While team Australia were celebrating the MXoN the USA were protesting Hunter Lawrence for wiping his gate amongst miscommunication about whether he was allowed to wipe the grate or not. But it shows just how badly the USA wanted to win!
Renthals Paul Perebijinos, who was involved in the protest for the US said to Steve Matthes: “The big question that we had, and we had a meeting with the FIM before the weekend started to go over rules, and we did that as a team. We filmed the entire meeting because we wanted to have documentation of the questions he asked.
“Believe it or not, I was the person that asked the question about wiping the grate and wiping the gate. Because this was an issue that we kind of asked about after we saw the gates being wiped at Red Bud and never got a real clear answer, so we brought it up again and they basically said, you cannot wipe anything.
“So going to the final moto, we noticed two people wiping gates and it was Jorge Prado and Hunter Lawrence. So we had it on film, because we were filming as gates were bring loaded every since time because we wanted to be prepared. We’re not trying to call somebody a cheater but we are trying to make sure nobody is trying to gain an advantage over us.
“We kind of actioned that protest in the middle of the moto before it was over, we were already getting video prepared, ready to action that protest and it was against Hunter Lawrence. We are not trying to accuse Hunter of cheating, he asked the question himself because he, like us, is trying to gain an advantage he can within the rules. And he asked the question, can I wipe my grid? And they told him he could, so why wouldn’t he? When was wiping it he was under the impression he was doing no wrong, when we saw him wiping it we were under the impresion that he was doing some wrong.
“It didn’t feel great afterwards, the protest was taking a while and there was already a podium celebration… ultimately nothing changed, it was a misinterpretation of a rule that really isn’t specifically addressed. I think some rule will show up about that in the future. I think it needs to be addressed in the rulebook.”
Get the full interview and more detail on the issue with Steve Matthes and Paul Perebijinos below:
