Tonka Simpson could be stripped of Around the Island Race class honours, The Royal Gazette can reveal.Bermuda Powerboat Association (BPBA) commodore Brian Smith has confirmed that his committee will review its original decision to declare Simpson as FB class winner in this year’s race.It has emerged that Simpson had been disqualified for violating race rules (leaving the track) after rivals Point Mart had filed a protest.But association boss Smith said the original decision to disqualify the 25-year-old pilot and declare Point Mart as winners was eventually over ruled by his fellow committee members.This in turn has led to an outcry from disgruntled Point Mart team members who feel they have been unfairly treated.“When you spend the amount of time and money that boat racers do and then you start mucking around with the rules they are supposed to be governed by then it doesn’t leave a good taste in anybody’s mouth,” stated team spokesman Jason DeSilva. “If my commodore tells me someone has been disqualified I would take that as gold, but apparently not.“Obviously the Bermuda Powerboat Association has rules to follow, which in my eyes were not followed by any stretch of the imagination.“The point is there are rules, we lodged a protest and the man wouldn’t let anyone look at his boat and left. This is like a policeman pulling you over under suspicion of drinking and driving and you tell them you will come back tomorrow and blow in the breath analyser.“Tonka told the commodore ‘that nobody was going to look at his boat’ and so Brian gave us our money back and said ‘the protest was over because he has disqualified himself’.”DeSilva also rebutted Simpson’s claims that he had been “intimidated” by his fellow Point Mart colleagues after the race.Smith, meanwhile, has admitted that he did in fact declare Point Mart as the winners after Simpson was disqualified.“I gave them their money (protest fee) back and told them Tonka was disqualified because he refused to be inspected,” he said.“But while dealing with the situation the committee went against my decision which caused another problem.“No matter how we look at it this situation was handled very badly. It should not be handled the way it was and so the committee will be meeting again to sort this matter out.”Point Mart had accused Simpson of having illegal parts in his engine and remain unconvinced that the one inspected three-days after the race had concluded was in fact the one that was used.“It could’ve been the motor but nobody knows because it (inspection) wasn’t done under the sanctioned rules of the BPBA,” DeSilva said. “I’m not going to lodge conspiracy theories..... but Ray Charles can see what took place.”To this day Simpson has maintained his innocence, stressing that “you can tell if a gasket has been popped or parts or a motor has been changed”.He also claims he waited for nearly an hour for the protest to be dealt with before leaving Ferry Reach with the permission of association commodoore Smith.Smith admits he gave the driver permission to leave against his better judgment, but only under the condition he be accomanpanied by a race official, something that did not occur.Both teams are currently serving two-race suspensions.Point Mart was suspended for their conduct during the post-race presentation while Simpson had disciplinary action taken against him for his rant with race officials after being notified of the protest.