Cycle News - Archive Issues - 1990's

FEATURE RIGHTS AND WRONGS AND RIGHTS AND LEFTS: FREDDIE SPENCER'S HIGH PERFORMANCE RIDING SCHOOL Las Vegas, Nevada, March 26-27 Road racing is, in my mind, the only untamed wilderness left in my motorcycle riding career. While I'm certainly no master at the other disciplines in which I've partaken, when it comes to' making rights and lefts at a high rate of speed, I'm still a baby, and for that reason r have never competed in a road race. So that's what made me anxious to attend the inaugural two-day session of Freddie Spencer's High Performance Riding School aJ Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I wanted to learn and gain enough confidence so that when the right circumstance comes along, 1 can, one day, race. At Spencer's school, 1 got halfway there. 1certainly learned a lot. You might think that could not be avoided given the one-time 250cc and two-time 500cc World Champion's credentials - after all, he is still the only motorcycle racer ever to capture both the 250 and 500cc World titles. in a single season. But all that wouldn't mean squat if he could not articulate the fundamentals of tarmac riding to me in an elementary fashion. I'm a baby, remember? But right from his introductory lecture, Spencer put my mind at ease. "This school is all about the techniques that I've used in my past 30 years of racing," Spencer said. '1 won my first race in 1966. 1 won my last race in 1995. The emphasis of this school is on teaching you the techniques that I've learned and then how to apply those techniques. You'll notice that we've kept the class size small. That way 1 can work with each of you individually, and you can get as much out of it as possible." There was a lot to get out of it. After Nick lenatsch picked us up from the Binion's Horseshoe Hotel, drove us to the race track and then spun a few laps on the course to gi ve us a feel for it, we arrived in the garage area of the speedway and sat down to a light breakfast provided by the school. 1 looked around and saw that. Spencer has received a tremendous amount of support for this effort, 'much of it from sponsors he carried in his GP heyday. Students would be learning on brand-new Honda CBR600F3s shod with Michelin Hi Sport tires. There were Arai helmets available for rental by any student who needed one, as well as full sets of Dainese leathers and Alpinestars boots. Of the F3s available, five of them were designated for Spencer's SR Pro course, decked out in supersport trim with trick Pi Research telemetry systems on board for more precise analysis of a rider's lap on the school's 10-turn course, which is located on the infield of the speedway. For our sessions, Spencer enlisted the aid of former Sport Rider editor and AMA 250cc Grand Prix-elass road racer lenatsch, who served as Spencer's teaching assistant on the first day and then took over as the primary instructor on day two. Anyway you looked at it, Spencer's accommodations were top-notch. But would the instruction be? Spencer's curriculum stresses four fundamentals: 1) Awareness; 2) Smooth-' .ness; 3. Visualization; and 4) Simplification. Spencer said that street riders can gain a lot by placing their primary .emphasis on the first two. "There are so many things that can go wrong qn the -street," Spencer said. "Become aware of things like when you can get back on the throttle or how much you can lean the bike over. You (Above) Ienatsch (left) leads a student out of the tricky tum one Into the ultrafast sweeper turn two. Leadlfollow sessions are an important part of the training at the Spencer school. (Left) Spencer imparts wisdom while seated on his Honda VFR750 teacher bike. Assistant Nick lenatsch, at Spencer's left, also brought a lot of knOWledge to the class. (Below) Good times gang: Danny Walker (left) and Chris Carr (right) discuss the finer points of dirt track technique at Walker's American Supercamp in Colorado. also have to be aware of the conditions because they are always changing. "Also, you have to develop sensitivity to what the bike is doing and develop your technique in smooth sequences, which means that you upset the bike as little as possible," Spencer said, adding one of several illustrating stories that we students would hear over the weekend. "When 1 was riding the Honda triple and Kenny (Roberts) was riding the Yamaha V-four in 1983, he was able to get off the corners better than 1 could, so what did 1 do? I'd run it in harder than he did. Only 1 couldn't get the bike turned. 1 had to develop a style where 1 rolled off the throttle as smoothly as 1 could going into the comers so that 1 could make a better transition." No surprise then that this was the first of several drills we would go through to improve our skills. Spencer took us out to a relatively fast righthand kink that set us up for the final horseshoe curve before the front straight so that we could practice rolling off the throttle and feathering the front brake in a fluid motion. It was neat to watch Spencer as he climbed aboard the school's VFR750 "teacher bike" and demonstrated the skill. It was difficult to match. As the entire student body went through the drill, everyone "hacked" the front brake, causing their front ends to dive and shudder. But on the second time through, several students improved markedly. It wasn't long before Spencer was satisfied with the improvements that each student had made. The second drill simply built on the first, as Spencer took us down to another corner, the tight, left-handed turn one, to practice downshifting and braking at the same time. Once again he demonstrated the technique, combining braking with rapid-fire downshifting, and once again several students had difficulty a t first. Some never did get it right - me among them. Spencer addressed the situation when we took our lunch break. "A lot of you were having trouble with that corner," Spencer said. "1 wouldn't approach that corner any differently, but we will work on that one again tomorrow. The main thing is that you learned to be aware and concentrate on being smooth. That builds consistency. As you do more laps it will get difficult to stay patient, but by being smooth, the speed will come." Several more fundamental drills were run in the afternoon, with lenatsch doing the directing while Spencer observed our progress on the various sections of the course and gave feedback to us via lenatsch; the two were linked by radio. By this time, we were also allowed to make complete laps of the course so as to develop a rhythm by stringing together the sections that we'd learned. It made a huge difference. By the end of the day most of the students were visibly much faster. To close the first day out, we enjoyed a brief suspension seminar by Paul Thede of Race Tech before being divided into two fiveman groups and heading out for two 20minute practice sessions per group. lenatsch did several lead/follow laps with us to help us out. It was a real confidence builder. Nobody had a stopwatch on me, but 1 think that my fastest laps came at the end of this day. Day two was spent in much the same manner as the first, with Spencer conspicuously absent for most of it, though --------Cantinued on page 38

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