Located less than an hour (88km) north of Melbourne just off the Hume Highway, was made possible thanks to the guts and brains of a few back in the 1950s. The then ACU of Victoria started the Land Purchase Fund (LPF) with the aim of one day buying land for use by racers so they have somewhere to compete forever. A contribution of two shillings (20c) was made by each rider towards the fund. Eventually then Hartwell MC president Murray Nankervis spotted a parcel of land on Strath Creek Rd, Broadford. 

The first track to open was the MX track, then the dirt track. In the mid 1980s an enthusiastic bunch of volunteers began work on the road race circuit and it was opened in 1990. The road race track is in Reg Hunt Park and is 2.16km long with 12 turns – nine rights and three lefts, or two lefts and a left kink. For me, it is the most enjoyable track in Australia. I love the undulations, camber changes and hard braking in some spots. Broadford has it all and is an extremely fun track to ride. 

Back in the day, all the big names would do the Shell Oils Australian Road Race Championships, The Vic Titles and the NSW Titles. The State championships were just as big as the Nationals. It was fantastic. My first meeting was the first round of the 1996 Vic titles. I rode a Graeme Boyd sponsored RGV250. Kev Curtain had won the Shell Oils 250 Production Championship on it the previous season.

 Back then the pits were chock-a-block. Well, there were only a few dodgy carports for the lucky few with the dollars. The rest of us were parked in the dirt. I had my Mitsubishi L300 as a garage and the back door up as shelter. It was stinking hot during the day and freezing cold during the night. I camped there in my van and was the only person in the pits – I’m sure of it. In fact, I spent half the night walking the track with a torch. A lot of good that would have done! 

First practice Friday was a disaster –  a holed radiator on the back straight and a ceased engine by the run down the hill before I realised. As I was on my own, it was a nightmare… I missed the rest of the day of course and luckily a kind person in the pits drove all the way to Melbourne and back to get me a second-hand radiator! I rebuilt the seized engine in the dirt and in the back of my van and made it out for warm up and qualifying on Saturday morning. I can’t remember the rest of the weekend but a few top 10 finished in my first race meeting there was OK.

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I remember watching the greats there. Back in the 250GP days who could forget Craig Connell or Marcus Payton (RIP) ripping it up in the 59-second mark. Or Andrew Willy on the 125GP bike, Kev Curtain, Chad Turnball, Andrew Pitt, Karl Muggeridge or Chris McAteer on 250 Proddies. Not to mention the awesome superbike and supersport races of the 1990s in the 57,58 and 59 second brackets. 

Back then the track was in shocking condition and I’m happy to say it is much better these days. The deep groove that sent many a rider into the wall on the brakes into turn one is gone, and there is a bit more run off in places but it is still a track you really, really don’t want to crash on… not only is the runoff limited by natural terrain and the odd concrete wall – there is also little room for other competitors to get out of the way so it is very easy to get yourself run over if you crash infront of a pack at Broadford – particularly in turns one and two…

Facilities are not bad. The bathrooms have hot showers and are clean. There is a good café with really good coffee. Power is trip free most times in the pits and camping is permitted too. All up a great place and best of all, Broadford is the best spectator track in Australia. From anywhere around the outside of the circuit you can see the full lap! 

There is plenty of accommodation in surrounding areas. I usually stay in Seymor as there are a bunch of reasonably priced hotels there and a good shopping centre to get supplies. It is just 20-minutes up the road and offers a lot more than Broadford.

Start/Finish Straight
I start my lap on the chute and position myself to the far left of the track if going for an optimum time. About a metre in from the edge of the track there is plenty of rubber on the track and lots of grip. Braking here starts really, really late. I normally take up lever slack and roll off 10 meters before the track starts to climb and then I do my braking up the hill as I turn into T1. Using the track like a ramp to stop the bike. If you have someone slipstreaming you on the chute, stick about a metre from the inside and hug the paint into T1 on the brakes. 

Turn One & Two
It is important to get your turning done quickly here and crack the throttle otherwise you load the front and it tucks a bit. As soon as you crack the throttle start to feed power on. There are numerous fast lines here but if alone I double-apex the two corners turning them into a triangle. Between T1 and T2 a quick turning moment means you can stand your bike up and use the fat part of the rear tyre.

Lots of highsides here as riders open the gas in the wrong part of the corner. It is very off camber. Off the start this is a great place to pass. Hug the paint all the way around the inside and you are guaranteed to pass at least five people and block them on exit. A good exit is crusial for speed at the end of the back straight.

Turn Three & Four – back straight
The back straight is so, so important. As you exit T1 and T2 you crest a small hill at the top then there is a flat-out downhill run to T5. T3 is a small kink, as is T4, and so the fast way is to straightline it all the way to T5. Stay tucked in really tight. I find this a great place to pass as people run wide on the gas out of T2 I stick to the right of the back straight all the way and then have the upper hand on the brakes into turn five, usually making up a few spots in the first few laps. 

Turn Five
The approach to turn five is uphill and can catch you out. As you brake very, very hard and late up the ramp the back wheel wants to come off the ground. It can be a tricky balance trying to get optimum stopping done while keeping the bike stable in readiness for turning. I usually get my arse right back off the seat over the back of the bike here to help out. If you are alone, you can use all the track from left side braking right up to just before the apex of the corner. If you are in a battle you need to make your way to the inside before you get to the corner.

Beware! It’s not hard to go around the outside of someone into this corner and you can then get on the gas earlier and ruin the other rider’s run. So it is a corner of many variables. The main thing is getting that throttle open hard. It is off camber on exit but there is grip. If you are not battling wheelstand down the hill you are not opening the throttle hard enough! It is important to get good drive down the hill to T6 as a pass up the inside is possible. If you don’t make the pass here it is almost impossible until after T9.

Turn Six
Turn six is a right kink that is very fast. As you exit T5 it is easy to get yourself a bit wide. You can’t afford to drop off the edge of the track as it is around a 10cm drop off to the dirt and you won’t get back on without a crash. As you accelerate downhill towards T6 you are already setting yourself up for T7 where you brake hard for the T8/9 flip flop. I sometimes go around the outside for a pass around T6 & T7 and just shoot up the inside into T8 but you have to have the pace. If you hesitate on excecution you end up in the dirt! 

Turn Seven/Eight/Nine
If alone I do my braking earlier and I’m on the gas into T7 and on steady throttle through T8 & T9 back hard on the gas. If in a battle I brake into T7 and even the change of direction in T8 then hard on the gas. It’s important to really get the steering done quickly and get that bike from full lean right to full lean left then right again as fast as you can. It’s quicker to sit in the middle of the seat and not hang off too far wasting time climbing from one side of the bike to the other in T7/T8 then hang off for T9 so you can get the bike up on the fat part of the rear tyre for the off camber exit. Really important to get good drive off T9 for the long downhill run to T10 where it is a great place to nip up the inside. 

Turn Ten & Eleven
These are my favourite corners. They are cambered positively and there is lots of grip here. Ideally you want to use all the track into T10 and not brake too hard but carry lots of rolling speed which will have you flowing all the way onto the chute eventually. But in a race you usually have someone trying to pass on the brakes here. Then they will lose their rhythm and slow both of you up through T11 and T12. So I usually stick to the middle of the track and brake like a bastard into thos corner, then ease the lever off and it’s immediately rolling on the throttle hard at what seems like an incredible lean angle heading into T11. It is amazing how hard you can accelerate towards T12 there is lots of time here. 

Turn Twelve
If you got T10 & T11 right and got good drive off T11 you will have had a heart-in-mouth whoooaa ‘I hope the front holds because my elbow is almost on the ground’ moment into T12. Don’t panic there is grip just don’t go too wide and don’t grab a handful of brakes! I use plenty of rear and lots of throttle through T12, lifting the bike between my legs through the off-camber exit then driving it at full throttle down the hill onto the chute. If in a battle, you need to square off T12 entry and brake deep, turn and squart the gas for a run onto the chute but that is not the ideal way through the turn.

Broadford Lap Records

• OUTRIGHT: Steve Tozer CBR1000RR 57.93
• 250GP: Craig Connell TZ250 59.40
• SUPERBIKE: Alistair Maxwell ZXR750 58.75
• FX: Craig Coxhell R1 58.34
• SUPERSPORT: Christian Casella R6 58.41
• 125GP: Blake Leigh-Smith RS125 1:00.05
• 250 Proddie: Rodney Taplin 1:03.60
• SUPERMONO: Peter Parkin Yam600 1:02.05
• THUNDERBIKES: John Allen MV F4 59.45
• SIDECAR: Terry & Todd Goldie TZ750 1:02.40
• FX Thunder: Rob Carrall VTR 1:01.35
  

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The decision to change gearing is stemmed by the initial want for more power or speed, a holistic view will have you consider how the new gearing will affect following areas; rider input, geometry of your bike both front and rear, corner speed, how many gear change, what we gain in one corner, we lose in another or in an overall lap time?

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As a coach I Quite honestly believe gearing has a huge impact on rider development. Gearing a bike around a poor riding habit is not going to help the new rider develop. What I usually find is as the rider improves he or she goes back to an original gearing, so the original problem was a riding problem and not a gearing issue.

Gearing sounds simple but there are some trial blunders made especially by novices. I know because I made them myself. You know it’s funny how losing can be a real lesson; it’s the pain that makes the lesson stick in your head. Racing was great educator for me, I hated losing, and racing taught you one thing. The past should not equal the future!

With motorcycle road racing, if you did not make a change to what you were doing wrong, then you were getting much the same result at the next race meeting. So I learnt you can never sit on your arse and expect things to change – you had to sit down, work it out and not be complacent, competition tells you that just because you win today does mean you will win tomorrow.

The dynamics of the bike and rider, the bond between the two, is paramount and a critical consideration in gearing decisions, even race strategies will be made around how you set up your bike, especially if you are interested in endurance racing. 

It is also very important to understand that gearing doesn’t change the horsepower of the motorcycle, although different gearing on a dyno will change how the dyno reads your engine rpm may reflect a different opinion.

• Reasons for change
  Road bikes are usually set up for a range of different conditions so when we race our road registered sportsbikes we are trying to improve lower acceleration in a straight line or out of a particular corner.
• Maybe we are at a track where there is a lot of low speed turns requiring bottom power to drive.
• Improve top end speed, especially if we get to a fast track or a track with a large long straight.
• Get better engine performance in certain parts of the track
• Different tyre manufacturers can have the same size tyres but have variances in rolling diameter. 
• Running out of rpm
  

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Down sides 

• Better bottom end power off the turns maybe great but the top speed of your motorcycle is affected 
• Gear engine rpm to your current riding skill and speed. 
• Not tuning for the slip stream
• Increase wear and tear on tyres 
• Harsher acceleration = harder to get on the throttle earlier 
• More engine rpm in turns can make you feel real busy and that you are going faster than you actually are

There are quite a few ways we can change our gearing. Internal gearbox  cassette gearboxes in genuine GP bikes and other exotic bikes means you can alter all gears – input and output – to gain an advantage in a particular area without losing out in another area… very good fun but very complex and expensive.

Front sprocket 
The larger the sprocket the faster top speed less bottom power, the smaller the front sprocket the better bottom end power less speed. There are issues with changing the front sprocket in the way it pulls the chain and effects swingarm movement and rear squat. 

Rear sprocket
When we change the amount of teeth on the rear it work in the opposite to the front. Three teeth up or down on the rear equals one on the front.  The issues on changing this sprocket is not as bad as the front, however there are still changes which will affect ride height and wheelbase. 

Diameter of wheel
Rolling radius of rear tyre is just the same as your wheel-not every manufacture has the exact rolling radius tyre dimensions, knowing if you have a larger or smaller diameter tyre is critical especially if you have tuned the bike and gearing to a track then you change brand in tyres or model. It should be remembered that larger diameter tyres will also affect you steering geometry.

Gear Ratio chart
A gear ratio chart-can be a very effective way of calculating the overall ratio of the front and rear sprocket. The chart should be laminated and kept with track maps and tuning information. I have always used one and it is such a brilliant tool. The ratio can be worked out mathematically using a calculator – divide your rear sprocket i.e. let’s say your motorcycle has a 38-tooth rear sprocket, divide 38 by your front sprocket, which is 14 – this gives you a ratio of 2.714:1.

If we change the front sprocket to say 13 and maintain the same 38 rear this would give a ratio of 2.923:1. A gear ratio chart makes finding these ratios a lot easier and you have a better idea of what options you have available firstly with the sprockets you possess or may even need to buy so you can create a range of front and rear sprockets to fine tune your exact gearing.  

Rider input
When we lean a motorcycle over we use a smaller diameter of the tyre. When this happens, if you are paying attention, you will realise that the rpm will pick up. Likewise as we stand the motorcycle up we increase the rolling radius of the tyre, which also affects the gearing of your motorcycle lowering engine rpm. This means a good road racer or track day punter knows when to pick up the bike and why!

Being able tune your gearing so you can maintain concentration, reduce fatigue, high corner speed, good acceleration and easy motor, is a great advantage, we do this by reducing engine braking, noise, reducing the amount of gear changes we have to do, or just quite simply moving a gear change point to suit an action that makes the lap more efficient. This is a rider skill as much as a tuners skill.

Measuring performance
The measurement of rpm on the exit of every turn can help. The noise of an under geared bike can make us feel we are travelling faster than we are especially when we look at the overall lap time. If you get real smart you may even be able to get a friend to do track splits where you can measure a performance in one part of a track, this great to iron out both riding and gearing on your bike and help you run different lines to make a set-up work.

You will need the following information on your bike set up sheets:

• Map of the track
• Track information (length turns etc). 
• Engine hours
• Fuel used
• Weather conditions
• Track surface conditions 
• Tyre details
• Suspension settings
• Chassis settings
• Gearing
• Lap times

Record the following info too

• Make a map of gear change points up and down
• Rpm out turns and max rpm on straight
• Acceleration points 
• Braking points 
• Feeling of harsh acceleration
• Feeling of lack of acceleration
• Weather conditions

Dry conditions allow us to run more corner speed which means we will be able to pull higher gearing. Wet conditions means we are down on grip which has a huge effect on your corner speed so lower gearing. Windy condition may blow you around on the way into and out of turns which can affect your corner speed.

Change in sprockets can have an effect on your chassis set up. Front sprocket is preferred not to be changed from std as it changes the way the chain is pulled and that has a huge effect on the swingarm especially under hard acceleration. Rear sprocket change will affect the rear wheel position which can have an effect on the rear, wheelbase which will also have an effect on the geometry of the bike.

Personal gearing lessons and strategies
One of my racing mates would be over to our pit garage after every qualifying session asking what gearing we were running. We would not disclose it so we could keep the opposition guessing and play with their heads 

My mate kept this up for quite a while, so I took this game one step further and I wrote in white marker on the rear sprocket the incorrect gearing. I knew I had succeeded with my little trick when he came to me all despondent asking how the hell we ran such tall gearing. I just laughed. 

 Bernie tells us some tips to final gearing choices… Words: Bernie Hatton

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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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