The Supercross Rulebook Needs To Change

This weekend in Denver, Kayden Minear brought home a 5th-place finish in his first-ever Supercross 250 West division event. It's a great finish for a guy who had to beg the team owner to give him an opportunity for a ride and didn't even have a bike to ride at the start of the week. What the final results don't tell you is how the AMA almost screwed him out of even making the main event.

For the uninitiated, Supercross is an indoor-ish dirt bike motorsport. Riders navigate temporary circuits usually built within some kind of stadium with various obstacles that they have to traverse. In the US, the American Motorcycle Club is the main sanctioning body. The AMA splits riders into two classes, the 250 class and the 450 class, featuring 250cc and 450cc engines, respectively. The 250 class is further split into East and West divisions, occasionally clashing in special East/West showdown events but otherwise operating as independent championships.

An average AMA Supercross race weekend starts with group qualifying to determine the 40 fastest riders. Those riders are split into two groups to participate in two heat races, with the top 9 finishers in each heat getting an automatic ticket to the main event. The remaining riders are sent to the "Last Chance Qualifier", where the top 4 continue on to the main. That field of 22 then competes to determine the ultimate race winner.

Now that everything's clear as mud, that brings us to the first heat for the 250 West division in Denver. Kayden Minear was on his way to a 4th-place finish, more than enough to make it into the main event. It was an impressive run for his first race in the 250 class, especially since he apparently had to beg the team manager for the Monster Energy Yamaha Star Racing team for the opportunity after a lackluster season in the SMX Next development series. The deal was so last-minute that the team didn't even have a bike prepared, having to fly in parts and build it from scratch at the start of the week. If the goal was to prove that he's ready to make the step up to the professional level, this was certainly the way to accomplish it.

Then, as the bikes came across the finish line, Minear simply disappeared.

It wasn't immediately clear if he crashed or had some kind of transponder issue, but his bike just didn't show up in the final results. Shortly after, we got a replay of what happened: in a battle with Levi Kitchen for the 4th spot, Kitchen pushed Minear off the track right at the finish line. That caused him to miss the final timing loop. Scoring would review the finish and credit him with his 5th-place finish, putting him into the main event.

Or so we thought.

Remember that the challenge of a Supercross circuit comes from navigating the track's various obstacles. The finish line is one such obstacle. It's less of a line and more of a jump. When Minear was pushed off the track, he didn't take that jump, hence why his transponder didn't register the finish.

Mike Pelletier, the AMA's Director of Racing, came on the broadcast to explain that, by rule, if a rider misses the finish line obstacle, they're required to complete another lap for that lap to count. Since Minear didn't compete another lap, his final lap didn't count, relegating him to 12th position, the first rider one lap down.

Far be it from me, a random idiot on the Internet, to question the AMA's Director of Racing on what the rules of Supercross are, but since the rulebook is publicly available, I took a look for myself just to see.

Section 1.7.8(d): With the exception of the checkered flag lap, crossing outside of the designated finish line obstacle may be considered a completed lap by the Chief Scorer as long as the Rider continues the race for at least one more completed lap.

Notably, the rule book doesn't provide any instruction or guidance for missing the finish line on the final lap, and apparently the AMA's interpretation is "you're SOL".

Section 1.7.3(b): Unless otherwise authorized by the Chief Scorer, the vertical plane at the leading edge of the finish line is the scoring point for the motorcycle. To be considered as having completed a lap, the Rider and his motorcycle must intersect the vertical plane at the leading edge of the finish line.

Section 1.7.3(c): The Rider and his motorcycle must cross the officially designated finish line to be scored.

I'd argue the rulebook gives the AMA more lenience than they gave to Minear to score riders who are in extenuating circumstances.

Section 1.7.9(b): In the event the primary electronic timing and scoring system fails to record a transponder passing time or lap for any Rider, the Chief Scorer will use all available resources to validate and confirm the finishing positions including but not limited to the backup electronic timing and scoring system, the last passing for the Rider's transponder on other scoring loops around the track, manual hand score sheets and undisputed photo and/or video proof of a Rider's track position (as determined solely by the Chief Scorer).

Since the rules don't strictly define how far the finish line extends horizontally, it could be argued that Minear did cross the vertical plane of the finish line, meaning his lap could have counted and he could have been scored. Since his transponder didn't trigger, the chief scorer could have looked at video evidence and scored him 5th behind Kitchen. And, since Section 1.7.8(d) explicitly excludes the checkered-flag lap, there's no reason Minear would need to complete another lap. Overall, it seems like overly literal rules-lawyering from Pelletier and the race control crew.

That's the first issue with the rulebook: it's confusing. There are so many holes in the rules that are open to subjective interpretation and so many scenarios that simply aren't covered. It's written in legalese to reduce subjectivity, but it introduces a ton of gaps instead. It reads like it was written by someone trying too hard to be smart. If a lawyer seriously looked over this and said it was okay, they should be disbarred immediately.

Regardless, even if the AMA's interpretation of the rules is the objectively correct one, we still come to the second problem with the rulebook: the lack of a provision for being forced off. It's one thing to make a mistake and go off track, but when you're pushed off by no fault of your own, there needs to be some way to make things right. The AMA knows this, because they have a provision for going off-track already on the books.

Section 1.6.20(a): A Rider leaving the course may only continue by properly re-entering the course, without gaining a time or position advantage, from the closest possible point to where that Rider left the course. While off course, the Rider must not accelerate in an unsafe manner.

Speaking of being forced off, that's the third (and, arguably, the most important) issue: the lack of responsibility for incidents. Supercross is inherently a dangerous sport, and all the riders involved accept that. That doesn't mean we need to actively make it even more dangerous. And yet, the AMA lets riders bump, bang, and even intentionally take each other out. The rulebook does list reckless riding as a punishable offense in Section 3.1.8(e), but that rule is rarely ever actually enforced.

Back to our story, Minear did make it into a transfer spot in the LCQ only to crash trying to make a move for 2nd. This was rider error, although I'll remind you that he should never have been in the LCQ to begin with. Fortunately, he recovered from 7th up to 2nd, making it into the main event, where he converted a 19th-place gate pick into a top 5 finish. A bit eventful, but at least the timeline corrected itself in the end.

Clearly, the rulebook needs to change. First of all, there are a lot of holes in the rules that need to be patched, and it needs to be easier to read and understand overall. Second, there needs to be some kind of exception for extenuating circumstances. Thirdly, there needs to be less contact and reckless riding. These don't seem like especially complicated things to implement, and it's wild that no one in the AMA has seen any of this as a problem before now.