AMA teams and riders are definitely not the concern of officials of MotoGP commercial rights holder DORNA, who–according to official radio traffic monitored using a scanner at Laguna Seca Raceway this morning–told cornerworkers to not wave warning flags during AMA sessions. Radio traffic also discussed the fact that the workers were 20 minutes late reaching their corner stations this morning, because security officials would not let the workers into the track early enough to set up at the corners. Some of the workers seemed to be in no apparent hurry to get to their stations. As a result, no oil flags were waved after a rider blew an engine early in the first AMA Superbike sessions Friday morning, until riders demanded that workers put out flags and the session was red-flagged for oil clean-up. Among the first on the oiled-down section of track was Robertino Pietri, who said “I saw the guy blow up but it was too late, I was in the corner and my bike went completely sideways. I waved my hand and looked back and saw (Mat) Mladin coming and waved like crazy, and then he started waving, too. There were no flags.” Following the incident, the oiled part of the track was cleaned up and cornerworkers were instructed to flag for AMA sessions. AMA teams are also prohibited–as per DORNA–from setting up canopies on hot pit and are required to remove all their equipment–including toolboxes, tires racks, tables, ice chests, etc.–from their assigned pit wall spaces following the conclusion of each AMA session. A memo issued to teams Friday morning read: Laguna Seca Pit Lane Equipment Restrictions Friday July 21, 2006 -Teams will be allowed to moved their equipment into the pit lane area starting aproxomately 7:00 a.m. –At 12:30 when the AMA practice sessions are finished, AMA teams must move ALL equipment out of the hot and cold pit lane area. There will be an area near one of the pit lane gates where teams may leave equipment. –At 2:45 teams may move their equipment into the pit lane again. An additional release will be available at AMA Tech with times for Saturday and Sunday. And now, comment from a cornerworker stationed in turn two at Laguna Seca: FIRST PERSON/OPINION Via e-mail: The AMA uses 11 flagging stations (12 if you count start/finish). These are connected by landline, and the radio is not used. The FIM uses radio for 40-something flag stations. What was overheard was directions to the FIM flaggers, who aren’t the same as the AMA flaggers. What happened this morning was that some over-ethusiastic FIM flaggers were throwing flags in places that AMA riders wouldn’t expect. It is confusing to say the least. The AMA flag station did show a yellow flag immediately. Also note that FIM doesn’t use AMA’s pickle flag for oil, so FIM flag stations couldn’t show the right flag even if they were supposed to. No help on why it took so long to get a red flag – that’s under race direction control and we can’t use it without permission. Jo Rhett San Francisco, California