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INSIDE TECH

INSIDE TECH

Learning to Race

BY PATRICK LAMBIE

Ready to channel your inner Jordan Szoke? Anxious to show your friends and family that Ben Young has nothing on you? While my aspirations reside on a more realistic plane, the announcement that the Calgary Motorcycle Roadracing Association would return to action after an 11-year hiatus translated to an opportunity to fulfill a long-standing goal of stepping out from behind the camera and actually lining up for a road race.

For anyone considering the plunge into motorcycle road racing, there are some basic requirements – the most obvious items being an appropriate motorcycle as well as leathers, helmet, gloves, back protector and boots. Another item not to be overlooked is the requirement to gain permission to compete from the organizers or sanctioning body overseeing the race. In the absence of a recognized race licence and supporting resume, your journey to the grid is most likely going to involve a pit stop at race school.

It is important to remember that a race school is not where you go to learn to ride a motorcycle and the instructors will be working on the assumption that you already have basic riding skills. Race schools are focused on taking motorcycle riders with experience riding on the street or at track days or even experienced racers and providing them with the information and skills required to safely compete against other racers on the track.

Most racing series run their own race schools and last summer I found myself joining a group of other aspiring racers at the newly opened Rocky Mountain Motorsports facility near Carstairs, AB for the 2022 CMRA Race School. While the main purpose of my participation was to gather content for this story, I came away with a renewed understanding of what goes into learning to race and thanks to these lessons I left as a better rider, ready to take the next step towards racing.

Manners Matter

All checked in and set up, the first session of the day was in the classroom with head instructor Justin Knapik. While many of the assembled students were undoubtedly anxious for Knapik to explain the finer points of late braking, backing the bike into a corner and executing a perfectly timed power wheelie past the checkered flag, the topics at hand followed up on the previous night’s classroom session and focused on racetrack requirements, etiquette and safety. even 100 mph your bike covers the distance of a football field in just two seconds, timely reaction requires looking well ahead. Combining this with strategic markers and points of reference is also key to maintaining lines as your speed increases.

Pushing yourself to the limit riding a motorcycle provides a level of focus that needs to be experienced to be understood; however, at the same time it is critical that every competitor is equally focused on track specific rules such as pit speed, flags and track entry and exit. No different than track days, every race day kicks off with a mandatory racer meeting where this information is communicated. Not all tracks are equal and not all tracks follow the exact same rules, so paying attention is critical.

Body Position

Acceleration and braking are two critical requirements of achieving the best lap times; however, the effectiveness of both can be negatively impacted when the motorcycle is leaned over and the amount of tire area in contact with the track surface is minimized. Taking a motorcycle from the street, where speeds and lean angles allow the rider to remain relatively stationary on the seat, to the track requires that the rider utilize and position their body mass to reduce lean angle and maximize tire contact.

The on-track body position drills highlighted that there is no onesize-fits-all solution for body position. Whether it is different styles of bikes, different sized riders, levels of flexibility or any number of factors, the takeaway from this session is that it is important that each individual rider works to find a style that allows them to maintain maximum control under hard braking and acceleration, full lean angles and when transferring weight from side to side.

Passing Ain’t Easy

One of the areas that I struggle with is passing, so when it was time for the afternoon’s passing drill, I was anxious to pick up some pointers and hopefully advance in this area. Much like the previous sessions of the day, a key element of a successful and safe pass is focusing your eyes on the correct thing. In addition to making sure that each student was comfortable with the close proximity of passing, learning to avoid the natural habit of focusing on the back of the bike you were trying to pass and instead focus on the line that takes you past the bike was a critical part of this drill.

Know Your Lines

Being the fastest racer on track doesn’t always translate to the quickest lap times. Hitting the top speed may offer bragging rights, but the best lap times are often achieved by figuring out the most efficient way around the track. Placing your bike in the correct position when entering and exiting a corner is the most important element of racing and no amount of skill on the throttle or brake can overcome poor line choices. Given this significance, the first on-track session of the day was spent following one of the CMRA instructors around the track at a relaxed pace that accommodated a sole focus on the lines.

The Eyes Have It

The head instructor for our group’s on-track sessions was Brad Gavey who comes with a resume that includes an impressive career competing as well as teaching some of the fastest racers to come out of western Canada. Having ridden with Brad on several occasions, I had already received multiple lessons on the importance of knowing where to look when you are on the track, but admittedly still slip into bad habits every now and then.

Looking at the asphalt just past your front tire is a natural tendency that many motorcyclists have learnt from years of driving cars on the road. While this is a bad idea driving a car, it is a terrible practice when piloting a motorcycle around the track at race speed. Keeping in mind that when travelling at

Launch Time

You can’t win a race on the starting line but you can definitely lose one. The ability to confidently launch your motorcycle from a standing start is the difference between being in contention or left behind as the pack races towards the first corner. Revving up your motorcycle and then letting the clutch out can be unnerving and let’s face it, if done wrong you can end up with your front wheel uncontrollably reaching for the sky or worse, but with a bit of practice it is surprising how fast you can get off the line.

Of course, you can’t go to a race school without at least one embarrassing moment and mine arrived during the starting drills. While different bikes and different sized engines may need different rpm at launch, one thing that is a given is that you need to be in gear. Despite repeated warnings from every instructor that a critical step at the start of the race is to take a moment and make sure that your bike is in first gear, when the flag dropped on our second starting drill everyone launched and left me looking like I was in search of a parking spot at the local Costco. Yes, I was in second gear and nearly stalled the bike. On a positive note, I probably won’t make that mistake again.

The Racing Experience

The final on-track sessions of the day were set up as mock races. Randomly gridded, our collective group took off as the starter’s flag dropped – yes, I remembered to be in first gear. Four corners later, the corner worker was waving a red flag. No matter what unique rules your series or track has for a red flag, there are two universal rules that you must follow. First, under no circumstance do you grab a handful of brakes the moment you see a red flag, that is simply a recipe for getting run over by a rider behind you who didn’t see the flag. Instead, the first thing you must do is raise your left hand warning the riders behind that you are about to change your riding, then – and only then – slow down and follow the red flag procedures as outlined at the riders’ meeting. Back in the pits, Brad explained that the red flag drill we had just completed was one of the most important lessons of the day, to the extent that screwing it up would have been an automatic fail. Fortunately, everyone passed.

One more mock race offered the chance to experience the adrenalin and excitement of going head-to-head on the track and by the time the checkered flag came out I was hooked and looking forward to the chance to go racing for real. Unfortu nately, circumstances outside of anyone’s control resulted in the CMRA’s return to racing action being delayed by a year, but I am definitely planning to be on the grid this summer when motorcycle road racing returns to southern Alberta on June 30 and July 1 at Rocky Mountain Motorsports. For anyone wanting to attend the CMRA race school, it will take place on June 29. Visit www.roadracing.org for more details. Whether you decide to race or not, a race school is a great way to improve your riding and an incredible experience, which I highly recommend. IM

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