The Sharp Edge | Toni Sharpless

Spit Bubbles

Iam undecided if the student or the teacher is the one learning at the Super Sonic Road Race School. With summer just beginning we have already had a range of students go through the school this year. From timid to self-assured and as young as age five to the oldest at 72 years old, they all have in common the eagerness to learn the sport of motorcycling and daring to try something out of their comfort zone.

As one of the instructors it gives me great pleasure to pass on to people what I have acquired from my experiences in road racing. I’m grateful to be surrounded by talented people helping me who feel the same including Mike and Michele Bell of Bellistic, current CSBK racers Aaron Burns, Mack Weil and Justin Marshall along with Pro riders Jared Walker, Jake LeClair, Connor Campbell and four-time national champ Tomas Casas.

We all find it rewarding to see the transformation that the students make in one day from morning to afternoon. The students that I find the most fun and rewarding are the beginners aged five to ten. They are constantly surprising me by suddenly telling me in the middle of a lesson which bike is their favourite colour, explaining why their little brother couldn’t come (“not big like me”) or in the case of young Callum after a lapping session, blowing spit bubbles in his helmet. Most predictable is at the end of the day when I ask them what they want to be when they get older and they exclaim “I will be the fastest racer!”

There are several things I have learned by teaching youngsters beginning on motorcycles. They are basically kind to one another and eager to help each other. They make friends easily and will wait patiently for someone struggling. They ask lots of questions and don’t tire too easily, although judging by the parents’ post-school remarks the kids usually quickly fall asleep on the car ride home.

To teach them you must be engaging because young beginners are easily distracted by any noise or movement around them. A bike revving, other students, a bird in the sky, mom watching; a distraction could be anything. And they could be at any point in operating a motorcycle. They could be doing a drill or lapping the course, when they will suddenly direct their attention towards the distraction to satisfy their curiosity. Or it could simply be they are proud of themselves and are looking to see who is watching.

Regardless of the reason, anyone who rides or races a motorcycle knows the bike goes where your eyes direct it, so we work on several drills in the morning to learn and master this. I learned you can minimize the distractions with engagement and fun. And if that doesn’t work, I learned these young students have quick reflexes to recover when a distraction gets the better of them!

To engage with the students when learning tight turns we direct their attention to the centre of a circle in a game called tryto-run-over-the-teacher’s-toes. This usually works great until they want to see if dad or mom is watching then it’s back to the quick reflexes of the student and the teacher.

The only time I see them all-in and I mean ‘all-in’ is the slightly older kids age nine to 14 that have mastered the skills and progressed to competitive racing. If they believe they have a chance at winning they leave it all out there and it is truly amazing to watch. These young athletes seem to be fully in the moment, with unbelievable concentration sometimes exhibiting race craft we have yet to teach them.

It is so impressive to watch them on the MiniGP, purpose-built Ohvale motorcycles, in competition. Our race series, called the Canada Cup National for 10- to 14-year-olds, hosted by the MiniSBK series (all ages) is very green having been launched in May of this year, so our competitors have limited experience when comparing to international competition. I can only imagine the talent of 10 to 14 year olds south of the border at the MotoAmerica Mini Cup in their second year of national competition and then amplify that by 100 to estimate the talents of the same ages in Europe where they treat motorcycle racing with the same importance we do with hockey in Canada.

In fact, there are MiniGP leagues all over the world using the Ohvale motorcycles for youngsters in a world series developed by Ohvale, Dorna Sports and FIM to learn the art of circuit road racing; Netherlands, India, Australia, Italy, Malaysia, France, North America (USA), Spain, UK, Alpe Adria, Indonesia, Ireland, Portugal, Qatar and Austria. All of these countries listed are running FIM MiniGP World Series events developing young talent.

With the continued help of our talented instructors at the Super Sonic School, young beginners like Callum, and the talented young competitors in the Canada Cup race series, hopefully we can soon add Canada to the list. IM

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