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Turn One
Going down the front straight, all you can see under the bridge is ocean and it looks like that’s what you are headed for. You hit the bump/jump just after the start and finish line as you flash under the bridge and it all opens up on the run into turn one. It’s normally back two gears and the big bikes had you grabbing the brakes about the 150m mark, with the 600s at 100m. It surprises you how deep you can go into this turn, since you get the speed sensation with the wind hitting you and it’s always around 300km/h. It’s important not to be too aggressive on the brakes and just get settled so you hit the inside apex where the bumps are close to the inside kerb and after the bumps get straight back on it.

Turn Two
A common mistake here is to pull the bike over to the right too far after exiting turn one. Turn two is a double apex turn so you can pretty much go straight at it from turn one and apex it going in and then drift out in the middle and apex it again on the way out – running down to turn three. A good run out of turn two means you can pass someone before you get to turn three or at worst, be on the inside of them tipping in.

Turn Three
This can be real fun but also a heart in the mouth type of turn. The bikes have picked up so much speed out of turn two and just as you tip into turn three, the track drops away and gets a little bumpy so you can find yourself going in with the front wheel ever so slightly off the ground, the head shaking and the wind trying to push you into Bass Strait. Once you get it in and on the gas it can be so much fun drifting on the exit. This is where the passes into Honda corner are set-up and pretty much done.

Turn Four
This is one of the best overtaking opportunities on the whole track. As important as it is to get the bike working through the fast corners out the back, it also has to be good on the brakes. The thing that can change from day to day here is the braking marker – depending on the wind, it can change from 30-50m. The bike never feels good around Honda and you always feel too slow around there and that the bike could fall over but you just have to tell yourself to get the exit right.

Turn Five & Six
Six is a great corner with plenty of grip and good camber but has a strange entry and a really late apex. If the bike is geared right, you shouldn’t be downshifting here – just leave it in second and brake. You get it on your knee quite early and out wide and apex it late just as you are starting to wind it up for the exit. A tight exit is really important here and having the bike upright launches you into the next fast physical section. 

Doohan said to me once that the most important part of the track is from Siberia to MG corner. It is very bumpy near the outside kerb on the exit and when the front is light, it is a real physical effort to get the bike over to the left before the flick right into the hayshed. There is a big bump right on the inside near the kerb through this left kink, I always found it easiest to let the bike wheelie over that bump and change direction on the back wheel.

Turn Seven
It never really settles until you roll the throttle a little and get it onto the knee and into the hayshed. On the 600, that wasn’t an option because on a good tyre it was wide open all the way through – touching the limiter in fourth. It is a fun turn when you get it right going from the inside white line to the outside white line. It is also one of only two real times you use the right side of the tyre properly. Again, like turn one to turn two, don’t waste too much effort pulling it over to the right for a wide entry into Lukey. Just get it in there.

Turn Eight
This is a really fast entry and you can run it into Lukey Heights hard because it runs uphill and a few lines work. It’s normally back one gear from fourth to third. There is a bump on the entry on the inside and straight after the bump, you need to get back on the throttle to settle the bike and keep it rolling up and around the hill to apex it again at the top of the hill. The run around here and over the hill is super important because you can stop someone passing you or line up someone for a pass into MG. It’s really a knife edge with rear grip around Lukey – drifting over a blind rise that really only opens up once you are over the hill and heading downhill to MG. 

Turn Nine
Depending on gearing, MG corner can be a first or second gear turn. I preferred second as it cancels the short shift from first to third out of MG and it isn’t so aggressive on the side of the tyre on exit. There is a bump out wide if you tip in from there but I never go there as the middle of the track is fine for me. That allows you to really stop it and get a tight exit set up for the next left. Getting out of MG fast is more important than trying to carry too much corner speed because running wide messes up the next corner and your speed down the straight.

Turn 10
It’s a strange turn that never really feels right and feels frustratingly slow. It seems too long to get on the throttle. Between MG and this turn you can accelerate really hard into turn 10 but then the key is to wait a little so that the bike is turned and pointing towards turn 11. Then open the gas hard and quickly on the fat part of the tyre – running it out to the edge of the track. 

Turn 11
This turn is probably my favourite worldwide, tipping in from the outside white line straight onto your knee all the way in. Sometimes it feels like you will never get it into the apex but as soon as you do, it’s straight back onto the gas – heading for the rise and the outside of the track onto the straight. I’m tucked in even before I’m out of the turn and just before I get it out to the kerb, I’m snicking fifth gear as the front is getting light over the rise and there are a couple of dips in the track near the kerb. When you get a great run out of here and hit the outside of the track, it’s perfect and it’s guaranteed your speed down the straight is greatly improved. 

Phillip Island through expert eyes… Words: Andrew Pitt  Photography: Peter Mitchell, Keith Muir

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He simply asked me if I was interested which didn’t need any consideration at all and all I needed to do was make sure I was free on the 17th or 18th of November for the two available days on track for the journalists at Motorland Aragon. Of course it was going to be Jonathan Rea’s hotly anticipated breakout test on the 2015 ZX-10R.

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Since I was at Almeria on my standard ZX-10R for the four days leading up to the first day on track I pushed Martin to get me out on track on day one just so everything fitted together a bit better for me and not having to wait around for a full day. He kindly obliged and got me third on the list on day one. 

Pulling the curtains back in the hotel room on Monday morning revealed that it had poured rain all night and was continuing to piss down. Upon arrival at the circuit the KRT team manager Guim Roda informed us all that everything would proceed as normal and there would be no waiting or trying to get moved to the second day because they had their own things to test which also meant that under no circumstances were we allowed to crash either of the two bikes.

Guim apologised for not being able to control the weather and after a technical briefing with one of the Kawasaki Heavy Industries (KHI) technicians it was time to get suited up. Holy shit, I thought because rain hadn’t really ever entered my mind because it just doesn’t rain in Spain and since I stopped racing you can very happily choose to simply not ride in the rain. The benefit of retirement my mate Neil Hodgson and I always say to each other, and to make matters worse I only had a dark visor.

Tom’s Crew Chief Marcel Duinker was calling me over and the warmers were off and it was time to go out on the Number 1 Kawasaki ZX-10R Factory World Superbike. It brought me back to my days racing for the Factory Kawasaki team in World Supersport and later Motogp although this time the Germans running out of Bavaria had been switched to Spaniards out of Barcelona.

“Just as I was about to pull the clutch in and nudge it into gear Guim lent over and told me in no uncertain terms, ‘Do not crash this bike’.”

Just as I was about to pull the clutch in and nudge it into gear Guim lent over and told me in no uncertain terms, ‘Do not crash this bike’. With that ringing in my ears I headed out with a quick thumbs up for encouragement from my mate and new KRT rider Jonathan Rea who was present in pit lane.

The moment I got onto the track I had a slight issue because Marcel had forgotten to tell me how to get the pit lane speed limiter off so I rode around the first 3 corners pressing every button I could find until it cleared and went off. Only later did Danilo (Tom’s Electronics and data guy) tell me all I needed to do was change into second and it switched off automatically. Finally up and running I had to remind myself not to use the clutch on the downshift  because the ride by wore system took care of all of that which is an absolute pleasure to ride once you get used to it.

“The first thing you notice though is the smoothness in the way the bike comes off the turns when you open the throttle.”

The first thing you notice though is the smoothness in the way the bike comes off the turns when you open the throttle. The No 1 Superbike almost feels like a cross between a V engine and the big bang Yamaha. Danilo has worked some real magic with the electronics and the fuelling to certain cylinders and when he opens to butterflies to all four cylinders to create the bottom part of the power and the early throttle opening towards the characteristics of a V engine while keeping the advantages of the inline 4 screamer engine once it starts stretching its legs up top. The early part of the throttle opening when it feels like the M1 Yamaha is hard to tell if it is related to lean angle or throttle percentage opening or rpm or a combination of all those things and more, and I am sure they are more than happy to keep their strategy to themselves.

Added with the lighter crankshaft effect on the corner entry and the extra confidence and stability you get running into the turn the bikes actually makes you want to ride it more and more. Even in the wet I would have been happy to do another 20 laps even if my teeth were chattering. I would have taken the extra big piece of foam Tom has on the back of the seat I assume to hold him in place simply because personally I like a bit more room to move around on the seat and the bike. Tom typically brakes really hard and late, he stops the bike to turn it, then gets the bike up and accelerates as hard as possible out of the turn. Even in the wet I could see the bike is set up to be very stable on the brakes and very stable on hard upright acceleration. Tom would explain in a little more detail later on when we chatted why this was the case. 

I had one little moment on the gas when I was accelerating onto the long back straight from low rpms in second gear when I was almost upright and again like David’s bike I thought I was past the risky point and I was able to safely keep opening the throttle when suddenly it stepped out really quickly. My feet stayed on the foot pegs on tom’s bike but still I had to close the throttle and take a little more care next time around. You get to around 40% throttle it you feel like you are hooked up and maybe the suspension is reaching a hard point or the link even reaching a hard point but the tyre can’t manage it anymore and it lets go. 

Being a factory Superbike I expected some really big hit of power at the top end and the bike to really take off but we all know that is not the best way to keep a tyre consistent over race distance and the smoothness in the way the bike builds power is very impressive. You go from the big-bang style early part of the corner exit through the seamless transition onto full power of all four cylinders while quickly going up through the gearbox without any real surge but all the while knowing the bike is pulling really strong. You certainly notice how the Superbike keeps pulling in the higher gears just as strong whereas the Evo bike flattens off ever so slightly in the last couple of gears. There are no noticeable flat spots or dips in the power curve and it keep pulling strongly to just over 15,000rpm.

“You certainly notice how the Superbike keeps pulling in the higher gears just as strong whereas the Evo flattens off ever so slightly in the last couple of gears.”

I really like the way Tom’s bike came into the apex while trail braking and the stability on the brakes while downshifting quickly at the end of the straight was simply amazing but most of all fun to see how much later each time you could rush into the turn and still make it around. The only negative was it took some pressure on the lever each downshift to get each gear to go in. More of a mechanical thing but  and something you needed to be conscious of because once I went down three times only to realise it hadn’t gone down the last gear and I had to kick it down a bit firmer next time. A bit notchy is the term I think best describes it. I overheard Jonathan Rea talking about the same thing later in the day when he got out on the bike for his first couple of runs.

Again the front feeling was great on the brakes and corner entry and being able to trail brake into the turn in the wet is something I don’t remember doing that often when I raced. I have never ridden on Showa before but I have always heard that if it is the proper factory Showa material it is about as good as it gets and the feeling I had straight away in the wet was pretty confidence inspiring.

It certainly is a testament to KHI, the whole Kawasaki Racing Team and of course Tom Sykes who has been there from the start of this current ZX-10R, that they have been able to deliver such a competitive Superbike over the last three seasons only to miss out on three world titles in a row by six and half points to the almost prototype Aprilia RSV shows how good the base bike has been. This is obviously back up by the fact that Salom won the Evo class and the Stock 1000 European title should have also been claimed by the ZX-10R only for the Perdercini rider to crash on the last lap of the race in Magny Cours while in the lead and throw it out the window.

I ended up going five seconds faster on Tom’s Superbike than the Evo bike but I know probably only half of that is relevant because I was getting better each lap with the conditions and getting my brain up to speed again but I felt much more in control at a faster speed. Unfortunately I got the ‘IN’ board but one of the few times in the wet I wanted to actually keep going because they have done such a great job with the bike.

I had managed to bring both bikes back in one piece and therefore Guim would probably invite me back next year to hopefully ride another Championship winning Kawasaki but for now it was time to grab a quick chat with Tom and his side of the garage.

Team Interview

Danilo Casonato (Data Electronics)
AP: I asked Danilo about the effect he has created with the Drive by Wire system to smooth out the throttle opening.

DC: This is just the effect of the Drive by Wire system where you can manage cylinders 1 and 2 and cylinders 3 and 4 in a different way. Like you said you felt it we can use 2 cylinders with more power and 2 cylinders with less power. On the corner entry we have only one cylinder burning and therefore less engine brake and it is easier to control rather than all four cylinders.

AP: How do you guys compare to your competitors on the electronics side?

DC: Of course we try to watch what the other guys are doing and take notice but mostly we are always learning and our aim is always to react to what the riders are asking for so I suppose it is the riders that drive the direction of development. 

Marcel Duinker (Chief Mechanic)

AP: Where do you see the team in terms of competitiveness/strengths and weaknesses?

MD: I think at this level everyone is pretty equal in the end it is just each bike has different concepts and different strengths for example we have an inline 4 screamer so for the last few years we have worked very hard to come as close as possible to the positive concept of the softer V engines and I feel really proud that we were able to do this with our type of engine. Our speed over the whole season in terms of race pace was amazing. The slight changes in the rules didn’t affect us so much this year with engines limited to 8 because the Kawasaki is a strong engine and we lost no power at all.

Tom Sykes (World Champion)

AP: Well mate I have just taken your bike for a ride so firstly thanks for letting me out on her and I must say I really enjoyed it. What impressed me the most was the smooth connection when started to open the throttle and the ride by wire system on corner entry. The first part of the throttle opening though is really impressive has this been a big point that you guys have worked on from day one?

TS: Well yes because being an inline 4 it certainly is going to be more aggressive on the initial throttle opening and acceleration so we needed to create something where our competitors have strengths. We also wanted to keep the advantages of the inline 4 and I suppose masked some of the difficulties with the nature of this bike. I feel we have managed to do that very well and we have a very good base to start from every time we roll out on the bike but saying that we still have some limitations especially in the wet on the side of the tyre at full lean angle.

This is more from the suspension side of things and most particularly the rear. The electronics give you the confidence to open the throttle but then when you get to about 40% throttle opening on full lean angle you arrive at the physical limit of the traction and then you can’t keep opening the throttle, which then stops you running the lean angle you want or feel you should be able to have and hence carry the correct corner speed.

AP: So you kind of get to that point and just have to wait until you can get the bike up and onto a safer part of the tyre. You can’t keep building speed?

Tom: Exactly and a perfect example of that was the second last round at Magny Cours when leon Haslam rode around the outside where if I had made just a few more degrees of lean angle and increased the corner speed I would have had a highside. It’s unfortunate really because other than that the bike is real nice to ride. That problem that I have just mentioned in the wet is still ever so slightly present in the dry too and we can sometimes find a way around it but place like Qatar and Jerez and Magny Cours where you are on the side of the tyre for long periods of time is hurts us. Our advantage with this bike is there it works pretty well in all departments and that was my goal from day one to make a very usable bike.

AP: Chassis wise are they trying to address this and Showa are they coming with ideas?

TS: Yes Marcel has been picking his brain and coming up with ideas and thankfully both KHI and Showa have come here with some new parts and ideas to try so I am quite positive and hopeful we are going to get there. Without elaborating we have plenty of parts to try and we know what we need and now testing away from the race weekends we can get through it all and get it sorted.

Tom Sykes 2013 WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10R Specifications 

ENGINE: Inline four-cylinder, liquid-cooled, DOHC 16-valve, 998cc, 76mm x 55mm bore & stroke, Magneti Marelli Ride-By-Wire EFI with 47mm throttle-bodies and oval sub-throttles, electric motors fitted to throttle-bodies for RBW, lightened crank, KHI camshafts, conrods, pistons, cylinder-head, gearbox, clutch all top secret! Akropovic Ti exhaust system, KHI wiring loom

CHASSIS: Stock ZX-10R frame with bracing around the head stock and an insert for head angle changes. Swingarm pivot point adjustable, factory swingarm, carbon-fibre sub-frame, KHI rearsets, ‘bars, levers and controls, Showa factory suspension, Marchesini wheels, Brembo brakes, SpeedFiber carbon-fibre bodywork

PERFORMANCE: Approximately 220hp@15,000rpm, 165kg

Owner: KRT. Currently based in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Tom Sykes 2013 WorldSBK Kawasaki ZX-10R Gallery

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You really need to have a good front end feeling and good confidence and feel in the front tyre. This will come only from testing your limits on the braking markers in practice and seeing how late you can actually brake without running off the track. This also will give you a good idea of how your front reacts when you grab the brakes a little harder and a little later. For example if the front dives too hard and fast it will pick the rear up meaning you will have to release the brakes a little to get the rear contact back or the rear will go sideways and try to overtake the front.

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If you have ridden around on your own all the way through practice and maybe cutting fast laps all the time it can be easy to find yourself in trouble in the race when you suddenly have to take a different line into a corner and brake in a different way when you need to overtake. This is why I always tried to run a few hard laps with someone fast and make sure I had made a few passes on the brakes during practice just so I knew how the bike would be and if we were set up properly to race.

In early 2005 when I was on the new R1 with the Yamaha Italia World Superbike and we were trying to find our base setup and get the right slipper clutch setting overtaking wasn’t really an option. I could get fast laps done in qualifying but I just didn’t have the confidence or feel from the front end to lunge up the inside of someone and confidently know I would pull it off and come out the other side of the corner.

I think for the first three or four rounds of the championship that year I didn’t make any passes on the brakes/front end on any of the faster guys I was racing with. Whereas later in the year and particularly the next year 2006 I could pass anyone on the brakes. 

When you have that confidence and you are trying to get past someone who also has their bike working well and is braking really late it will take a bit more planning. Sometimes an overtaking move can take a combination of any number of corners to pass someone or even numerous laps to set someone up finally for a decisive pass. If you have identified a corner where you think you can make a pass it may require the perfect exit from a corner five turns before and gathering momentum through every section just to get up alongside someone so that you can get past them.

Even then you both might grab the brakes, at the same time, both on the limit, each rider easing the brakes on and off to stay ahead all the way to the apex when the guy on the outside has to give way because you have taken his line. Then if you have pulled it off try and pull a gap straight away because most people will try to come straight back past. 

If someone had a little more pace than me but I could hang onto them and even pass them but not get away I would continually pass and re-pass to upset their rhythm and hopefully after lots of that I would have a little more tyre left at the end when things got tougher.

Another type of pass is a sort of momentum pass that starts with a good exit out of a turn and gathering that momentum through a series of faster turns and as you are flicking from one side to another under power running it up the inside. I liked to try a pass on the change of direction into the hayshed at Phillip Island.

This started though on the exit of Honda and then gaining a little more and getting a little closer on the run into Siberia and picking up the throttle at worst the same time as the rider in front getting your face right into their exhausts up through the left kink and over the bump and while they are keeping it left for the run through the Hayshed you are almost grazing their ducktail with your left shoulder and going straight to the apex and up the inside. The only trick there is making sure you are not out on the grass on the exit and approaching Lukey Heights on the green stuff.

Of course the other way to overtake is on the straight but the real key to that is having horsepower. It can be done with an amazing exit out of say Turn 12 at Phillip Island and catching a slipstream all the way down the straight and popping out as you start to run downhill after the bridge into Turn one.

People will also try the desperate moves that they have no idea if they can pull them off but have a go anyway which sometimes you just have to do. Anyway, if you are racing motorbikes or anything for that matter overtaking is always going to be part of it and the more often you do it the easier it is but you can be sure of one thing there is always going to be someone you want to overtake.

Executing a good passing manoeuvre takes skill and experience… Words: Andrew Pitt. 

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The pictures always showed how much sand there was everywhere at Barbagallo and that the bikes stayed upright in the sand when they ran off the track, even when the riders were no longer on board! My first experience over there was in 1994 for the round of the Shell Oils Australian Road Race Championships.

The only viable option expenses-wise was for a whole group of riders to get together and crate all the bikes up in a pantec truck and get someone to drive them over and back via Mallala for their round of the Championship.

Chris Taylor’s Dad, Alf, was the driver so he didn’t have to pay as driving was considered a pretty good contribution. A certain Troy Bayliss had his ZZR600 in the truck, too! This allowed the rest of us to fly over and see our bikes again at the racetrack. Everyone seemed to be on the same Qantas flight over from Sydney with all the factory Superbike riders of the day stationed up the back of the plane conducting the party.

We were staying at the Wanneroo Tavern with Phil Harper and his dad Bob and the Buckmasters – Malcolm and Damon. Phil knew the Buckmasters pretty well from the NSW Central Coast and they had advised us to stay there as it was pretty close to the track but could get a little noisy and rowdy on Thursday, Friday and Saturday night. 

That didn’t worry Malcolm though because he would just get up and go and sort them out. As a 17 year old I hadn’t had many nights out or seen too many things out of the ordinary such as topless waitresses on Thursday nights around the pool tables and a pub rocking all night, but the Wanneroo Tavern gave me all of those things. 

After dinner in the bistro on Thursday night, the old boys decided they needed a beer or two so we riders accompanied them in for a squash before official practice started the next day only to be greeted by naked ladies everywhere. Needless to say we probably drank all the squash in the joint before getting off to bed to get some sleep.

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The Saturday topped it all though when the general pub noise was getting louder and louder and I was sleeping like a log until woken yelling just outside our window. Dad was awake so we got up to see what was going on. 

Phil and Bob were up too with their door open and Malcolm was definitely up. Apparently one of the drunks had wandered over, obviously lost and had tried to get into their room through the window and Malcolm had come straight out ready to have this bloke. Upon seeing big Malcolm, the bloke shit himself. Realising he had made a big mistake on his room choice, he skipped up onto a car and then onto the motel roof to get away from Malcolm. 

What we had heard was Malcolm telling this bloke to get down and accept his punishment and the bloke pleading with Malcolm to be let go in one piece. A good old-fashioned stalemate was what we had but it all ended peacefully and became a good story to tell about the Wanneroo Tavern. 

The track surface was very abrasive but also very grippy especially in the wet which I suppose it had to be considering when the wind came up the sand blew onto the track. The track goes clockwise so right, right, right most of the time, which I liked.

As the years went on, dad and I did it together in a Hiace bus that went over on the train and we drove it back across the Nullarbor picking up Craig McMartin’s trailer after their vehicle had broken down in a race to get to Mallala for the next round. Needless to say the fuel economy went out the window towing the trailer across the desert coupled with the fuel prices out there. The year after, Peter Doyle agreed to throw our private ZX-6R in their truck and dad and I managed to get two third places against all the factory teams and that weekend probably got me started with Doyley and crew. At the very next round, the latest model I had been waiting for was ready and prepared by TKA and it led to second in the championship that year behind Damon Buckmaster.

The pit facilities were always good with competitors side by side in the carports in the early days, to the more upmarket lockable sheds that were generally privately owned and made available for the bigger teams over the weekend.

The Supersport bike was all about corner speed and maintaining momentum while the Superbike was all about getting it up and managing the wheel spin and hence tyre life. I have to say though, the Superbike was by far the most fun around there especially getting out of the bowl out the back.

The accommodation changed from the Wanneroo Tavern to Hillary’s Boat Harbour as things got better but it was always the round that everyone looked forward to all year – from the welcoming club and fans over there to the Sunday night parties in the clubhouse at the track. There was always the core group of workers headed by Denise that put on a great weekend and made everyone welcome and nothing had changed when I went back in 2009 for the Kings of Wanneroo.

“Thankfully an Australian Championship round has returned there because it was simply criminal they lost it and it’s not a real Australian Championship without going to Wanneroo.”

I told you I would finish the story of the rental car going around the adjacent motocross track so here are a few more details. Now I won’t mention any names and it was a few years before my time so maybe it’s just myth but as I said a rental car was rumoured to be taken around the motocross track and by the end it would only go in fifth gear and reverse. To make matters worse, it was bent through the middle and the doors wouldn’t open so when it was finally returned to the airport all occupants had to get out through the windows.

Summing up Wanneroo there is no doubt it always provides great racing and passionate spectators but by week’s end there will always be a few new stories to tell.

TURN ONE
It has a pretty short front straight and depending on gearing, fifth gear was about as high as you would ever get (and sometimes only fourth). Normally you’re grabbing the brakes well past the end of the pit wall (around the pit lane exit), going back to third and running in really fast. It wasn’t a key overtaking spot but it could be done, you had to block the other rider a little, stopping yourself and trying to prevent running those couple of bike lengths wide allowing your competitor straight back past you on the inside. 

Third gear seemed generally a little tall on the entry but it made you keep it rolling around the long right to keep the corner speed up for the exit which ended up being a quick run up to the uphill left. Getting it up onto the fatter part of the tyre was important on the exit because it was very easy to lose that jump off the turn while it was spinning

TURN TWO & THREE
These two weren’t really turns for me just flicks left and right as quick as possible before getting into the fast uphill Turn Four. Although, through the right flick you had to be very careful not to touch the inside kerb with the engine case and then not touch the drain on the inside of the entry to Turn Four.

TURN FOUR
Was the only real left hand turn on the track but it was long and allowed you to easily get the tyres scrubbed and enough heat into them. It was third gear on all bikes and was uphill so I always found myself running in really fast but still thinking maybe I could have pushed a little more going in. Once the bike was settled it was straight back on the gas to keep the speed building. It was critical to keep it tight all the way around the uphill left but circuit knowledge was also critical because you couldn’t see the next right! 

Until you knew exactly when to flick it right you were guessing, which meant sometimes doing it too early and heading for the inside kerb and sometimes too late and getting out into the sand on the exit. During that flick to the right there was also a gear change up to fourth and then another one to fifth at the crest of the hill as you were touching the outside kerb on the exit to keep the front wheel down before heading down into the bowl.

TURN SIX
This is still one of my all-time favourite corners because of how much fun you can have on the exit with wheel spinning and tyre smoking, especially on a bike with some horsepower. It was downhill braking, back to third and also a really good overtaking opportunity if you had gotten over the top of the hill before well. It was a matter of getting it in there and hitting your apex, getting it pointed in the right direction and then start opening the throttle and let the fun begin. It really was dirt-tracking skills at their best. The exit just opened up and there was so much room heading back up the hill with the tyre spinning while you were grabbing gears. All the talk at the end of the races between riders was how much smoke was coming off your tyre and how much smoke we were riding through.

TURN SEVEN
This was the last overtaking chance and probably where all the races were settled. I won battles there but also lost a few, too. Getting the bike over the hill in top gear without flipping it was the first issue, well before the braking duels started but once you touched down it was about going in as deep as possible. The middle part of the braking zone starts going uphill after the steep downhill run and this was the first time I have ever felt front forks bottoming-out under brakes.

After sneaking up the inside of someone you had to hold your line or they would be back up the inside on the exit and beat you to the line while you were trying to stay off the big high kerb on the exit. That kerb is also where it can all come unstuck trying to jump it, or if you get the rear over the crown, it lets go really quick (as happened to Crusty one year). The key was to just use the inside part of it as a bit of a berm. This was where all the spectators were and generally there was plenty for the marshals to clean up in the sand after some of the moves didn’t stick.

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Before really getting into throttle opening, there was always one part of the setup that I needed very smooth before I could really focus on throttle opening and that is the initial pick-up of the throttle or the transition from closed throttle to that first crack. This is just to get the bike settled and pick-up the drivetrain and feel the connection with the rear tyre.

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On a new bike or even when a new map was installed and particularly since the heavy reliance on traction control has come to the fore, that initial pickup became the priority that everything else was built on.

The first day of testing a new bike, and sometimes just the arrival at a new circuit, could mean plenty of time spent on smoothing out the aggressiveness of that initial crack of the throttle. When it is too aggressive the bike tends to jump, which unloads the front suspension then reloads it when you try and get it back under control. The compromise is definitely two-way with the need for feel from the direct connection to the rear tyre but also not too soft on opening so that you can’t really feel the grip level of the rear tyre.

Once the desired pickup is achieved and the rider has the confidence to then really open the throttle it becomes a matter of laps and each particular corner in working out the quickest way to exit the particular turn in question.

In a long constant-radius-type turn like the Southern Loop (Turn 2) at Phillip Island, it requires getting back on the throttle quite soon after releasing the brakes and hitting that first apex on the entry. It is more to keep a constant speed around the corner and get the bike loaded and set up for the exit. When you have it turned and pointed down towards turn three, you then start to pick it up more to the centre part of the tyre or off the edge of the tyre and really get the throttle open.

The opposite type of corner is Honda Corner (Turn 4) which is much slower and more of a stop corner that involves much lower corner speed but then a sudden need to get the bike up and accelerating back to speed again down towards Siberia. It is pointless trying to carry a lot of corner speed around a corner like Honda Corner. Getting on the throttle too early you run out wider on the exit and therefore never really get the bike off the side of the tyre and sometime never really to full throttle.

I always found it better to sacrifice a little mid-turn speed around Honda and get the bike turned and over the little bump in the middle of the corner so that I could pick it up and get the throttle opened to full as soon as possible in order to use the power the bike has on the fat part of the tyre.

I touched earlier on traction control and its effect on throttle opening. Put more correctly and simply would be to say traction control lets you open the throttle earlier. When a rider feels that the task of getting the tyre hooked up on the first part of the opening is being taken care of electronically you tend you get more and more confident with throttle opening but it does depend on traction still and if the traction is simply not there then the bike just won’t go anywhere. Keep in mind though that it is still very much possible to highside a bike with traction control. 

The point where you can open the throttle can also vary a lot from the first day of practice when the circuit is dirty to race day when the track is a lot faster. Usually on day one, tyres are not working really well on the dirty track and as the rubber gets laid down things will improve. 

A wet track and wet tyres can change things quite a lot too, compared to your reference points in the dry. In the wet, I generally found that I picked the throttle up quite early just to keep the bike loaded around the turn and balanced because any sudden movement can leave you sliding up the road on your arse or head. I’m only talking maybe five per cent throttle opening but just enough to keep the tyres loaded. Of course, once you start opening it on the exit you really need to be smooth and consistent all the way to full throttle. I found the mental concentration was really intense in the rain but staying on top of it really allowed you to reap the rewards.

Once wheelie control started to be introduced, that also made throttle opening quite a bit easier whereas before you had to control it with the rear brake or try and short shift a little and keep it out of the power a bit. The wheelie control allowed you to just open the throttle to the stop and get on with it but again the delicate balancing act was in not taking too much power out of it so you lost out on acceleration.

Another interesting experience I want to share with you is the ‘against all logic’ of opening the throttle on qualifying tyres. You really need to forget what your brain is telling you and open the throttle so much earlier and harder on the side of the tyre for one lap.

The most fun I had one day was when I was testing the factory Yamaha M1 800 for Michelin in Spain when we were trying to get the tyres on the pace of the Bridgestones. We spent a whole morning testing rear qualifiers and then front and rear qualifiers together. With the fronts I could simply brake hard all the way to the apex and then crack the throttle almost as soon as I got off the brakes and get it onto the super-sticky rear qualifier that didn’t move.

The trap there was that straight after lunch I was back out on race tyres and sure enough I took the bait and fell straight into the trap of losing the front on the brakes entering a fast right-hander. Lesson learned I suppose. In summary, the biggest piece of advice I could give on throttle opening is to go by the conditions of the track and the type of corner you are going through because no two corners are the same and therefore openings will vary. Of course you need keep in mind that old saying of ‘Sometimes you need to slow down a little to go faster.’

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