FIRST PERSON/OPINION: By David Swarts Police officer Danny Dominguez must be really mad because his 18-year-old son Dustin Dominguez was just robbed–and there’s not anything anybody can do about it. The younger Dominguez was robbed of the AMA Sports Road Race Horizon Award, which he earned this past weekend at the AMA Sports Road Race Grand Championships (RRGC) at Mid-Ohio. The award, however, was presented to Christopher Clark. Clark won two races. Dominguez won four races. In the six races they both competed in, Dominguez beat 17-year-old Clark five of the six times. Based on that it seems pretty clear who should have won the award, but AMA Racing Senior Director Bryan Cohn, the man in charge of the event, did not see it that way. When asked how the winner of the AMA Horizon Award was determined, Cohn said a performance index rating produced by the CCS timing and scoring system ranked Clark higher. He then said, “He’s [Dominguez] been an Expert since 2002. And the award, as you know, is for a young rider getting ready to turn Pro that is looking toward a professional future. That’s the main criteria for the award. “Now someone who’s been an Expert for six years doesn’t exactly fit that criteria, as far as being an amateur racer. I’m not trying to diminish anyone’s results from the event. That’s part of the criteria, that’s a big part of the criteria from the standpoint on the way to being a professional racer as far as the award is concerned.” Having compiled Roadracing World’s annual Young Guns feature for 10 years now, I’m probably as familiar with young road racers in America as anyone. So I know things that Cohn and the three individuals he tasked with selecting this year’s Horizon Award winner may or may not know, depending upon whether or not they did their homework. For instance, Dominguez turned Expert at age 12 when he was racing Yamaha YSR50s in CMRA’s proven feeder system. That’s the same organization and mini-bike racing system that spawned the road racing careers of all three Hayden brothers and three-time AMA Superbike Champion Ben Spies. Dominguez graduated from racing mini-bikes to competing on Suzuki SV650s and Vintage machines; then, at the end of the 2006 season, he moved up to 600cc and 1000cc sportbikes. And while Dominguez has been eligible for an AMA Pro Racing license since 2007, he purposely didn’t apply for one, so he could remain eligible for the Horizon Award. Dominguez has been a strong candidate for the Horizon Award during the last two RRGCs. He won two AMA Sports Grand Championships on his SV650 in 2006, and he took six podium finishes at last year’s event. He also co-rode with his CMRA teammates to the AMA Sports Club Challenge Championship for the last two seasons. But Dominguez was outperformed on the racetrack, in terms of earning the Horizon Award, in 2006 and 2007, by fellow CMRA riders Cory Burleson and Zac Chapman, respectively. And now that Dominguez has put in his best-ever performance at the RRGC he’s being told his career has gone stagnant at age 18? This is not meant to take anything away from Clark, who clearly rode well at Mid-Ohio, a track he had never seen before, and who is well on his way to starting a successful professional road racing career next season. Nor is it meant to take anything away from the other riders who competed for the Horizon Award last weekend. For instance, 17-year-old Derek Wagnon (another CMRA rider) won two races — beating Dominguez and Clark in both — and finished second to Clark in two others. P.J. Jacobsen, 15, won a race, battled for the lead in several events and finished third three times in his 600cc racing debut. And Californian Tyler Odom, age 14, won a trio of races on his Ducati and Super Single machines. No, this is meant to point out that the 2008 AMA Sports Road Race Horizon Award has been tarnished by poor judging. The controversy surrounding the award has devalued the award for Clark. Dominguez should have won, and has been denied proper recognition by AMA Sports judges who clearly did not know what they were looking at.