AGV Backmarker: Getting Up To Speed

Maybe you’re a track-day addict sampling a new circuit, or a club racer stepping up to the next level. Sooner or later you’re going to find yourself pulling out of a pit lane onto a track you’ve never seen before. Learning a new track can be intimidating, but here’s some basic advice and a few useful tips to help you get up to speed with minimum stress.

Last spring, I tested my friend James Parker’s GSX-RADD. Crashing this priceless, one-off prototype would have been an utter disaster, and the fact that I’d never before seen the scrappy Sandia track (outside Albuquerque) only added to the stress. I used all the techniques outlined here to come to terms with the new-to-me layout. - Courtesy Juan Romero

There’s nothing wrong with admitting you’re a newbie, especially to yourself. Even MotoGP riders take it easy the first time they ride a new track, so you should definitely not let the red mist descend when you snap down your visor. Even if you’re a hotshot back on your local track, go out in the slow group at an unfamiliar circuit.

Seek advice. In most clubs and regional series, experts sport black numbers on white backgrounds. Look for one of those plates, with a nice, low number—#1 is ideal. Ask that rider to lead you around on his line but at about 75 percent pace for a few laps. Most of the time he’ll oblige; after all, you’re no threat to him.

Kevin Schwantz had to learn a bunch of new tracks in his first season in Grand Prix racing. In that dog-eat-dog world, it wasn’t easy to ask a veteran for a favor. Schwantz told me he used to learn new tracks from the middle toward the edges.

Riding the first few laps in the middle of the track makes sense. It keeps you off the normal racing line, and out of the way of veterans who are already up to speed. And it keeps you in your comfort zone; using the entire track is stressful, especially if you’re not sure you’re right at the edge in the right place. As your speed picks up, you’ll naturally find yourself setting up wider, clipping right down to the apex, and using more of the track on the exit.

Schwantz also recommends memorizing track landmarks that are actually part of the track, like seam sealer or patches on the paving. Corner stations can move between sessions; a tree that’s a useful marker in the spring may be invisible when you return for the final race of the season, after the leaves have fallen.

Keith Code, who nearly invented track schools, has this good piece of advice: Ride around in one gear, without using the brakes. This exercise forces you to slow way down and prevents you from rushing corners—the most common newbie error. It’s a great way to really drill yourself on corner-entry speed. The “no brakes” line around the circuit is the most flowing way to lap. While you’ll refine that line later on and square off some corners, it’s a great place to start.

When I was learning the TT course on the Isle of Man, a wise local told me, “Be late everywhere.” What he meant was, turn in late, apex late, and straighten all the corner exits. This approach isn’t always the fastest way around, but it will leave you a few feet of track on the outside of every corner at the exit. That’s a reassuring safety margin, because it’s much better to find yourself thinking, I could’ve done that faster, than Oh, $#i+!”

Ride beneath—not at—your limits. You won’t learn anything if it takes all your concentration just to keep your bike on its wheels.

Don’t try to make up ground on the brakes. The difference between 90 percent braking and leaving a Mick Doohan-style darkie from the front tire is barely visible on the stopwatch, but will end up being plenty visible in your underpants. Leave that to the pros.

In general, keep things simple by shifting as little as possible. If the fastest local pros momentarily hook fourth gear between two third-gear turns, you should ride the whole section in third. Concentrate on learning your lines and being smooth.

Remember that it’s a racing line, not a rut. If you’re a novice, and your lines are radically different than those of local pros, you’re almost certainly in the wrong. But bear in mind that every bike and rider has different strengths and weaknesses. Those differences subtly influence their optimal line, so feel free to experiment and find your own way.

The first time I ever rode at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, I had about fifteen minutes to practice, then qualify for the old AMA Pro Thunder class. The one piece of advice Jeff Haney gave me was, “When you get to the Corkscrew, aim at the tree.” I thought, The tree? There are trees all around here; what kind of stupid advice is that? But it turned out there was one particular tree that made a useful landmark on the blind, cresting, left-right flip-flop. That was the only thing I remembered when I returned to the track to test the KTM RC8R a few weeks ago. The only problem was, they cut the tree down a few years ago. And that long story is my excuse for being three feet off the apex in this photo! - Courtesy KTM

Above all, remember this: being fast is like being cool. It will never come to you if you’re trying too hard.

Pre-Christmas Factory Clearance

Last fall, the company then officially known as DMG announced purses for the upcoming 2009 season. Some people were bitterly decrying the DMG “takeover,” but with visions of multi-thousand-dollar paydays deep into the mid-grid dancing in my head, I thought, Cheer up, things could be worse.

So I cheered up, and sure enough, things did get worse. By the time Daytona rolled around, the recession had well and truly hit the AMA Pro paddock, and the actual purses were not so fat.

The announced purses for next year are, frankly, laughable. This is particularly true in the ex-top-dog Superbike class, where you can finish on the podium and still not cover your tire bill. One can only assume that AMA Pro Racing hopes to consolidate all the privateers in the Daytona SportBike class, and that it presumes whatever remains in the way of factory teams won’t care about purses—which were never much of a factor in those rides’ annual budgets. But how many entrants would there be in such a class? Ten?

A healthy mid-grid is essential for the spectacle. Is this the beginning of the end for U.S. superbike racing?

The end of the beginning on the emerging electric scene

Last summer, I had a few conversations with Azhar Hussain, who created the TTXGP race for electric bikes on the Isle of Man. That race was officially endorsed by the FIM, and Hussain told me that he would also be promoting a multi-race TTXGP championship in Britain, that he wanted to promote a championship in the U.S., and—this was the big news—that there would be a full-on FIM World Championship in the TTXGP class in 2010. Although the FIM’s official statements had at that point provided few details, Hussain described a four- or five-race series to be held during Endurance World Championship race weekends. Sure enough, a couple of weeks ago, the FIM announced just such a championship; a handful of rounds run in conjunction with big endurance races.

I noted that the FIM announcement called the class “e-Power” and made no mention whatsoever of Hussain or his TTXGP organization. It seemed to me that Hussain had been edged out of the newest international championship before it had even started. (Note the FIM isn’t calling it a World Championship yet, but that’s what it effectively is.)

I asked Azhar Hussain about the conspicuous absence of any reference to his TTXGP class in the FIM’s recent announcement that there would be an electric support class at selected World Endurance races. Azhar’s response was, “My feelings about the FIM cannot be printed.” Maybe over the winter his feelings will be suitable for publication, and I’ll try to get to the bottom of the FIM’s on-again, off-again love affair with TTXGP. - Courtesy TTXGP

That made me wonder if the FIM’s technical rules would match those of TTXGP. The last thing this emerging segment needs is conflicting rulebooks. It would suck if builders couldn’t run the same bikes in all those different events. But could the FIM adopt the TTXGP rules? Or are they Hussain’s intellectual property?

Hussain’s hopes for a U.S. championship have been at least partially realized. There will be a one-race “championship” run as a support class when the AMA Pro races at Infineon Raceway next spring. He told me that he talked to Roger Edmondson about an electric class at other AMA Pro events, but they’d been unable to agree on the shape of a relationship between AMA Pro Racing and TTXGP. In spite of that, Hussain told me that he liked Edmondson; he felt they were similar in many ways—both guys more interested in getting things done than in making friends.

A few days ago, Hussain told me that he was evaluating his legal options, vis-a-vis the FIM. This is all sounding depressingly familiar. I’m remembering the early ’90s, when Edmondson’s Supersport class was appropriated by AMA Pro Racing and Edmondson—who’d created the class—was sent packing by the AMA. That ended with Edmondson being awarded millions of dollars in a lawsuit.

I suppose the bright spot for Azhar is that fifteen years after Roger’s lawsuit, Edmondson’s in charge of AMA Pro Racing. By that logic, by around 2025, the whole FIM may be Azhar’s fiefdom. Knowing him as I do, I wouldn’t doubt it.

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