KOWALSKI CLEARED AFTER CARBURETTORS PASS TEST

FIM SGP2 star Bartlomiej Kowalski hit back at accusations he turned up to race in a Bauhaus Elitserien match in Sweden with oversized carburettors after tests confirmed they were legal.

The Polish racer, who competes for Indianerna and Polish side Wroclaw, had a number of carburettors impounded for testing ahead of the Kumla club’s trip to Vastervik on Tuesday night.

While he was allowed to race in the meeting, scoring one point, social media was awash with rumours he had attempted to compete with an oversized carburettor, which could boost the engine’s performance.

But these rumours were scotched by today’s tests, which proved Kowalski’s carburettors were the correct size and discovered the testing device used in Vastervik was smaller than required and measured the carburettors incorrectly.

Posting on his Instagram stories, Kowalski hit out at those who rushed to judgement. He wrote: “It is always worth waiting patiently for the matter to be clarified. It is not worth attacking and accusing immediately. I was sure my gear was okay. I play fair. Now I'm clearing my head and moving on. Thank you to all those who believed in me and supported me.”

A statement on the Indianerna official website confirmed: “Yesterday, Bartek Kowalski was accused of trying to use two faulty carburettors. 

“During the day, the club carried out a thorough further investigation where, among others, the manufacturer Mikael Blixt was consulted and where all the team's carburettors were measured with a three-point micrometre, which shows that Kowalski is innocent of having tried to cheat before yesterday's match.

“The size of the carburettor must be 34mm, and the culprit in the drama was an incorrect measuring instrument in Västervik.

“Permitted sizes are 34mm with a maximum difference of 0.1mm, i.e., 34.1mm. The measuring instrument yesterday was found to be exactly 33.997mm and the larger part that should handle the error difference which should be 34.1mm and was instead 34.021mm. All of Kowalski's carburettors measure: 34.051mm, 34.100mm, 33.960mm and 33.990mm.”

Indians boss Peter Johansson also hit out at those who accused Kowalski of trying to gain an unfair advantage. He said: “I hope that everyone who falsely accused Kowalski and the club in general in text, word and deed takes an extra thought and waits for a person's opportunity to clear themselves before pointing fingers, regardless of whether they hold an official position in some club around the world or are sitting on a sofa in front of the TV.”