Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1970's

MOTOCROSS IA :Saturdays 9-3:30 Tuition $ I5~ instructor: Darnell Prerequisites: I M hike, X abilitv to learn By John Huette r You've spen t at least $1000 for your ne w mo t ocros s. bike . Mayb e you've spe nt ano ther one to two hund red d ollars o n personal equipm ent a nd " acccsso rizing" your machin e. Now you 're rea dy to race m ot ocro ss, right? Wro ng. You should spend ano t her $1 5. Give it to Russ Darne ll and spend six ho urs or so with hi m a t th e Russ Darnell Mo tocr oss ch oo l, Even if you think you know how to ra ce, the time spent und er Ru ss' coach ing will ma ke you safer , smoother. and quicker o u t on a m o tocross course . Too man y would-be mo to cross winners, especially in the Junior an d Intermediate classes, will spe nd lots o f -money on their engin e and susp ension to make their bike faste r but. fo r so me reason , w on' t spen d a nickel o n makin g th ems elves fas ter. The priorities are exactly reversed since in mot oc ross mo re th an any o ther aspect o f competition, the ride r's abili ty co unts m ore than the bik e' s, so lon g as the latter w ill run an d stay to ge th er. Most rider s are n 't u sin g eve n 80% of th e capabili ty of thei r sta nd ard !\IX mach in e. Logicall y , it is pointl ess to mak e th e bike faster un til yo u kn ow h ow to go fas ter a nd stay up righ t at the same tim e. Ru ss presents th e rea sons fo r d o ing absolutely eve ryt hing, every move. on a mo tocross co urse in a man ner tha t is cle ar, co ncis e yet almo st sch ola rly . Russ seems to have intellec tualized the spo rt more than any o the r p erson offering one-day classes in th e West and tr anslates wh a t he has learned o n the West Coast trac ks and t he G P circuits o f Europe into lessons th at ca n be learned and p ract iced by nearly anybody d uring their development as mo t o cro ss rid er s. lI is m et hods work: showing you how t o c omer quicker by goi ng slowe r, for in st an c e. "Mo to cross is won in the stra ightaways." "The m ain thing to remember is th e abse nce of te chn iqu es in start ing ." "Push d o wn over ju mps ." and other co mme nts that so und like heresy in the moto cro ss mainstre am em erge during on e day's lessons. Got y ou r attention ? Good . But to give yo u th e wh y o f th ese st atem ents o r ex p lain the methods fo r doing these things in motocross racing would be infringing on Russ' territory : he 's the teacher. and a damn good one no matter what h is subject would happen to be. It happens to be motocross where Darnell teaches the basics o n an advanced leveI. R uss Darnell's schools are also u nique in that he is the first instructor of sp ortsm an motocross to offer videotape replay during the lessons, allowing the students to study their own form , no ting their mistakes fo r correction or th eir good moves for d uplication. Russ will tell you what yo u 're doing, wrong or right, and th en show you how it looked to him by re -running the vide otape. It ' s a power ful way to learn in a quick m anner and by seeing you rself o n "instant replay" it becomes clear to y o u what you need to co rrect or em phasize. The main t hing that I learned at Russ' school is that you don't necessarily win or place well just by going banzai the whole time. It works better to go . .. correctly. lie emphasizes th at the only two modes in motocross racing are acceleration an d braking, there is little or nothing in between these two actions. But where you acce lerate o n the co urse and when and ho w you start b raki ng is wha t Russ talks to you abou t. I f yo u want to ride quicker, easier, and safer, yo u list en . Ru ss as ks a tui ti on fee o f $ 15 fo r o ne day 's group instruction ; $25 fo r his tw o day classes. Du rin g th e sum me r m o nths, he will be cond ucting five day m ot ocross ca m ps alo ng th e lines of the factory teams. Wit h that m uch in tense ex posu re, you can ' t he lp bu t co m e o ut a better racer in every se nse of th e word. Make sure yo ur bike is we ll-p re pped before you ask it to do five straigh t days of mo t o cro ss for you . The cam p will help your b o d y ge t that way. Russ also offers private instruc tio n, j ust y o u and the motocross mentor, by appointment. Give him a call a t (2 13) 367-1722 to find out ab out all lessons. If this sounds like a plug, so be it. We were all im pressed by the tea ching and wish every sportsman ra cer would tak e at least one su ch class. It woul d make co m pet itio n more intense, mo re fun, and a lot safer fo r everybody on the track. And for a lot of us, th at 's wh at racing motocross is all about. ..J ..J UJ g> ~ « u UJ z « ..J >

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