On May 26, Aprilia HSBK Racing put out a press release announcing it had released MotoAmerica Superstock 1000 rider Dustin Dominguez effective immediately and that a replacement rider would be announced shortly. Then 30-year-old Sheridan Morais of South Africa, showed up and rode for Aprilia HSBK Racing at Road America, taking a podium finish in each Superstock 1000 race.
Morais is best known for finishing sixth in the 2012 FIM Supersport World Championship (where he finished on the podium in one race and collected nine top-10 finishes in 13 races) and for racing with Grillini Kawasaki in the EVO class of the 2014 FIM Superbike World Championship (where he ended up 18th in the final standings with a best overall race finish of 12th). In addition to his new job with Aprilia HSBK Racing, Morais continues to race for Yamaha Austria Racing Team in the FIM Endurance World Championship.
Dominguez, age 25, finished on the podium in three of the first six races of 2015, including a third-place finish while riding injured and starting from pit lane at VIRginia International Raceway. In 2014, Dominguez came up two points shy of winning the 2014 AMA Pro Supersport Championship with HSBK Racing.
In the May 26 announcement, Team Owner Bobby Shek is quoted as saying, “Aprilia has given us the task of bringing the RSV4 to the forefront of U.S. road racing and we take this very seriously. The decision to let Dustin go was very difficult and not one we took lightly. We have had a wonderful relationship with Dustin and have had a good bit of success with him. The fact that we are so fond of him and his family made this a difficult decision for us. We sincerely wish the best for him in the future.”
On May 30, MotoAmerica.com posted an interview that quoted Shek as saying, “Dustin is no longer on the team because he refused to comply with our fitness requirement. From day one, we told him if he doesn’t meet this fitness requirement, we’re going to halt the program. Out of our love for the kid, we let it slide once, we let it slide twice, but we just couldn’t do it anymore. We had to put our foot down.”
Following the MotoAmerica event at Road America, Dominguez told Roadracingworld.com, “My Crew Chief [Ronnie Saner] called me [May 25] and said, ‘Yeah, we’re going to have to put someone else on the bike.’ I was like, ‘OK. Why?’ And he was like, ‘Well, we’re not happy with your weight and everything. I expected you to be 10 pounds lighter than what was in your contract.’ ‘Then why wasn’t that in my contract?’ Then he was kind of hemming and hawing and said, ‘Well, the decision’s been made and we have to do this.’
“At first I was just frustrated with everything,” Dominguez said. “Then on Thursday when everyone got to [Road America] people were sending me text messages saying ‘I heard you were 20 pounds overweight’ and ‘I heard you weren’t training’ and a bunch of different stuff. Then I started to get mad.[The contract] just said I had to maintain the weight. They put a number on the weight. The only time I didn’t make the weight was at one of our tests before the season started. But once the season started, I made [the weight limit] at COTA, I made it at Road Atlanta and at VIR they didn’t weigh me.”
The MotoAmerica.com article also stated Dominguez scored poorly on a fitness test that measures maximum oxygen intake (VO2), and Dominguez did not dispute that. “After I did that VO2 test was when I signed my contract with them. They already had the results. They already knew everything,” said Dominguez. “It’s just really frustrating to me because I know all they’re doing is trying to save their reputation so they look good, but it sucks because I feel like it’s completely trashed my reputation, you know?”
Dominguez said he is six-feet-tall and weighs about 175 pounds. His replacement, Morais, said he is 5-foot-2 and weighs about 140 pounds.