From
Quarterly Racing Headquarters- Mooresville, NC.

Michelin
Raceway Road Atlanta Round 1 April 5-7 2019

Sanctioning of team riders for parts
determined to be illegal

After the Junior Cup practice and qualifying on Friday our
three team riders, Jamie Astudillo, Dallas Daniels and Teagg Hobbs were served
with a sanction by race direction for what was deemed as illegal parts in use
on all three bikes, causing our lap times for both practice and qualifying to
be disallowed.

Further to that call, it was obvious we would not be credited
for any laps taken after that, meaning if we could not retrofit original parts,
we would have no choice but to pack up and go home. The process does include
the option of filing an appeal by posting $ 1500.00. In this case the sanction
would have been upheld with no question, as I was told that the FIM Technical
Director was made aware of the situation and stated the parts were in fact
illegal.

(Above) A stock left-side bracket on a Kawasaki Ninja 400.

The parts deemed illegal are brackets that attach the
rearsets to the main frame. As a background to our decision to change those
which by our interpretation of the rulebook was not in violation, we ended up
in a foggy area at best. The OEM bracket bolts to the frame and is made from steel.
It also supports the swing arm by its design. With stock rearsets having
folding foot pegs, the chance of the steel bracket getting bent on a road bike
is far less and would likely end your day anyway. Once you attach a rigid
mounted foot peg it becomes a weak point from the added leverage on the
mounting ears of the bracket that attach the rearset. The result is the bracket
ears get twisted into the swing arm and depending on how hard of a hit it
takes, may damage the swing arm as well.
We designed a thicker aluminum bracket that would replace the stock one
in the interest of being able to change the rearset quickly in a crash
situation during practice or qualifying to not lose the session. There is no
possible way for this bracket to offer anything as a performance enhancement.
Speculation may have been that it would stiffen the swing arm, etc, but
replacing a steel fixed tube welded to the OEM bracket for the swing arm with a
6061 Aluminum one cannot do anything better and is probably weaker overall. The
swing arm is supported by more than the bracket described.

(Above) The custom bracket used by Quarterley Racing On Track Development on the right side of a Kawasaki Ninja 400.

Where Moto America/ FIM deemed it to be illegal was in
considering it part of the frame. Our choice to make them was based on wording
in the rulebook that brackets must attach to original mounting points on the frame.
If a replacement frame is looked up in the factory manual for purchase, it does
not include the brackets we replaced.
However, they are in the frame grouping of parts, so in the end it was
the decision of Moto America to consider it part of the frame.

(Above) Quarterley Racing On Track Development’s custom bracket as seen from the front.

We did act on the decision rather than appeal it and managed
to retrieve parts from North Carolina overnight and swap out three bikes worth
of parts and not miss qualifying on Saturday. I feel a better path given we ran
them all throughout 2018 would have been to call us on it for an explanation
and possibly give us a chance to change them for VIR before deciding to hand
down the sanction.

In closing, we did this last year and ran them all season
with no issues or complaints. We also made no attempt to have them be
inconspicuous as they are bare aluminum where OEM parts are black. It was not until a competitor pointed them
out to tech that it became an issue which is within their rights to do so. What
we would like to see is a possibility of those being a logical upgrade for any
competitor to use as it is a created weak point as described above. We would be
willing to offer them to all teams if they can be homologated.

As a professional team, we do play by the rules and are very
happy to see some technical policing of the bikes such as the wheel bearing
checks and hope it goes a step further as the season progresses.

Bob Robbins

Quarterley Racing