Top riders withdraw from Heartland Park

By John Hopkins

AMA American Superbike points leader Mat Mladin and Daytona SportBike title contender Jamie Hacking withdrew from this weekend's series round at Heartland Park Topeka due to safety concerns with the track.

On Friday Mladin issued a press release, published on roadracingworld.com, explaining his position.

"It is important to note that Topeka is a newly sanctioned round on the championship schedule," he said. "It is also important to note that Topeka has made changes to the track, but unfortunately, as is the case too many times, the track approval process was flawed and we arrived at a facility that was not ready for our caliber of competition.

"This is 2009, and the days of showing up to race tracks that we know nothing about and have not been allowed to test at because of the AMA/DMG new rules regarding our testing are raising serious safety issues.

"We race 200hp motorcycles where with constant development, the brakes, the tires, the chassis, the engines and the complete package as a whole gets faster every year. With this development the corner speeds and straight line speeds get faster and faster. With these extra speeds the margin of safety gets much smaller if the racetracks are not made safer."

Mladin entered the Heartland Park weekend with an almost insurmountable 126-point lead over his Rockstar / Makita / Suzuki teammate Tommy Hayden in the American Superbike point standings.

Later on Friday roadracingworld.com posted a press release from Kawasaki Motors Corp., U.S.A. saying Monster Energy Attack Kawasaki rider Hacking would not be racing at the event, and that he had met with track owner Raymond Irwin to address his concerns.

"I was introduced to Raymond and had the chance to go over a track map with him," said Hacking in the release. "I think that he really respected my concerns and was very receptive to my suggestions."

Hacking was third in the Daytona SportBike standings, 41 points behind leader Martin Cardenas.

Team E.S.P. Yamaha's Robertino Pietri also withdrew from the round.

Heartland Park Topeka is returning to the AMA Pro Road Racing schedule after an absence of almost 20 years. The track has undergone extensive improvements since a rider safety delegation visited the facility last November.

"We have gone and continue to go to great lengths to make the track as safe as possible for all riders," Irwin said in an AMA Pro Racing press release issued Friday. "We have met or exceeded every safety issue that AMA Pro Road Racing and the AMA Pro Rider Safety Committee have raised. Some changes, like removing the wall in Turn Alpha, we've made a year in advance."

Among those to voice their support for the track were Yamaha factory rider Josh Hayes, who was part of the series safety delegation, and Team Foremost Insurance / Pegram / Ducati rider Larry Pegram, who won Saturday's American Superbike race.

"I don't have any reservations about racing here at all, especially since they took that wall out in Turn 1," Pegram said on Friday. "That was my one spot that I was really concerned about and the track owner went out last night and got that wall the rest of the way out. Obviously, there's a lot of changes that need to be made but as proactive as this promoter and track owner is, I think when we come back here next year we are going to have a race track that is one of the best, as far as safety, that we are going to have."