I decided ... I wanted to go racing

From our friend Tim De Bell:

I decided I wanted to go racing. We’ll get to that, but first a little background.

I never rode a motorcycle until 4 years ago. I convinced my wife Jen that having a dirt bike to ride on the trails near our house would make my life complete. The only stipulation was that I would not get to the dealership and buy a street bike instead. “Why would I want to ride on pavement?” I replied.

Off I went and bought an XR250. It’s a good bike, fairly nimble, plenty of grunt and most importantly, sturdy. I rode that around the woods for a year or so and had the bright idea that I could save money riding the XR the 16 miles to and from work. After all, it wasn’t really a street bike, it was a dirt bike with a baja kit and DOT’s. That rationale proved to be somewhat weak, but ultimately I was commuting on my, now a bit scratched up, XR.

After learning the basic street survival skills, I started to look at street riding in a different light. With a bit more bike I could have some real fun and technically be safer. I had enough sense not to get on the highway with the XR, but, for those who haven’t ridden them, there is no such thing as good DOT knobby. I still rode dirt with it so SM wasn’t an option.

I had a picture of a Ducati Monster on my laptop desktop and managed to convince myself that the sun wouldn’t rise and set with any regularity if I didn’t have one of those in my garage. I picked up a used one, stripped it down even more and made it what I wanted.

I love that bike….it’s got curves like Sophia Loren.

The 2V Desmo is a well balanced motor and I had more than my share of grins, and a few gasps, honing my riding skills on that bike.

I was a fan of WSBK and MotoGP prior to really considering going for a track day. After all, I didn’t have a bike I wanted to chance wadding up and renting a bike takes it well out of the “recreational” budget.

Jen came home one day a said she met a guy at work who is a track instructor and I should meet him. We’ll call him Tod……because that’s his name. Little did I know that he had already been on the case explaining to her that going to the track would make me a better rider and, if you are going to go fast that’s the place to do it.

A couple of months pass and I found myself at Pocono, at the East Course, astride Tod’s SV650. After a couple sessions flailing around the track, I finally got into a little groove with the acceleration followed by heavy braking and dipping the bike much deeper than I ever had on the street. Tod explained that you can really get on the front brakes after the front end settles and that made the afternoon that much more enjoyable. I got some good laps for a first day, some passes, and felt very satisfied with the progression of skills I gained during the day.

Skip to a couple months later and I am trying to figure out a way to get back to the track. I had trouble justifying spending the money on a bike that I would ride for a matter of days per year. After many conversations with Jen and many track days missed, we decided that if I wanted to take up track days as a hobby, I needed to do it on my own bike.

I struggled with the decision of which bike to get but ultimately decided on a 600 I4 as I owned a twin and riding different bikes would round me out more as a rider. Besides, I heard they were really fast.

Alex, one of the instructors at Pocono, was selling a 2000 R6. After staring at the pictures of that bike on this very website for a couple weeks I called and he told me that, yes, the bike was for sale but he had an incident at Summit Main the week before and the right side was rashed up. I was realistic about the likelihood of watching my track bike sliding, or worse, tumbling, across the track with my backside rapidly heating up and bruising in places I didn’t even know I had, so we made the deal.

I picked up the bike at the track and rode it for the day to varying levels of success. Long story short, now the left side matched the right.

I went to a couple more track days and gradually worked on my skills. I wasn’t super fast by any particular means, but improving at a gratifying rate. Moving to the intermediate groups in a couple clubs was key in that the freedom on the track came at a good time in my riding education.

Having some friends who race with LRRS encouraged me to at least ride that track. I decided to attend the basic road racing class and stay up to ride the rookie race. I sincerely feel that earning the license is an accomplishment. In retrospect, it takes dedication, specific knowledge, and a not inconsequential set of stones.

I packed up the truck and headed to the 8/31/07 Penguin school with a good friend of mine. We arrived to nice weather, which proceeded, disappear and was replaced with 40 mph winds and heavy rain. We ate and played some cards while holding down the easy-up tent and retired when the weather finally abated. I was more excited than nervous, but wound tighter than an outhouse door spring.

Waking up early, I headed to the Penguin garage about 10 minutes early. This was a treat because I could drool all over the new Ducati’s in the paddock. The 1098 and Hypermotard are both bikes I would compromise my morals to ride. Maybe not, but I really want to ride them….

The morning class session was the standard intro to the track, pit out, pit in, flags and some discussion about body position. We were out in follow the leader sessions by 10:45 which was a pleasant surprise The follow the leader was good in that it provided plenty of time to find the line and markers along the track.

The layout of the NHIS track is challenging and amazingly fun. The elevation changes add another dimension to the riding I had done in the past. The two blind spots on the track are under full acceleration so the approach line has to be spot on.

The afternoon was open session as the track is open for Saturdays racers. The track was never crowded and you don’t sit in the grid for very long on the way out. I was feeling pretty good gradually working up to speed. I spent a couple laps following the CR’s and that really improved my speed through the middle of the circuit. Coming down off the hill through 10 and 11 looks so short as you come out to it but proved to be a sprint through the infield on the line.

We were called into the classroom a couple of times during the afternoon to discuss what the CR’s were seeing on the track. There were a few incidents at 3 and 10 and Steve N. talked about technique through that section and answered any questions we had. At 4 PM we had a scheduled class session that focused on the more procedural aspects of the race. Racer calls, pre-grid, grid and start procedure were all explained in detail as well as a review of the most common wrong answers in a quiz we had taken earlier. It was really to ensure that you didn’t sleep during the class time.

Everyone who completed the course received a card that allowed them to register for the rookie race anytime in the next year. Steve said that it would get you on the track for other club races as well and I have no reason to doubt it.

At that point folks who weren’t sticking around for the races were excused and the rookie racers stayed to review starting procedure again and some Q&A. It was obvious that they intentionally took the time to be repetitive on certain aspects of the class.

During the time we were in the classroom it started to rain again. The track quieted down but Steve talked a bit about the importance of riding in the rain. After a long day and some quality seat time I was thinking of packing it in for the day but at the end of his instruction, Steve said, “Now go ride in the rain.” and I went. This was the best decision I made all day. I was the only one out there without DOT’s (of the three that actually went) and I was acutely aware of that sitting in line, but the simple fact that I was able to feel the bike move around as a result of a wet track made it well worth it. After that, I was much more aware of the position of the bike relative to my body and more sensitive to the feedback of the bike. I am sure it improved my riding the following day.

Jen had arrived while I was in the afternoon session and the infield began to fill up with campers, trucks and tents for the weekend. As she was walking around checking things out and seeing if I was on the track, she heard someone say “Hey, look, only three numb-nuts went out in the rain!” Laughing, she walked up to the two guy’s vantage point and saw that indeed, one the numb-nuts on the track was her beloved husband.

We had an evening meeting for all riders in the rookie race at 6 pm. Other folks who had come from other clubs and previously taken the course attended and we talked about the grid and starting waves, received the forms for the morning registration and told stories for a while. Steve, having ridden and raced for 35 years, had quite a few as you would imagine.

The evening infield camping was great. The people who participate in this sport are a special breed. The sport that you are all passionate about is the one thing that brought you here, the only thing. Because of that, you already know something about everyone there. They either love motorcycle riding or love someone who does. Folks are more relaxed, gracious, and eager to share their experiences with like minded people.

I woke up at 4 and stayed in my sleeping bag until 5. It hadn’t rained overnight, but everything was still soaking form the morning condensation. I got up and started to coals for coffee, completed my paperwork and got out to registration. It was a touch like going to the DMV. Get in one line, get your number and pay some money, get in another line and pay some money. I was given my tech. form and transducer and ran over to the parts trailer for my numbers and a transducer bracket. When I got back to the truck I was completely taken back. My buddy had replaced my rear axle with the one he had to drill out while I was on the track the day before, Jen had coffee and breakfast for me and everyone was as excited as I was.

This wasn’t the first time over the weekend that I got a feeling of modesty mixed with amazement. These folks took time from home, traveled to an unfamiliar place and took care of my needs because they want to and because they wanted to see me safe and successful. I am truly fortunate to have people like this in my life.

I got to tech too late to make the first practice but I knew that would be the case the night before. There is just not time to go through the registration process and make an 8 am practice. The window doesn’t open until 7am and, as a rookie, you have a couple of extra stops to make.

While waiting for my practice call there was a 4 bike incident at the end of the front straight. Someone had blown their motor and a few folks went down into the tire walls in the south end of the oval, attributed to oil on the track. We could not see what happened from our camp but I had a pretty good idea based on the sounds. One of the riders stayed down for a while, however, we could hear him and everyone was relieved it was apparently not a head injury. We got the word later in the riders meeting that he had sustained an injury to his hip and was transported to the hospital lucid and communicating.

I made the second practice, which was red flagged after two laps. Uh-oh, I don’t have tire warmers and my race doesn’t start for 40 minutes. Well, I would have to get some good heat in them on the warm up lap. When the time came I was out to pre-grid in the 1-A spot. Easy to remember however I still wrote it on a piece of tape on my tank just in case. My adrenaline had been up since 4 am and, with so much going on around me, I didn’t want to be the guy pushing his bike around the grid because I lined up in the wrong spot. At this point, I still didn’t have my license and any bone-headed move could eliminate me. It’s a good policy and mainly there to ensure the maximum factor of safety on the track.

I went through the first race launch 100 times in my mind over the last day, but when I got to the starting line it was like nothing I had imagined. I thought a lot about my inputs to the bike to get a jump and keep it in control. What I didn’t think about was the heat, the noise, the people and the scenery of the speedway. It was surreal. The 3 card came up, spin the bike up, the 2 card came up, oh crap, my visor is up, flip the visor down, spin the bike up again…1 card…green flag!

I slipped the clutch well keeping my weight over the front. I had the jump and was leading the pack. When I went to shift into 2nd I missed it and dropped a few positions. After some creative language in my helmet I grabbed 2nd gear and got on the throttle. I managed to recover up into 5th position before leaning into turn one. As I rounded the apex there was a fall in front of me. I didn’t react to it other than consciously focusing op the track on my line.

As the raced progressed I knew I was near the front. I was passed approaching turn 3 in which I held too tight a line and didn’t carry enough speed through the turn 2. I kept my focus following the rider closely and made another mistake in turn 12. At the end of the straightway I overtook the rider ahead of me on the inside. This was the last lap and didn’t want to give up the position.

Coming out of 6 I went faster to 8 and through 9 than I had all weekend, noticeably faster. My turn through 12 and out to the straight was not great. I lost so much speed I was sure the rider following me would be by quickly. As I approached the finish line I was well on my way to 5th gear and the finish flag waved faster and faster. As I crossed the finish line I let off the gas and was passed quickly…whoahhh. He was right there. Neither if us was sure who finished first but we congratulated each other on a good race.

As I took my cool down lap it occurred to me that I had just earned my license. I buzzed around the track giving the thumbs up to the corner workers and with a smile they could probably see through my tinted visor.

When I got back to the truck friends we had made and my crew congratulated me and we talked about the race while enjoying the beautiful day it had turned out to me. I wasn’t sure what place I had come in but I had accomplished what I had come to do. Relaxation quickly turned into another cycle of race prep as I had entered the middleweight superbike race as well.

In that race I was in the 7-A grid, back of the pack. I got a good launch to the middle of the pack by turn 1. There were a lot of bikes there with me but with everyone holding their line, there was some spread by turn 2. Going up the hill into 5 there was a high-side in front of me and an immediate red flag. Restart.

I ran through the race with a good line but it felt a bit slower. 8 laps is a short race by many people’s standards, but the energy spent focusing is significant. After some passing and being passed I crossed the line at WOT and didn’t let off until the turn 1 early braking point based on my experience in the previous race.

I was done for the day and I was proud of myself. My bike performed exceptionally and the experience was beyond my expectations. Lessons I learned about riding, racing and myself won’t be forgotten.

We took a break form packing up to watch the MW Twins race. One of the new friends we made was running and ended up taking 2nd. Watching the race with Jen was tremendous as we chatted about our friend’s performance, the lines we were seeing people riding and what my next challenge will be.


As we made our way home a friend called to congratulate me on my 4th place finish. He had seen it online. That was the first time I had confirmation of my finishing place and it was an awesome feeling. In the MW Superbike I finished 21st, ahead of only 8 people, but the 3rd rookie and even better, my fastest lap times were within 2/10ths of each other for both races. That excited me more. I made mistakes in both races but pleased with my overall consistency.

Was this experience worth the time, cost and sacrifice? Absolutely!

Did it improve my riding? Without a doubt!

Will I do it again? If you have read this far you already know the answer to that!


Track map source

For the series ... that's how we instruct.

In almost ten years of instructing or couching in road racing clubs, it's normal to receive positive feedbacks from students or riders, especially since the explosion of web sites forums. The following one was posted this morning on the NESBA bulletin board and I believe that the author wrote it with passion ... the same pure passion that we, in the Lombardi School, have always used in helping people to improve their riding skills and in general their track experience.
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"How I Became a better rider, Thanks Alex!"

Author: Littlefish
I attended my first track day ever at VIR on August 25, and it was even MORE fun than I had expected. While I did expect to enjoy it, I did not expect to learn so much about riding my bike. I rode a couple of sessions and then spoke with a control rider (Mike I think) briefly about trying to go faster, which helped. I rode another session and I was going slightly faster each time.
Then the miracle happened.
Towards the end of my first session after lunch I had a Control Rider (who I found out later was named Alex) signaled me to follow him. I followed him through five or so laps. He patiently waited for me to catch back up when I made mistakes. I was not only able to see his line, but I was able to get a solid idea of how late I could wait to brake and how fast I could go into the corner. The first time through Oak Tree, I started to brake at the same spot I had been, when I realized he wasn’t slowing down….I got off the brakes. I was amazed to figure out how fast you could enter the corner, and then lightly brake in the first section. I didn’t get it right, but “I GOT IT”. For the first time I was able to SEE how the two separate turns were best taken as one continuous turn. It wasn’t just Oak Tree; I followed him through better lines on every section of track. Just that information made riding the corners much easier to negotiate at speed.
I was also able to watch his riding position and his head position. Alex’s riding position was vastly different from mine, but I wasn’t able to figure out how it was different. Every time I noticed his head position, I realized he was looking much further ahead that I was (when he wasn’t looking back to see how I was doing). I started trying to look as far up the track and through the corners as he was. I was amazed at how much things started to slow down. I was riding as fast as or faster than before, but everything seemed to come at me slower, and I had more time to plan and execute my turns. Before I had been reacting to the corners, now I was riding the corners. After the session I spoke with Alex briefly, he gave me some advice and said he would follow me next time so he could observe my position and the way I ride.
Unfortunately I wasn’t able to work with Alex the next couple sessions because he was helping other riders, and I could hardly begrudge someone else getting the same expert tutelage I had gotten. It was probably just due to good planning on his part, because in the next couple of sessions I worked on riding the lines, braking and looking ahead that I had learned from him. No one was behind me and I didn’t feel pressured to impress or do things right. I was amazed at how much more controlled I felt and I assume I was going faster because instead of getting passed into and out of every corner, I was almost never getting passed. I also put my knee to the pavement for the first time. The feel freaked me out a little, but as I’m sure you all know, it exited the hell out of me at the same time.
Luckily, on the final session of the day, Alex pulled up to me just before the start and told me to fall in behind him. The first several laps I followed Alex again. More comfortable with taking the corners at speed, I was able to pay better attention to when he was picking up the throttle, his position, and the exact line he was using. Following Alex was so much easier than riding on my own. I didn’t have to worry about when to brake, how fast to enter a corner or where the line was. On just the second lap of the session I dragged my knee through a couple corners. I didn’t panic and stand the bike up like the first time; I was too intent on what I was doing. The next couple of laps it just became another thing that happened when I managed to stay on Alex’s line and not slow down more than I should at the entrance. Like all good things, the time to follow came to an end.
Alex pulled to the right and signaled me past. I tried to continue to ride the same, but with the added responsibility of thinking for myself, my riding suffered a little, mainly on the corner entrance. It seemed that if I got the corner entrance right, the corner flowed nicely. I rode several laps with Alex behind me. About half way through the session I made a big mistake and ran off the track exiting Oak Tree. I stood it up and rolled through the grass, more than a little embarrassed but happy to still be rubber side down. Alex signaled me into the pit. He told me that my riding position wasn’t right and it was causing me to fight the bike. He started to explain what he meant, but I guess it was obvious I was confused. He told me to follow him and brought me to his pit.
He patiently explained and demonstrated the proper position. Then he showed me my position. I had to admit that he had it right, and I had to admit it was ugly. I knew that my position was bad, but I have become comfortable with it. I had looked at my pictures in the Pics Of You trailer, and I remarked to my friend that I wasn’t going to buy the pictures because I looked so bad. With my poor position established, Alex told me to climb aboard his bike (which was on a stand now). He had showed me how to lock me knee in, bend my elbows, lean parallel with the bike and get my body AND my head down, but when I got on his bike I immediately took up my bad position without thinking. Then he put me into the correct position as he explained why I needed to be in that position. It made perfect sense and it FELT RIGHT. He also pointed out that I was tall (6’3”) and that the bike was built for someone significantly shorter that me. He explained how I could compensate for this and still use the bike to lock myself in with my lower body instead of holding myself in position with my upper body. This let me lower my upper body into a good position, and allowed me to use my arms to steer. I watch great riders on T.V. all summer (I have for years) but I have never been able to emulate their positions. It wasn’t until Alex forced me into the correct position that I finally got it. By the time Alex finished getting me into the right position, the session was over, and I wasn’t able to practice using it.
I came to the track expecting it to be fun and expecting that I would figure out how to get faster. After the first session I was certainly having fun, but I realized that I had no idea what I was doing. At the beginning they announced that the Control Riders would regulate the traffic, keep it safe and help out the riders. It amazed me that someone would actually take the time to really teach me how to ride, but that’s what happened. My short time working with Alex has been more valuable than all my years of riding and watching Speed T.V. When I returned to my pit and told my buddy that about my last session, he said that it was too bad that I missed half of the track time for that session. I explained to him that I would have given up all the track time I had that day in exchange for Alex’s help.
There are just two things left to say. Thank you NESBA, and THANK YOU ALEX.

PMP Event: Pocono Raceway 7/23

We had hoped for beautiful weather but we were told that it was going to be overcast all day with some rain late in the afternoon. Then on Monday morning we heard that we would have had a few drops in the morning followed by a break leading to the afternoon shower but … we got not break, just a long shower.
The event was hosted by Absolute Cycle, a new club that in a short term has already position itself as one, or maybe the best, NYC road-racing club. Unfortunately the rain has ruined the party so in the morning we had a limited number of people that took the chance to drive up to the Pocono Raceway to gamble with the volatility of the weather conditions. In the Robert Lombardi school we had only 5 students, a situation that would have been perfect for them under dry conditions, given the instructor to student ratio of 4:5, typical of more advanced classes. Anyhow along with Steven Lombardi, Todd Cuso and Naim Behdzet, I tried to give the school hoping that the sky would open but in reality it got worse by the hour: after only two sessions we decided to call the day and issued a credit for the class to be used in one of our future school events. In the Lombardi School we believe that a course should be thought in fair conditions, the only way for the students to refine and improve their skills while achieving the “Basic Level” goals.
A special thank to the control riders Frank Aluzzo and Joe Russo for riding with the participants to the event under such inclement conditions.
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Ice road racing: a specialty for the boldest bikers.

After a couple of months of unusual mild temperatures, the North East winter has shifted its gears with blasting cold winds pushing our thermometers down in the low teens. Regardless in NYC the wintry weather is never long enough to make people overcoming their natural tendency to cocoon in their homes and other indoor places during the coldest time of the year. If anything, we challenge ourselves with winter sports, and in my case, along with others PMP guys, I go skiing to Vermont. Very often during these weekend trips I have seen people riding their snowmobiles in polar temperatures to get to the local restaurants and bars for a “hot date” or to meet their friends. They looked like the Michelin man with their huge specialized outfits that contain infinite layers of Gore-Tex garments to guarantee enjoyable time at high speed in the farm fields or iced rivers and lakes. I have always looked at them with some sort of admiration, but they suddenly became normal people once I stumbled on this video of roadracers challenging themselves on icy tracks. They are Swedish, people that have a long tradition of speedway (flat track) on ice, but I have never heard about iceroadracing …. These guys have some guts: it looks that they are wearing “normal” leather suits and also it seems that they are constantly on the verge of a huge high-side: I wonder how they would ride under ordinary conditions on a race track after training in “cold blood” temperatures and extremely dicey conditions.



Video Source

Absolute Cycle Performance and Lombardi Road Racing School-NYC

The Lombardi School in 2007 will offer its services at the events organized by a new local club, Absolute Cycle, part of Absolute Cycle Performance LLC, long time supporter of trackday riders and racers. Last fall, Roy Cadoo, CEO of Absolute, and Marc O’Connor saw the opportunity and the need for a boutique style road racing club where weekday events, professional coaching offered by long time racers, ex racers and expert riders, along with a very reasonable number of people attending the events, should guarantee a flawless, safe and exciting day for everybody.

In such a contest after the positive feedback by everyone who attended our Basic Level in 2006, the Lombardi Road Racing School has decided to add another course, the Intermediate Level. The new class will be run by me, Alessandro Matteucci, with a format of 2 max 3 students per instructor. With this course the Rob Lombardi School’s goal is to take an intermediate rider and provide him/her with all the techniques necessary to build a solid foundation to become a smooth, consistent, elegant and yes, fast advanced rider. By focusing on such a small number of students we will be able to personalize the teaching & riding experience with different drills according to the needs of each and every students. Also, we are planning to use videos to pin point areas of improvement and accomplishments to our students.
As I have recently explained in the Absolute Forum:
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Question:
Originally posted by tsd345

OK, I'll start......

So Alex, I plan on attending your advanced school this year, however I haven't attended the basic. Are you going to recommend that I attend the basic?
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Answer:

TSD345,
It really depends on your acquired technical skills. The course is for an intermediate rider: someone who comfortably rides at that level. The Basic school is specifically for someone new at the race track even though it can correct bad habits for some experienced street rider. In the Second Level I go back to certain concepts already introduced in the first course and from there I explain, practice and review in details, with each and every student, different techniques that should have a terrific impact on his/her riding skills. Now the question is: can you find a line and can you keep it through the turn? Do you accelerate enough at the exit of a turn to the point that you are really using brake-markers to deal with the next one? Ideally a rider should start with the Basic school, ride a few club events to mature and absorb what has already learned and once he/she can ride at the intermediate level take my class. At that point he/she will be able to enjoy a boost in his/her learning curve due to the fact that I tailor my teaching to his or her expertise, leveraging on the skills while working on the inabilities.
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Absolute Cycle “boutique style” road racing club, along with the Lombardi School and Absolute Cycle Perfomance store, offering the lowest prices in the market, are definetely going to be one the most interesting new addition in the Tri-State&Pensylvania road racing club arena in 2007.
Absolute Cycle is in Linden, NJ, conveniently located right off the NJ Turnpike and the Goethel Bridge, ph. # 1-877-382-9800

See you at the Motorcycle Show in the Javits Center, NYC