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/127838
FEATURE LEARNING TO FLY: STEVE MOREHEAD DIRT TRACK SCHOOL Barberville, Florida, March 4 Every year during Daytona Bike Week each Cycle News editor/reporter in attendance can pretty much count on two things: 1) An ungodly schedule that sees him or her rushing from race to race - sometimes .three a day; and 2) at least one day during the week that lets them either relax or catch up. My "relax" day came on Tuesday this year at which point I promptly signed on to ride Steve Morehead's one-day dirt track workshop at the VOlusia County Fairgrounds half mile while also testing the new ATK 600MR dirt tracker at the same time. Sound'like a relaxing day to you? The method to my madness was simple. I love dirt track, and I want to ride it as much as possible. I knew that this would be a rare chance not only to improve my By Scott Rousseau Photos by Dan Mahony and Rousseau So 'it's 10:30 p.m., and I'm making my way home from John Wayne Airport. I'm dogtired, battling the flu and hoping that I will somehow be able to shove a liHle time off the standard 25-minute journey from airport to bea£h house. That's when it occurs to me. If I can wait until the last possible second, hold it to the outside edge of the road, get on the brakes smoothly, get the thing flicked in there, make the apexes wide - or maybe come in tight, square eJU:h turn and then stand it up and roll on the throttle at the earliest possible moment to get a hart! drive off the corner, I should be able to shave several seconds off my trek homeward.. Sound delirious? Maybe, but those are just some of the basics that I learned while attending no fewer than three different schools during the month of March, so I might as well put them to use now. Although once I graduated from college, I swore that I'd never go back to .school again, the invitations to higher learning that I received during the aforementioned time period were hard to pass up. My CN "scholarships" afforded me the opportunity to attend twp dirt track schools and one road racing school. And not with just any old teachers either. No sir. My instructors were to be some of the top men in the world of professional dirt track and road racing over the past 20 years. Who? Hmm, let's see if these names .ring a bell: Steve Morehead, Freddie Spencer, Chris Carr. Guys like that. So how could I pass on any of them? Would you? (Above and right) One if by dirt and two If by street: Associate editor Scott Rousseau got his fill of mota instruction during the month of March as he attended a dirt track school, a road race school and a dirt track school for road racers. (Below) Veleran dirt tracker Sieve Morehead (left) conducted his school on the half mile In Berberville, Aorida, during Daytona Bike Week. skills bu t to do so under the watchful eye of Morehead, a true veteran whose Grand ational career spans all the way back to 1974. Few can argue that the "Findlay Flyer" is one of a handful of riders on the circuit today who can master any track conditiol:l. A "blue-collar" riding style combined with hard work and lots of devotion to the art of proper motorcycle setup has paid big dividends as evidenced by Morehead's 22 career Grand National wins, 216 top-10 finishes and 15 top-to finishes in the series standings. He knows a thing or two about how to prepare a motorcycle and then get around the race track. I arrived at the Volusia gates around 9 a.m. The bike - a loaner from the TCR boys, already in place thanks to the help of the Coziahr Harley-Davidson squad, whose riders Paul Morgan ill and Josh Butler also decided to take the school. As Morgan, Bu tler and I got into O.u.r leathers, Morehead and his assistant