On 2008-09-17 23:29:24 -0400, Will Hartung sbcglobal.net> said:

{second try, thanks Brighthouse!}

I'm a head guy and don't mess around much with lower ends,(settle
down!) but I do know there's different ways to strengthen a crank for
racing and given what's been released we can (half-ass) discern
Proracing's position. IIRC they said the crank weight was pretty much
stock, but said it was "dimensionally different" and that usually means
the bearing surfaces were bigger/larger than stock. That alone is DQ
material, as increasing the bearing surface reduces stress at high, not
to mention, sustained high RPM's that racing engines are used for.(all
cranks really do is change linear energy to circular so the engine can
use a tranny) They also said something about color and that to me would
indicate some kind of hardening process. I think it's safe to rule out
any billet work like MGP bikes most likely have, as well as exotic
counter balancers (uranium/lead) that some full on drag engines use and
shot peening too, as all those would've been very obvious. What most
likely it was is a carefully balanced crank with larger bearings that
was either hardened through a process called nitriding, (case
hardening) or another known as carbuization(?) depending on the
manufacturing process. The bottom line is that crank may have not
increased HP, but it surely increased durability, which makes it
performance enhancing and very illegal in AMA SBK..

To me, the sad part about this deal is that neither Mat, nor Ben needed
any "off the reservation" help to begin with and that's why it's hard
for me not to put this whole thing in the hubris file, which, by the
way, lays most, if not all of the blame at Yosh's doorstep. A lot of
tuner guys I know wondered why, after so many years, they never had a
DNF due to engine (not clutch) failure, I guess now we know "one" of
the reasons why. Will this end up being an asterisk on both those great
rider's tenure in AMA? I don't believe it should and hope it doesn't,
but.....