Don't Clean it Just Make it Race Ready

OK, tell me how this makes sense. A bike comes in before for service before last weekend's racing. The words uttered were "Don't clean it just make it race ready." 1st of all, this bike was at one point a high quality peice of machinery. After several months of riding w/ no love the thing could be mistaken for you run of the mill bike. The point is you can't make something last for long without maintaining it a little. We were able to get the bike in top shape for the race but the bottom bracket had to be replaced due to the inordinate amount of dirt and muck on the bike.