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A correspondent emailed us with a criticism of the delays encountered at the World Long Track: meeting at Pukekura Park. This criticism was forwarded to Ivan Mauger for his information. Ivan obviously takes his event promotion seriously and he has taken the time to respond as follows. Plus - he has divulged the little titbit that Springsteen may be at Pukekura in 2005, and it's not Bruce.
Thank you for your comments and I will be using your email as Ammo when I send my report to FIM. Last year we had the World Championship presentations at a good time and I had an agreement with FIM to use 19 inch rear tyres. This year they wanted to use the normal Long Track tyres that are 22 inch but also have a deeper tread that digs the track up. As a result the riders then wanted the track graded after each race and that takes too much time.
The FIM Referee also made two very bad decisions. The first took nearly 30 minutes of protest time for the same result to stand and the second and most serious was his mistake in the points after the 12 heats that took an unacceptable amount of time to decide the C and B finalists. I had meetings with FIM next day and they know exactly my position on above situations.
The World Championship date in 2005 is 5th November and we will go back to 19 inch rear tyres and have the most senior referee allocated. There wont be MX bikes or Quads as they also caused damage to the track that took time to repair.
I expect to have Jay Springsteen and some other Americans on XR750 Harley Davidsons as support class, plus the NZ National Long Track riders.
Thanks again for taking the time to send your comments.
Regards
Ivan Mauger
