GP RIDERS BOYCOTT MEXICO QUALIFYING! LUONGO’S CIRCUS COMES TO A GRINDING HALT

In what is not a first time occurrence, the Grand Prix circus got a major black eye in Guadalajara, Mexico, when the GP riders refused to line up for the Mexican Grand Prix Saturday qualifiers ? claiming that the track was ill-prepared, dusty and the jump faces were poorly designed.

Michael Leib and Max Anstie were the only two GP regulars to race the qualifiers ? because Leib is a fill-in rider and his team manager, Steve Dixon, felt that the boycott wasn’t the right thing to do, saying that the riders should have come up with a list of changes and demands and then allowed the promoter to try and meet them.

Max Anstie had engine troubles in practice and wanted to make sure that his Gariboldi Honda was running right

Sebastien Tortelli who is helping the Mexican race organizer said: “This is not the end of the Mexican GP. We have a five-year contract and we are gonna do what we can (to make the GP tomorrow a success). We worked until past midnight last night and were here at 5 a.m. to get the track ready and we will be here all night tonight to water and modify the track. I think it was an irrational decision – I raced on tracks much worse than this – and we had live TV on Mega Canal, one of the leading nationwide channels, to initiate the Mexican public to motocross. It is particularly disappointing because on Friday the riders were congratulating us on the track layout; now they say it sucks! That hurts! We will disc the track and flood it with water, so it will be a quagmire in the morning, but we have no option and that should give us good racing in the afternoon.”

Suzuki team manager Eric Geboers said, “In free practice and pre-qualification, the riders made some good lap times. Clement felt okay and Tanel was also feeling better on the bike compared to the last few weeks. Some riders were not-so-happy with the track and how it was prepared. We as a team and GRP, were focused on getting the bikes in the waiting zone ready for the gate. (The strike) was a last-minute action and fairly unorganised, but it was down to the riders if they wanted to race or not.”

MEXICAN GRAND PRIX QUALIFYING RESULTS

The field for the 450 Qualifying race on Sunday was ten racers…none of them had ever raced a GP before.

450 class:
1. Fernandez, Rodolfo…Qua
2. Garcia, Martin…Mex
3. Mejia, Raynear…Dom Rep
4. Farfan, Mario…Mex
5. Garcia, Donovan…Mex
6. Vazquez, Giuzepe…Mex
7. Rodriguez, Samir…Mex
8. Mendoza, Diego…Mex
9. Rosales, Jesus…Mex
10. Guzman, Jose Luis…Mex

Michael Leib (170) and Max Anstie (6) raced Saturday’s 250 Qualifier, which had 11 riders in it. Anstie and Leib had their reasons for riding, but will suffer at the hands of the other GP riders for breaking the boycott. If you think about it, the boycott should be against Youthstream (not the Mexican promoter) for taking away the rider’s start money, eliminating the purse money, cutting off travel money, raising the entry fee to over $1000 per race and holding races at questionable locations (just to get the large sanction fee).