“Track cuts” by some riders during Friday morning AMA Superbike, Supersport and Superstock practice sessions at Infineon Raceway resulted in those riders appearing lower in the results listings than they normally might be. Per AMA Pro Racing’s supplemental regulations for the Kawasaki AMA Superbike Showdown, riders who run off the track at Turn Four and Turn Nine and do not re-enter the track in the prescribed manner will be considered to have “cut” the track and will no longer be scored during that session. The same offense in a race will result in a ride-through penalty. Corona Extra Honda’s Jake Holden was listed third in Superstock practice with a 1:38.176. He did faster times, he said, but they were not counted because he had a “track cut” during the session. None of his lap times after that were counted. Attack Kawasaki’s Steve Rapp was 11th in the official Supersport practice results, but he said he also did faster times that were disallowed because they came after he “cut” the track. Track cuts were a hot topic of discussion at Friday’s rider’s meeting, particularly in the face of the number of “cuts” during the races at the previous round at Auto Club Speedway and the layout of the Turn Nine “bus-stop” chicane at Infineon Raceway. The Turn Nine chicane has a paved escape road with a chicane formed out of tire barriers. If a rider overshoots Turn Nine they are expected to navigate this chicane before rejoining the racetrack. The question raised at the rider’s meeting, however, was what about a rider who turns into Turn Nine, realizes he is in too hot, stands his bike up and runs across the small dirt run-off section on the inside the chicane? That will be considered a “track cut” and will incur a penalty for the rider, according to Daytona Motorsports Group’s (DMG) Colin Fraser. Questioned about hypothetical scenarios that could force a rider to involuntarily run through the dirt in Turn Nine, Fraser said that under some circumstances a racing incident may force a rider to go off-track in Turn Nine and a penalty will not be assessed. Fraser said the problems with track cuts are they cause safety workers to be distracted from their primary mission and all of the radio traffic calling in the cuts ties up the radio network.