MXA’S AMA RULE OF THE WEEK: NAMED AFTER THE MAN THEY WRONGED

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You could call this the “Ryan Dungey rule.” Ryan got penalized in 2016 for jumping on a Red Cross flag, even though the flag wasn’t really visible to him. Worse yet, the AMA didn’t see the violation, but listened to a complaint from a competing team. After hearing the complaint they reviewed the video tape of the race. Long after the trophies were handed out Ryan was penalized two places (from first to third), and the victory handed to Jason Anderson. Who, on the same video tape, is seen jumping the Red Cross flag directly behind Ryan Dungey, but he was not penalized—instead he was rewarded for the same offense. Perhaps the AMA should review some video tapes from the 1993 AMA Supercoss series to see if they can disqualify Jeremy McGrath after the fact.

As pointed out by many, the AMA has no organized way to insure that the red cross flag waver is actually waving the flag, as opposed to just holding it. It is an important flag that has been mishandled by the AMA several times. In the Ryan Dungey incident, the flagger actually ran across the track to get in position where the rider’s line of sight was not focused. Good work.