The sun is shining and I’m catching him. That’s the leader up ahead of me, I just need to pass him and I’ve won. World Champion, etc., etc. We’ve all done it. Visualised the guy in front and asked ourselves if we could pass him (or her). Sometimes we do it on the road, which isn’t the smartest thing if you then go and try to see if you were right. Nah the best place to try this is the track.
Track days are without doubt the best place to test your bike and your skills. The safety measures are in place, all the other riders know the rules and there are NO cars at all…NONE. How cool is that?
There’s nothing like that blazing, buzzing, rushing feeling of arcing round Druids or scorching round Redgate knowing that the pro’s were here last week and your line is better than Leon Haslam’s ever was…
Now obviously that probably isn’t the case, and the thing about track days is they’re great if you want to continue riding in your own style, but this doesn’t always help you improve. Racing your mates round a circuit and making the same mistakes over and over again only reinforces those problems so if you really want to get better, then help is at hand… from Leon’s Dad in fact…
The Ron Haslam Race School is one of the most famous courses available to help take you from 2-Stroke Tinker (ooh some of my race mates are gonna hate me for that :) to Full-on 4-Stroke Race Fiend. Now I’ve always wanted to have a go at the school and I’m hoping that if I say enough good stuff here, I’ll find a voicemail on my phone with a personal all-expenses paid invite from Rocket Ron himself for a bit of personal tutelage for me and a lucky reader of LB.
So what’s holding me back then…well firstly Ron hasn’t called yet…secondly, the school takes place in Donington, so its quite a commitment to get there but ole Rocket Ron and his team have come up with a great way to tempt me to make that commitment…and he didn’t even have to pick up the phone.
In my hot sticky hands I am currently holding the closest thing I can get hold of to a private lesson from a Superstar in the hallowed art of race craft. The Ron Haslam Superbike Masterclass produced by Duke Videos (www.dukevideo.com).
But it’s just a DVD I hear you say…well I don’t actually cos I’m listening to some rockin tunes, but that’s what I’d imagine you’d say if I’d shut up for a minute and let you get a word in edge ways…anyway…
Contained within the quite ordinary DVD cover is the sort of information that will A) convince you to take this course in about 1 hour and 4 minutes…and B) Even if you don’t take the course…it will teach you more useful riding, cornering and road positioning information than you can shake your pint at.
Now I am raving about this but it’s got to be said the DVD does suffer initially from being a bit “Selly”. The first 10 minutes are a loving description of the great service Ron will give you if you come and take his course and it left me thinking...this isn't really wahat I expected. But that’s TV for you…the producer had tonnes of shots and wanted to set the scene…believe me when I say bear with it, cos it IS worth it.
Once the real meat gets under way, you find out a lot about the courses that are available. There are 3 main packages including Beginners, Premier and Elite. As you’d expect Beginners does what it says on the tin. The camera team follow the experience of newbies and people who just want to try a track day and get some feedback about their skills. They even manage to find a bloke whose turned up having never ridden a bike before…ever…and even he seems to be having a blast.
The Premier course is for the more experienced rider who knows a bit about riding, had probably done track days and wants to improve their riding skills, cornering style just improve all round. Again, the DVD follows the experiences of several different riders as they take the day’s course.
And finally there’s the Elite programme. Where the Beginner and the Premier courses are 2 students to 1 instructor, the Elite is a one on one service tailored to the individual rider. Whatever you want to improve, the instructor will focus on that and raise your skill base immeasurably. If you take this one you may even get to test whether your line was better than Leon’s or not, cos he sometimes helps out with instruction at this level…
As well as tonnes of track time at all levels, there’s plenty of riding skills work done in the car park and Ron even offers a great Starters course which helps kids as young as 5 get their first experience of riding, although admittedly, this bit isn’t on the track…
OK, now if you’re like me…you're probably STILL wondering what the big deal is. It just sounds like a big advert for Ron’s race school, and if I’d just paid for a DVD that said Ron Haslam’s Superbike Masterclass, I’d expect a lot more than just an advert for something else to buy… right?
Well exactly….BUT that’s precisely what you get. Throughout the DVD, you not only see what the students are learning, but you get to see plenty of the excercises and tips including fantastic footage showing the instructors demonstrating as well as the students trying it out. So everyone wins here. You get a whole heap of amazing advice and skills to apply to your riding AND you get to see just how in-depth and useful taking a day out to head to Donington would be.
Half way through watching this I just had to go for a ride and as soon as I got on my ride I was practising everything Ron had told me on the disc. Body position, road position, distance awareness, and so on. It was like me and Ron were riding together round the streets of South London. Now, I know it sounds like I’ve established a rapport with one of the world’s most successful Superbike riders, but that’s because that’s how the whole DVD is put across. A friendly personal, no nonsense sharing of the skills that Ron Haslam has gained over a 30 year career. A career which includes 3 world titles, 4 British Championships, TT Road racing experience and a staggering 6 consecutive wins at the notoriously dangerous but breathtaking Macau GP.
That experience is right here…ready for you to benefit from. So what on earth are you waiting for? But wait, there’s more.
As well as all the advice, tips ideas and suggestions for riding a race track, there’s a whole section where Ron takes a ride on the public roads and talks you through how he’d see the situation in front of him…how cool is that…riding the streets of Donington WITH Ron Haslam giving you a perspective commentary…
In the extras section, you’ll also find a few onboard laps with Ron, in both wet AND dry conditions where he explains the lap of the Donington MotoGP circuit, which gear he uses and why, where the bumps are that he looks for, how to handle the Esses, what lines to take through the hair pins and so on. The information is just endless but so useful.
And there’s also some really useful stuff where he gives some advice on how to set your bike up for track days. This includes all the obvious stuff about tire wear and brakes, but also fairings, race cans, and things like quiet days at some tracks. The locals at some tracks are bored of hearing us bikers razzing round so some days are designated quiet days. UNfortunately, they're often the same days that are availabel for public track days so if you turn up on one of these, your bike may be noise-tested. If you’re too loud, you don’t go out on that bike. Plain and simple. If you can change your can, they'll let you out, but for the most part, unless you're a track day pro with loads of extra parts, its best to turn up on a bike that isn't going to get you banned. Make sure you know before hand…cheers Ron.
Listen, I could go on here all day, but there’s a great little extra bit where Ron talks about his career and that of his superstar son Leon whose currently one of the Top 5 riders in the BSB championship. As a TV interviewer, this kind of access to superstars like the Haslam’s is hard to come by, so it may not appeal to the amateur biker, but if you’re really only amateur you wouldn’t have read this much of this review…All I can safely say, is buy this and then get on the phone to book a day at the school cos you’re going to HAVE to go. And wave as you go by, cos I'm booking myself in as soon as I can. Laters.
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