Piston and Pavement

Drag racing a motorcycle.

 

Background: My grandfather started my families drag bike racing adventures in the early 80’s. He then roped my dad who rode a modified yz465 drag bike. They continued to race throughout the 80s and early 90’s. My dad was sponsored by Coors and later Valvoline aboard a bike my grandfather built around a gs1150 motor. My dad was a 7 time track champion at Brainerd optimist and finished 3^rd in the world in points in the Top Gas class. My parents were married on the starting line at Brainerd Optimist Drag strip and I was only six weeks old the first time I went to the drag strip. When I was young my grandfather built me a Jr. Dragster which I raced for a few years. After a long hiatus, I am back to drag racing only this time, I’m the one aboard a motorcycle. So let’s explain drag bike racing a little ahead of time for those who are interested but also intimidated.

 

Quick dictionary:

Christmas tree- tower of lights at the starting line

Quick- reference to time

Fast- reference to speed or MPH

 

Introduction:

                Drag racing a motorcycle is fairly simple. The sole purpose is to see how quickly you can ride your motorcycle over a certain distance (I.e. Starting line and finish line).  To make this as simple as possible I’m going to break down a pass into sections. First will be lining up, second will be the starting line, third we have the pass, fourth we have the finish, and fifth we have understanding the time slip. Drag racing a motorcycle is, for the most part, very safe and extremely fun.

 

Lining up:

                Once you get ready to make a pass down the track you are going to line up either by yourself or alongside another motorcycle. Once lined up in the staging area you will be called onto the track by a track worker. If you are on the left, take the left lane, or vice versa unless you two agree to different lanes. Once you pull onto the track you will pass through the burnout area which will be wet with water. The best thing to do is to pull through and back into the water, hold your front brake, and spin your rear wheel over just once to completely coat the tire in water. Pull forward, hold your front brake and do a nice small burnout to get your tire nice and warm so that it sticks to the track well. After you do your burnout, you will notice two flat black strips in the asphalt, these are the tire tracks from cars and you will want to line up directly in the one closest to the “Christmas tree”.

 

 

Starting line:

                At the starting line is “The Christmas tree” the Christmas tree is the tall tower of lights in between the two lanes. It has a total of seven lights on it. At the starting line there are two sets of laser beams that cross the track. When your front wheel passes through the first beam it turns on your “pre stage lights” when you pull even farther forward it will turn on your “staging” lights. Once the Staging lights are on in both lanes, it indicates both racers are ready to start the race. A track worker will begin the starting sequence. There will be three yellow lights that will appear and then go off following the one above it. The goal at the starting line is to anticipate when the green light will come on. I always recommend to everyone new at trying drag racing to leave the line when the third yellow light comes on. By the time your brain reacts to what your eyes have seen and transmits that to your body, you should be leaving almost at the same time as the green light comes on. This is the start

 

Making the pass.

                After you leave the line the pass is a pretty smooth operation. Your only goal while making your way down the track is to keep your bike as straight as possible and hit your shifts at the right times. Brainerd is a 1/8-mile track or 660 feet. When making a pass there’s a few things to do and a few things not to do. Do not look behind you, there’s no need in it and it could potentially lead to a wreck. Do not stay in it if it feels unsafe, there is no shame in letting out of it and getting back in control and finishing. Do always wear proper protective gear, Minimum of gloves, leather jacket, pants and full face helmet. But most importantly, do have fun!

 

After the pass.

                Once you cross the finish line there will be a light on each side of the track. If the green light comes on on your side, you won, congrats! If it doesn’t, at least you had fun!  Most people don’t think about this part until it’s too late but after you cross the finish line, let out of the gas and coast all the way down to the end of the track. There is a small return road on the left but it is too soon after the finish line so ignore that and continue until the very end of the track. The track will make a Left U turn and take you onto the return road. Ride slow and think about your last pass, about things you would like to change on your next pass and such. On the left of the return road is a small wooden shack where you will stop and pick up your Time slip. Don’t sit and analyze it, grab it and return to the staging lanes, park the bike and laugh and joke with all your buddies.

 

 

Analyzing the time slip:

 

                After everything settles you will have a small piece of paper to show you all the details of your run so let’s look at these details. The first piece of data says reaction, this is your reaction time or how well you anticipated the light turning green. A .5 is perfect reaction time, anything below that (I.e. 4.99 and below) is considered a red-light or a foul. The second piece of data is your 60-foot time, this is how quickly you were able to get going down the track. Then you have a 330 foot or your time at half-track. Then you have your 594 foot which is just another piece of data which can help you break down if your acceleration is consistent throughout the run. The last two pieces you have are ET (elapsed time) and Mph. One might think that these two directly correlate yet they do not. I have personally run 6.17 seconds at 98.66 MPH and 6.48 at 104.11 MPH. The goal of drag racing isn’t top MPH but rather how QUICKLY you can make it from point A to B not how “fast”.

 

I know this seems like a lot of information but I feel it’s best to explain it all before your first trip to the drag strip rather than overwhelming you with all this at the track. This gives you the chance to fully understand the purpose and how everything works so you can understand it before you experience it. Have fun everyone!