Danny Eslick narrowly edged out Cory West by 0.041-second to win the 76th Daytona 200 held last Saturday, March 18 at Daytona International Speedway.
After the race, however, West was stripped of his second-place finish when his Yamaha YZF-R6 failed to pass post-race technical inspection. Specifically, West was disqualified for an illegal airbox/air filter set-up on his motorcycle, a violation of a rule that has been in place in CCS and ASRA competition for a very long time and a rule that Daytona 200 competitors were well informed about, according to ASRA/CCS President Kevin Elliott.
“This is the wording of the rule for all Supersport motorcycles, not just the R6. We’ve had this rule in place for almost 20 years,” Elliott told Roadracingworld.com in a telephone interview Tuesday. “The first time it raised its ugly head was with the 1999 Suzuki SV650. People were cutting the snorkel out. The air filter created the top of the air box and the air inlet. They were cutting the snorkel out, but instead of cutting it from the inside they were cutting it from the outside, opening the airbox [intake] up.
“We were disqualifying people for that, so we had to make it very clear that the airbox opening for your model year had to be the same [size]. We actually built a go/no-go gauge where if it dropped in there it was good and if the whole piece dropped in there it was no good because they trimmed the outside instead of just the snorkel on the inside.
“So when Yamaha went to having the air intake opening be part of the air filter, that snorkel that screws onto [the air filter], that’s when we started having issues because even though [the rule] allows an aftermarket filter you still have to control the air inlet opening.
“And the air inlet opening has to be the OEM air inlet opening for that model year. If it’s a 2008 [model] it gets to have one opening, and if it’s a 2010 it has to be a different opening. We run into this all the time at ASRA races. At least once a year a guy who does well, Amateur or Expert, gets disqualified because it’s got one of those BMC street filters with the big wide cut-outs.
“We finally said,’Look we’re going to order the [OEM Yamaha] air filters from the last 10 years, and we have the three [different] ones [for the Yamaha YZF-R6]. We have the proof parts.’ That’s why we said, ‘If you have a question, come check it. We’re looking at the top 10 motorcycles (after the race).’ That’s why we got the pieces and had them there. We beat it to death at every meeting [at Daytona]. We even put some pictures together [on the ASRA website, http://www.asraracing.com/Daytona200.html and http://www.ccsracing.us/forms/Clarification%20of%2… ‘Look, this is the stock cone, this is the BMC street cone and here is the BMC race filter that is clearly not [Supersport/SportBike] legal.’ The pictures are not model year specific. They just show the three types of filters.
“This has been a thorn in my side for years. It seems so simple to me. When it says ‘original equipment’ it means original equipment for your model year. It’s not the original equipment from 2008 to put in a 2016, which is where this, from what I understand, that’s where this comes out sideways.”
According to Elliott, ASRA officials at Daytona, “used a template, and when the template didn’t fit right then they actually took a caliper and measured [the air inlet]. It was so far off we couldn’t justify it. The rules are the rules.
“There’s none of us that are happy about this. Not a single person.”
West, through his team, Trackside Suspension & Engineering (TSE), has filed a formal appeal of ASRA’s ruling.
That appeal will be heard at an upcoming CCS event.
Roadracingworld.com tried but was unable to reach West or TSE’s Mark Stiles, Scotty Ryan or Meghan Ryan prior to post time.