Weather is on the minds of many as the local forecast calls for a strong chance of rain in Southern California on Sunday, and Auto Club Speedway, which has been a dry-race-only venue since it joined the AMA schedule in 2002, is now considered raceable in the wet by the new AMA Pro Racing regime. When the possibility of racing in the rain on Sunday was brought up during the Daytona SportBike post-SuperPole press conference, pole-sitter Jamie Hacking said, “Well, ya’ll be without me. I’ll be absent. I won’t be here. I’ll make one lap to make my boss happy and to at least say that I attempted to race, but as we all know this is not one place that we need to riding in the rain and I’m going to stand my ground and I will not ride in the rain. My life is better than winning the Championship. It’s worth more.” Mat Mladin’s Crew Chief Peter Doyle said none of the three Rockstar Makita Suzuki riders would race in the rain at Auto Club Speedway. But what “raceable” means is not easy to define, according to Managing Event Director Road Racing Colin Fraser. “Policy-wise since Elkhart Lake last year the words we use the words that are always used at all the meetings with the entrants and the riders is that if the track is raceable, that’s the word we use, we plan on racing if we can,” said Fraser. “And a good example is Elkhart, because in some situations we didn’t race and in some situations we did, events were moved and events were shortened. “I understand the riders’ concern. Their safety is paramount, but we have not told them that they are riding in the rain. It’s going to depend on the track conditions and that depends on how the other races went, if there’s an oil spill the last time the cars went out. I could go on and come up with a list of 25 factors, but in the end we have to make a determination about the track. And we’re not saying that they would ride here in the rain. We’re saying we’d make that decision based on a number of factors. “And obviously, if it’s possible to wait it out that would be the best solution. Is it possible that we might not ride? Absolutely. That’s possible, too, but we can’t foresee the conditions until the conditions appear. But obviously everyone’s concerned that around noon on Sunday the expectation is it’s going to rain, and the riders are right to be concerned about that.” Fraser said that Dunlop had rain tires ready to go. He also said that Dunlop and Auto Club Speedway would be involved in any decision whether or not to race in the rain.