The eighth round of the 11-round Pro Honda Oils AMA Supersport Championship presented by Shoei Helmets and the seventh round of the 10-round AMA Superstock Championship presented by Dynojet were cancelled Sunday at Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course due to darkness. The day went off schedule from the start due to rain. Then drying the track took longer than initially thought, pushing the shortened race schedule even later. An abbreviated, 18-lap Superbike race ran to completion after a 15-minute warm-up/practice and 10-minute tire-change break. After the Superbike race, the AMA Supersport field went out for its scheduled 15-minute warm-up/practice session at 7:50 p.m., but during the scheduled 10-minute tire-change break AMA Racing officials made the decision to cancel the race. The decision to cancel the Superstock race, last on the new rain schedule, was made some time earlier. “It was darkness,” confirmed AMA Racing Superbike Series Manager Morgan Broadhead. “Truth is I probably should have given up on that race well before I did, because as soon as we took the extra 20-25 minutes to get the track dry I should have given up on it at that point. I knew it was getting dark, but I really wanted the Supersport race to happen. I knew it was an important race. It’s the privateers’ race. It’s got the most guys in it. I really wanted to get it off. I just pushed the situation right to the end, but it was getting too dark. A lot of guys were coming in and were stopping and saying it was too dark. Other guys were saying it was fine. I was looking at the clock about how much time we had before we went green. I realized, at that point, sometimes you have to realize when you’re trying too hard to make something happen, especially when I got word on how dark it was on the back side of the racetrack. At that point, I realized I was no longer comfortable trying to put them out there. And as soon as I felt that, as soon as I felt that way, I had to pull the plug, because I can’t second-guess myself when I have that feeling. And that’s how I felt.” Broadhead also said he was later informed by SPEED Channel’s camera operators that it was too dark for their cameras to record the race properly and thus it would have probably never been aired. The decision to cancel the race was met with mixed reaction. “I think it was a good call,” said Monster Energy Kawasaki’s Roger Hayden, the current Supersport Championship leader. “I definitely think the visibility wasn’t good. On the other hand I had a good bike this weekend. We’ve been fast all week. But I’m not the AMA. I don’t make the decisions. It just kind of sucks when you have a good bike and they call the race like that. We could have probably got the race in, maybe, but do you want to race the race [at the risk of] people’s safety? They asked my opinion. I gave my opinion. I know they asked a bunch of other people, too. I don’t know what everybody else think, but I think they made the right call.” “I think, for sure, it’s dark,” said Erion Honda’s Josh Hayes, who is currently third in the Supersport Championship. “The race probably would’ve sucked. I was prepared to race. I was expecting them to stop, but I was prepared to race. “I’m disappointed. As far as our Championship, that ruins us pretty good. Just another hit we had to take. I don’t know who was in the decision-making process. I don’t know if it was a good call, but it’s been made.” “Pretty angry, really. Pretty annoyed,” said Chaz Davies, who would’ve started the Supersport race from pole position on his Celtic Racing Yamaha. “I absolutely had a 100% chance of winning today, so obviously I’m really annoyed. I know why it was stopped, why it didn’t go ahead. I’m just really annoyed. “Keith Kizer [AMA Racing Road Race Director] asked my opinion, but I don’t think it got relayed back to Morgan [Broadhead]. The decision had already been made. I didn’t get asked. Josh Hayes didn’t get asked. Obviously, the two Kawasaki boys got asked. As soon as they were off their bikes they were up to Morgan. “The track was fine. It was pretty good for what it’s been all day. I’m obviously going to be annoyed because I had pole and a good chance to win. Josh [Hayes] is obviously going to be really annoyed because he needs to get back in the Championship. I think was a bad decision. It’s just a bit of a farce.” “I think it was definitely the smartest decision,” said Team M4 EMGO Suzuki’s Geoff May. “Of course, I feel like we had a shot at a race win today, definitely with the cooler temperatures and the shorter race. The whole M4 EMGO Suzuki crew was ready to rock ‘n’ roll with whatever they were going to do. But in the end, I think it was the safe decision because it got pretty dark on us pretty quick. I could see fine in practice but five laps into the race, who knows? It might have ended up being a bad situation. There’s water creeping out in Turn One, and it kept getting farther and farther out every lap and it didn’t look like there was anything they could do to stop it. You just can’t race motorcycle races at 8:30 at night.” The Supersport and Superstock races will not be made up. Only points for the riders who earned the pole positions in Supersport and Superstock were awarded, and no purse was paid. Competitors’ entry fees will be credited toward their next race.