Sandy Noce debacle: The very official who called for the black flag sat on the hot pit talking to Sandy during the red flag downtime! This guy not only personally interacted with Sandy during the whole time he would supposedly have been away getting his spare bike, but he NEVER WROTE DOWN THE NUMBER of the bike that actually committed the infraction.
When Sandy pulled in the second time and pulled off his helmet, the official looked at him and said, “Oh, shit!” because he recognized Sandy’s face and knew that he couldn’t possibly be the one. He told Sandy that he knew it was “a white bike.”
We invest a year of our lives chasing dreams and goals racing in this professional circus. To think that some “official” can ruin everything with one vague and cavalier accusation is unconscionable.
Sandy Noce would have ridden to a well-deserved 5th or 6th place. He deserves a helluva lot more than an apology.
Stephen Bowline
AMA 250GP #314
Burbank, California
More, from a race report sent out by former racer Bruce Lind, who now tunes for a number of AMA racers:
FIRST PERSON/OPINION
Via e-mail
I was standing at the lower hot pit entrance when an all-white bike with #12 on it (Keith Floyd) came rolling down the entry road. Keith stopped and talked to an AMA official (male) and explained that he was being honest. He had a mechanical on his primary bike and had gone back to the paddock to get his spare bike. The official told him he could not re-enter the pits/race and Keith rode the bike up the back of the EZ-ups. I assume that he rode it back to the garage area, exiting at the top of the pits. His number does not appear of the charts after the restart.
I was signaling to Sean Wray (after Ed Sorbo crashed in T-11) when Sandy Noce was black-flagged. He came right into the pits (assuming like the rest of us did that he had been tagged with a stop-and-go). As soon as Sandy re-entered the track after not finding any official at either pit entrance/exit, the black flag came out again.
This time there were AMA officials waiting for Sandy.
The pit official remembered an all-white bike had tried to re-enter the pits, but could not remember the number on the bike. Sandy’s bike is all white. The official called out for the wrong bike to be brought in and be disqualified. As you can imagine, Sandy was HOT. He was called into the pits from 6th place.
Sandy was credited with 24th place.
Since then I have learned that (AMA Pro Racing’s) Ron Barrick has not only given Sandy an apology, but has given him the points and purse for 6th place.
Bruce Lind
Snohomish, Washington
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