Cycle News is a weekly magazine that covers all aspects of motorcycling including Supercross, Motocross and MotoGP as well as new motorcycles
Issue link: https://magazine.cyclenews.com/i/127255
....... mE HILL: Once you corne out of tum six, you accelerate up to fifth gear up ........ the hill. That's the part of the track where you can really see if you have some horsepower. You can see who's running good and who isn 'tright there. mE COliSClEW: Then comes the Corkscrew. Going into it, it's strange ....... because you can't see it until you're right up on it. So you're trying to go as ...... fast as you can, but you have to know where you are. Now that the corkscrew _ has been repaved it 's a lot better than it used to be. Before, it was real bumpy '" going in and real bumpy going out. Now, it's smooth and it's just a simple left/ right down the hill. I go through there in second gear, and stay in second until the exit. Then I go up to third. TUItN NINE: I carry third down into tum seven - I call it tum seven, but it's '" really tum nine now (since the changes prior to the '88 USGP). This used to be a tough comer because it was real bumpy going into it, in the middle and coming out. The bike used to really get out of control, so it was pretty scary. Now, it's all been repaved so you just go in and go out. I stay in third going in and carry as much speed on the exit as possible. I start in at about the middle of the track and then start heading toward the curb. It's important to try and come out as low as possible in order to carry maximum speed on the exit. You almost square it off in a way. _ TUItN ELEVEN: You come out of lOin third and change up into fourth '" momentarily. Then you bring it back to the right side of the track and bring it down into first gear. I enter the comer wide and as I'm turning I brin it down toward the curb. I try to accelerate to maximum speed and once you ', made that corner you can do whatever you want. Then you go up the front straight and you've done a lap. Hopefully, it's a fast one... _ . .& TUItN TEN: I then change into fourth gear as I head down the hill. Sometimes _ you change into fifth. and sometimes you don't. If you do hit fifth, it's just for a moment, then you backshift into third. For me, this is the most difficult comer on the race track. You're coming at it so fast it looks real sharp, but it's real deceiving. I have to scare myself to death every time I go through here to get it right. I've worked on this comer for five years now, and I still improve on it every time I ride there. To me, it's the scariest comer on the track. It's the most fun part, but it's the scariest. When you do it right, you know. Going in, I try to get to the left side of the track and enter it wide. I change into third and try to carry as much speed as I can, and not spend a lot of time on the brakes. Again, you apex this comer late. This comer is definitely hairball. On some of the fast comers at Laguna, there's not a great deal of runoff. And I think that's what adds to some of the fear. You take them so fast but you can't make mistakes. That makes you think. 14