Already the questions are flooding in: how can it be that three Suzukis are examined by the AMA's technical staff and two of them are found illegal while one is declared legal? That happened yesterday here at Road Atlanta after Superbike qualifying. Mat Mladin and Tommy Hayden's crankshafts were declared illegal while the crankshaft in Ben Spies' bike passed inspection.

Since Mladin's Suzuki Superbike was again declared illegal, some wonder if DMG isn't singling him out because of his criticisms of the new regime change and 2009 series structure.

Questions of motivation aside, essentially what this situation boils down to is interpretation of the AMA rule book. Suzuki, and specifically Mladin's crew, are of the opinion that the crankshaft that they used at VIR and again here at Atlanta is legal. DMG's technical staff, meanwhile, obviously strongly disagree. An appeal board will decide on the latter while the former means that Mladin and Tommy Hayden essentially posed no times yesterday in Superbike qualifying.

How did Spies pass? Again, his crankshaft was not examined at VIR. And following Mladin's disqualification it is said that Spies' crewchief, veteran wrench and tactician Tom Houseworth, had the crankshaft from a GSX-R1000 streetbike motor pulled from its bearings and installed in Spies' Atlanta motor, insuring that it would be legal.

Houseworth refused any comment on the subject, answering any questions with NFL answers. "I think the Vikings might have a shot this year," he said.

Ostensibly, Mladin's side of the Suzuki garage are standing by their contention that their crankshaft is legal; thusly they ran the same crankshaft yesterday in qualifying.