Trials Torque: Casales pays a big penalty
By John Dickinson on 28th Jun 17
THERE was controversy at the French round of the Trial World Championship when factory Beta rider, Spaniard Jorge Casales, was penalised 20 marks by FIM Race Direction before the start of Sundays event at Lourdes.
The penalty was imposed after a member of his team was deemed to have entered an observed section the previous day, contrary to series rules.
The controversy was caused by a fellow rider having reported the action, accompanied by photographic evidence, to the FIM who applied the prescribed penalty.
An outbreak of ‘he said/ she said' allegations of rider v rider errupted on social media with every man and his dog throwing out accusations and opinions, the equivalent of doing the dirty washing in public.
Unfortunately this is now the norm and does little to anyone's advantage, serving only to fan the flames.
Regardless of who did what in the Casales incident, there are several points to cover regarding the build-up to this action.
The first is that ‘assistants' – and some riders it has to be said – have been stretching and breaking the rules for years.
Sections have been blatantly altered both pre-trial and during the events with rocks and ramps carefully constructed and ruts dug across cambers, all the work of industrious helpers.
Not to mention the practise of assistants carrying industrial quantities of water with which to wash rocks during the trial.
None of which is within the rules or contributes to the integrity of events.
The other problem rumbling round the TWC padocks is a clear divide between the ‘elite' corps of riders and those lower down the pecking order in regard to the newly introduced Qualifying.
To take just one issue, basically, the elite are dead against Qualifying, believing they should always have the advantage of riding the sections last while the rest of the field are, in the main, only too happy to be given the chance of being allowed the chance to fight for this obvious advantage.
The top riders always are massively protective of their privileged positions, only see things from their own, selfish point of view and have made no secret of their dislike of Qualifying.
This divide has the effect of making it virtually impossible to elect a riders' representative to put forward their views at meetings.
The Casales sanction on its own is neither here nor there, what it has done is highlight the underlying problems that TWC needs to rid itself of before it can truly move forward.
At least the new series promoters are attempting to tackle issues that the FIM allowed to fester for years, with certain people within the sport having wielded power to their own advantage.
As the saying goes, in order to make an omelette, you first have to break some eggs...
Series promoter Sport7 issued the following statement regarding the Casales sanction: "We were made aware that photographic evidence had been passed to FIM Race Direction that clearly showed that the rule regrading riders/ assistants being forbidden from entering the sections/ enclosures during the pre-Trial visit had been breached.
"In accordance with the regulations the correct and appropriate penalty was applied to the rider in question.
"Obviously we fully support the FIM and FIM Race Direction in terms of them upholding the rules in the correct and proper manner to ensure that the FIM Trial World Championship is and remains fair for all those that participate in it.”
