Facts are facts and, after some digging around, we’ve finally got all the facts on the fiasco that currently surrounds North Carolina’s Taylor Futrell. Yesterday evening we posted a current event that stated that Futrell was disqualified from the 250A class at the Southeast Loretta Lynn Regional hosted at Mill Creek. That was a fact. We also stated that rumor had it that he was running a 310cc motor. While rumors were floating around at the time that he was running a 310cc motor, it was not fact. Following a conversation early Monday morning with Larry Dukes, the technician hired to tear down over seven motors at the event, we found out that Futrell had not, in fact, been using a 310cc motor, but rather a 255cc motor.

So what did we learn from all of this? First, there are more rumors floating around the pits of a motocross race then in the high school girl’s locker room. Second, despite being off on the cc count, the fact still remains that Futrell was caught with an illegal motor and was disqualified from the event.

To get the real truth it is important to explore multiple sides of the story. With this in mind we contacted Larry Dukes – the tech in charge of inspecting the bikes, Chris and Taylor Futrell – the participants caught using an illegal motor, and Derek Rogers - one of the seven other riders who was randomly selected to have his bike torn down at the event.

Following are three short interviews that will without doubt shed some light on the AMA inspection calamity from Mill Creek last weekend.

Enter Larry Dukes:

Mr. Dukes, I assume you probably know why I’m calling you. I am trying to track down some facts on what happened this weekend.

At Mill Creek?

Yes, sir!

I was hired by the promoter and the AMA Referee to run the tear downs. They chose the bikes. I think we checked a total of seven bikes. Two or three in the B class and the rest in the A class. All we were to do was to check the bore and the stroke and one of the bikes checked was out of stroke, there was a stroked crank in it.

And that was Taylor Futrell’s bike, correct?

Yes, that is correct. We measured it probably 12 times to make sure that we weren’t missing anything. I did three or four measurements on it myself and then I had another guy helping me, Tony Cantrell, Leah Cantrell’s dad. I would measure, and I knew what my numbers were, then I wouldn’t say anything to him as to what my numbers were, and I would have him measure and he was coming up with the same numbers I was. The stock stroke on the CRF 250 Honda is a 52.2mm and we had already previously checked two other CRF 250s and they were measuring consistently where they were supposed to be. And this one [Taylor Futrell’s] was measuring more than that.

Can you give me an exact measurement?

What we were using was a slide caliper there in the field, which that’s not the most precise instrument, per say, and that’s what I discussed with Mr. Futrell. But, it was consistently measuring in the 53mm plus stroke range. So, per our calculations, the motor was reading in at about 255cc’s.

While the tool may not have been the most accurate tool, the other bikes were measuring to spec, correct?

Exactly, and that’s exactly what I said to him [Mr. Futrell]. While I’m not arguing the point that this isn’t the most precise tool to measure with, I mean, it was a precision visual caliper, but I’ve been in this business long enough that I know for a fact, and am 100% certain that the bike was out of spec. I’ve been in the business for nearly 30 years. I have a performance shop and all I do is race bikes. My son is Shawn Dukes and went all the way to the pro ranks at one time. I’ve done work for Ezra Lusk, Matt Walker and Jase Lewis, so I’ve been in it a long time.

And what is the name of your company?

LSD Racing

Who was in charge of choosing which bikes were to be torn down?

Tony Morris, the AMA official.

I appreciate your time.

Thank you

Enter Chris Futrell (Taylor’s father):

VM: Chris, first off I would like to apologize on behalf of Vurb for posting the rumor that Taylor was running a 310cc motor. It was a rumor we heard at the time, and while we did state that is was only rumor, after finding out more facts we have come to find out that it was not a 310cc motor, but rather closer to a 255cc motor. What we are trying to do now is make good on our original statement and find out the facts. Regardless of the original cc discrepancy, there was still a disqualification this weekend.

Chris Futrell: You have to understand why we were upset about what was said. For it to come out that we were running a 310cc or 312cc motor is just ridiculous. First of all, I’m not saying anything bad about Tony [Morris, the AMA official in charge of Mill Creek]. Tony is a great guy. I’ve known him for a long time. And the McWilliams put on a class act as far as promoting the race and having an event. My only issue was that there is a better way to spec a motor than with a set of hand calipers, and Mr. Dukes will tell you that too. They made their determination and we accept that. It is what it is. But if our competitors think that 4.8 cc’s beat them this weekend, they are mistaken.

VM: Mr. Dukes agreed that the tool that was used to run the test may not have been the most accurate tool, but he also agreed that of the seven bikes that were tested six of them came out to spec.

Chris Futrell: This is my statement and this is after talking to my motor man. We run a stock crank and a stock piston. We’re going to send the motor back and we’re going to have our own inspection. If we’re wrong, then we’ll correct that. I do want to apologize to our sponsors and the people that help us. I want to issue and apology for all of this stuff.

VM: So what was the final call?

Chris Futrell: The final call was they disqualified us from the 250A class. Our bike speced at 254.8cc.

Enter Taylor Futrell:

VM: Taylor, I just wanted to you to know that we will be publishing a story on this as soon as all the details get put together. Despite what was said earlier on our site about the motor being 310cc, we do want to publish the truth about the situation.

Taylor Futrell: Well, that’s all that we ask. This is kind of a serious thing and whatever the story was I just don’t want it to be the right story.

VM: I’ve spoken with Mr. Dukes and with your father, so we really don’t need to go into any more detail, but just wanted you to know that a full story will be going up on the issue.

Taylor Futrell: I completely understand. You guys have always been good to me. The plan now is to just go home and regroup and come back strong and ready to go.

VM: Seeing as you are on the final stretch of your amateur career, do you find yourself focusing more on your debut at Budds Creek rather than trying to focus too much on this?

Taylor Futrell: That’s the thing. I don’t care about what everybody else thinks or if I get disqualified for that one class. This is just a very critical time right now. I just want to make sure we keep the story straight and move forward from here.

Next up on the list of contacts was Derek Rogers. We decided to contact one of the other riders who randomly had their bike inspected to get their take on the weekends events.

Enter Derek Rogers:

Derek, can you give us your take on the bike inspection debacle from this weekend?

The whole deal this weekend was random from what I heard. I even heard I was getting torn down before the moto even started. I knew it was coming, I think we needed it and it should most definitely be done more often.

What are your feelings on other riders who may not have been at Mill Creek using illegal motors?

I'm sure there are more riders that are cheating and when one person gets in trouble and they do nothing about it, they (the AMA) are pretty much saying its okay for everyone else to do the same. As riders we put so much into this sport and no matter how hard we try and how fast we try to go, who ever is cheating is going to have more power, so really we're just wasting our time trying to beat somebody.

So there you have it, straight from the top. In addition to speaking with Larry Dukes, Chris and Taylor Futrell and Derek Rogers, we also attempted to contact the man in charge of building Taylor’s motors, Fred Vertucci of VME Racing, but did not receive a response by deadline.