Skip Barber Superbike School

By Nick McCabe

Through my part-time gig as a Road Racer X keyboard clicker, I was recently given the chance to participate in the brand-new Skip Barber Superbike School, powered by KTM. I was scheduled to take part in the school that ran immediately following this year’s Red Bull U.S. Grand Prix last month, and was honored to have the chance to try out the new program.

The Skip Barber School, which is known for hosting one of the premier automobile racing schools and numerous “spec” four-wheel racing series, recently announced the addition of motorcycles to their established speedway curriculum. The automobile program has been in existence for over thirty years and has branches all over the country, while the new two-wheel program is just getting started. The first school kicked off in May, and the whole thing is based out of Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, one of the most historical and beautiful tracks in the United States.

The Barber program, recognizing that motorcycles are nothing like cars, chose to partner with established motorcycle-industry players KTM and Jeff Haney. The three parties have collectively assembled a curriculum that focuses on making students better, smarter, and safer at riding, regardless of their skill level or experience.

Haney, who has quietly trained many of today’s top riders (including Nicky Hayden and Kevin Schwantz), dedicates much of his program to proper body position and riding smoothly, which ultimately allows the rider to come closer to maximizing the capability of the motorcycle (even in stock trim, most modern sport bikes have capabilities that far exceed those of the average rider). Haney does his best to match the bike’s ability with the rider’s input.

The program I attended was a two-day school, and the experience was amazing.  There’s nothing like immersing yourself in two days of learning how to become a better rider, and on one of the best tracks in the world—just days after the world’s best riders were doing battle on it!

Early on Sunday (two days before my school and race day for the MotoGP folks), I drove down from the Bay Area. I wanted to make a point of walking around the entire facility as much as possible, and getting a feel for the track I was about to ride. It was particularly cool to watch the racers going at it, knowing I’d be out there in just a couple days.

Walking the entire Laguna Seca facility is not for the weak. It was a long, hot day, but I was able to get plenty of looks at the track I would soon be tackling. After watching Rossi and his cronies do their thing, I headed home with high hopes and plenty of water in my system.

During the past ten years, I’ve made probably twenty trips to Laguna Seca, and I’ve always noticed the ominous Skip Barber campus, which is located on the infield of the paddock. It’s one of the facility’s few permanent buildings. Upon arriving and checking in for the school, the first thing I noticed was the historical shots of the Laguna Seca track, which went all the way back to the 1950s and were scattered throughout the building. I immediately appreciated the school’s considerable history, which extends back to long before bikes became the main show in town.

I then walked upstairs to the second-floor classroom (where sign-in was located), where I met both the crew and my classmates for the next forty-eight hours. Haney kicked things off with a little food and some classroom time. We were informed that seat time is the name of the game, and that the school makes extensive use of video and radio technology, which allows the instructors to provide pretty much constant critiques.

The star-studded staff was pretty impressive. Guest instructors included AMA Pro racers Ty Howard, Jason DiSalvo, and Hawk Mazzotta. In addition, Michael Czysz, the founder and luminary behind MotoCzysz (and an accomplished racer) was helping out. There were a few other notable Nor Cal fast guys as well. The student-to-staff ratio was about 4:1, which very good, as it meant there’d plenty of opportunity for feedback.

After going through the basics, it was time to suit up. I was assigned Ty Howard as my coach, and we would work closely over the two-day program.

The school utilizes brand-new KTM motorcycles, including the RC8, Super Duke and the 690, which is a Supermoto-style single. In addition to the Skip Barber staff, KTM had a support crew present, working out of one of their shiny orange show trucks, which would serve as the informal school HQ.

Haney handed out his curriculum booklets, which allowed us to take notes and also gave us some reinforcement to what the instructors would tell us (not to mention compensating for ADD-induced momentary lapses).

Our first exercise was body positioning. Haney preaches body positioning as the holy grail of riding, as improper body position—regardless of how good of a rider is—will fight against the inherent handling characteristics of the modern motorcycle.

We assembled into our groups of five and set out on the course with our instructors. Each instructor carried a video camera on the back of his bike, and each rider followed him for one or two laps, in order to compile enough footage so that style could be critiqued. I immediately put my best Valentino skills to use and tried to emulate what I’d seen on Sunday—which, unfortunately, was not quite what Haney and Howard had in mind. Apparently, my years of motocross and lack of road racing made for a strange, elbows-up riding position, which made reacting to turns and sudden changes awkward.

I returned to the truck (which was located on pit lane) jazzed from my first track session in a few years, and I was immediately able to download and review my riding. The sessions were about thirty minutes each, but I’d been able to ride behind my instructor for two solid laps, and he captured everything. I really enjoyed being able to watch the instant feedback, and it made visualizing things that much easier.

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