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COPYRIGHT 2004 Ehlert Publishing Group
The smell of sun-baked champagne still lingered in the air at the Virginia Motorsports Park in Petersburg, Va. Reigning Grand National Cross Country Pro-class Champion Bill Ballance had sprayed the biggest of the champagne bottles at The Patriot and earned a large eagle trophy for the seventh time this year. The dirt, dried bubbly and sweat clinging to fellow pro Bryan Cook's face did little to cover up the gigantic smile he sported. He was elated to be on the podium for the first time in his career. And Pro-Am rider Jeremy Rice was also stoked about his third-place overall ride. For Cook and Rice, the party was just getting started. For Ballance, the news wasn't so thrilling.
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Ballance, who appeared to have recorded his seventh win in nine races was ecstatic about it. That is, until he'd been informed by the Racer Productions crew that his victory was being protested and, based on the video footage and a subsequent ruling, he could be docked two positions and thus lose his win, trophy and ever-important contingency money. After a lengthy delay, the ruling was made. Ballance--along with pros Matt Smiley and Chris Borich--was moved two spots back and had to trade his seventh win for a third-place plate.
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"In my complete, personal, 100-percent opinion, it's a way for them [Racer Productions] to keep racing somewhat more interesting and keep me from running away with a championship so fast.
"It's happened before where they made an example out of me over something that they've done wrong," explained Ballance. "I've never gone out and cheated anybody in my whole life. I honestly, completely feel we didn't do a darn thing wrong."
In an incident earlier in the year at Mathews Farms, Ballance and some other riders inadvertently went off course. Racer Productions ruled that the riders went off course because it failed to properly place a banner to prevent that from happening. To rectify the mistake, Racer Productions held some of the riders, including Ballance, for the amount of time they were ruled to have gained over the other riders and so the others racers could have a fair shot at regaining ground.
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"At that round, it was a penalty and I went along with it, then. We asked them why they didn't do that the next lap [at The Patriot] and we just figured this time they would hold us, that's all, we'd lose a position or others could gain...
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