If there’s any indication of tomorrow, today’s (Saturday 28th July 2018) track action in the 2018 Pirelli Malaysia Superbike Championship (MSBK) Round 2 at the Sepang International Circuit (SIC) demonstrated just how much excitement will be in store tomorrow (29th July 2018).
The morning started with another torrential downpour like the one during Round 1, forcing the riders to go out on Pirelli Diablo Rain tyres and getting fully drenched. They had to do so to gather setup data in case the rain continued throughout the day.
Of important note, SIC has revised the race program for the MSBK series, featuring Free Practie and Qualifying on Friday, Race 1 on Saturday and Race 2 on Sunday for all classes apart from the TOC Desmo Cup.
The ATC riders were the first to hit the track for Race 1 at 1pm. The rain had stopped by this point and the track was drying quickly.
Characteristic of the ATC, the teenagers fought tooth and nail from the green light. However, Mario Aji (#7) from Indonesia and Bill Van Eerde from Australia (#19) managed to break free of the chasing pack halfway through the race.
The pair then started trading the lead with some almost impossible and heart-stopping passes. However, Aji turned up the pace in the last few laps (recording his best on the final and 13th lap) to keep Eerde at arm’s length, to finish 1st and 2nd, respectively.
In 3rd was Malaysian Danial Sharil (#21) who did well to fight off the other riders and found space to ride a steady race to finish 5 seconds ahead of the 4th place man, Lucky Hendriansya (#13) also from Indonesia.
This class is open specifically for Ducati owners to test their skills in a competitive environment. As mentioned earlier, the Desmo owners went out for Qualifying today. It was an awesome sight and aural pleasure to hear the Thundering Twins roaring around the Sepang International Circuit.
Syamsul Bakhtiar Esa (#14) on a Ducati 1198 recorded the fastest lap of 2:35.576 and astounding 8.166 seconds faster than 2nd placed qualifier Zulkiply Yahya (#12) on a Ducati 1098. 3rd fastest was Muhammad Danial Afiq Zamry (#98) on a Ducati 1198.
It was an important affair for both the Desmo Owners Club and TOC Automotive College as TOC supplied the technician workforce which consisted of their lecturers and students, allowing them to get their hands on racebikes as part of their education. Desmo Cup participants, on the other hand, have experienced lecturers working on their bikes.
The TOC Desmo Cup race will be held tomorrow.
The big news prior to this weekend was Malaysia’s current Moto3 rider, Adam Norrodin would be racing in this 600cc class.
But Muhammad Helmi Azman (#32) had different plans as he blasted into the lead when the red lights went out, trailed by Adam and the rest of the field. As the race progressed, Helmi kept his blistering pace to open up a huge lead, which he held on to win the race.
Fakhrusy Syarikin Rostam (#66) had been shadowing Adam for many laps until he overtook the latter with a daring move into Turn One. The pair then started trading places until the last lap when Adam managed to capitalize.
Adam came home 2nd with Rostam less than 0.2 second behind him.
It’s time for the ultra-competitive, hence ultra-entertaining Super 250 class in mid-afternoon. Competition is extremely close (and cutthroat) as the bikes are closely matched in terms of horsepower, meaning one has to work really hard to break away.
And fought they did, from even before they started braking for Turn One on the opening lap! The competitors banged fairings and elbows into Turns One and Two, almost causing a couple of crashes.
Championship leader, Indonesian Surya Narayana (#9) fought his way through to lead from Turn Two and held on to the finish, although he was hounded closely Jailani Kosma (#71) from Malaysia. Narayana kept his nerve and crossed the finish line as the winner with Kosma 0.5 second behind.
There was pandemonium as the riders fought each other hard, until Yokeshwaran K (#6) from India crashed hard just after the apex for Turn Two, causing the field to slow down and string out.
Malaysian Luth Harith B. Erwan (#38) picked up the final podium spot.
As opposed to Supersport, the Superstock class consists of 1000cc sportbikes.
Azroy Hakeem’s (#5) aggression worked well to allow him to decimate the field of 17 riders. He crossed the line a full 30 seconds faster than Amirul Hafiq Azmi (#80) of TOC-HKM Racing Team in 2nd.
Ahmad Khan (#66) came home in 3rd.
With so many races lined up throughout the day, the premier Superbike class started at 6.15pm. The weather had cooled tremendously by this point, much to the relieve of the riders and tyres.
Azlan Shah Kamaruzaman (#25) of Chia PJ Kawasaki knew he had to contend with MSBK’s ex-champion, Rajini Krishnan (#67) who hails from India.
Indeed, the two rode in close formation at the head of the field from the start, with Rajini poised to capitalize on Azlan’s mistakes. Their teams and spectators held their bated breath as Rajini started to close the gap. The pass was going to happen soon.
But Azlan dug deep into his experience in the Asia Road Racing series and turned on his beast mode and started attacking every corner aggressively to open up an immense lead.
That forced Rajini to ride safe and he backed off his pace by the end of the race as he has a comfortable cushion over Jonathan Serrapica (#48) from Switzerland.
The trio completed the race in that order.
It was however, a day to forget for TOC-HKM Racing Team as both riders crashed in the race. Amirul Hafiq Azmi was holding on in 3rd when crashed heavily, destroying the bike. Fortunately, he was okay. His teammate and championship leader, Muhammad Jamalul Tarmizi (#89) was fighting for 4th place with Michael Muesel (#78) of Thailand when the former low-sided into the gravel trap. He was able to remount his bike and finished in 15th for a single point.
The 2018 Pirelli Malaysia Superbike Championship (MSBK) Round 2 concludes tomorrow.
Finding a good mechanic to work on your vehicle is one of the hardest things about vehicle ownership. Get a bad mechanic and maintaining your bike can very quickly become a nightmare, not to mention seriously expensive.
Truth of the matter is, it is not easy to meet a qualified mechanic with all the right training. It isn’t only difficult for us as vehicle owners, but even for workshop owners.
It is that vacuum that TOC Automotive College aims to fill, and it has recently taken the first step by signing a partnership with the Malaysian Motorcycle and Scooter Dealers Association (MMSDA). Through this partnership, students who had undergone TOC’s Superbike Technician Course will find almost instant employment among the MMSDA’s 5,000-member workshops. Nothing is worse than not being able to find a job after spending thousands of Ringgit for education.
The signing of this partnership also connects readily with the TOC Bina Bakat (Building Talents) program. TOC understands that there exist individuals who are passionate about automotive technology but are unfortunately unable to bear the costs of education. Hence, successful applicants will undergo training with up to 100% loan until they begin their journey in the workplace.
Adelaine L.K. Foo, CEO and founder of TOC recently said, “Alongside the growth of the four-wheel market, there should be fair competency through improved skillsets given to the motorcycle scene, which also contributes to a large part of the automotive industry.”
“One of the common challenges I have come across which resonates well with me as a parent, is the financial struggle for single parents putting their children through higher education,” she continued. “Through this collaboration, one of our main objectives is to help ease the financial burden and raise the quality of higher education at the same time.”
Chairman of MMSDA, Wee Hong says, “The support of the Bina Bakat Program has increased the opportunity for our industry to have a greater access to quality skilled talents, something which had been lacking before.”
He further added, “MMSDA and TOC share a collective passion and dedication to delivery excellence towards the motorcycle industry. Through this partnership, not only will we see updated and improved facilities for conducive learning but also the increased employment of qualified and skilled technicians with our members and partners.”
The Superbike Technician Course runs for 18 months with 3 levels of academic and career development opportunities. The students will be exposed to real-world experience during industrial training with TOC’s partners during the course.
Adelaine stressed the importance of sending the students out for industrial training, “We can’t have for example a student who graduate with a degree in all expects of automotive engineering or maintenance but has never lifted a single spanner.”
This augurs well for motorcycle owners throughout Malaysia as we will have well-trained and experienced mechanics handling our pride and joy.
Application for the first batch of the Superbike Technician Course is open for its first intake in July 2018. Please visit www.toc.edu.my or www.facebook.com/TOC.edu/ for more information, or click here if you are interested to know more about this course.
Hold on to your hats because things are about to get ‘not so good’ for MV Agusta. The Italian premium bike manufacturer is saying goodbye to their MV Agusta F4 superbike. Due to a few complications, the highly-anticipated new F4 has been pushed back and it breaks a few more chains connected to it. (more…)
The Honda Racing squad stationed at this year’s Isle of Man TT races has just confirmed that their only star rider Guy Martin will not partake in the final superbike Senior TT race. The race was scheduled to begin the six laps around the Mountain Course earlier today has been further delayed due to poor weather and track conditions. (more…)
The great Ian Hutchinson from the Tyco BMW squad took the first Isle of Man TT of 2017 with a stunning victory in the RST Superbike race yesterday. Yesterday’s victory marks Hutchinson’s 15th TT win in his racing career. (more…)
Rumours have been floating around that Hollywood is currently producing a real life action movie of the Biker Mice from Mars. The news seems to spread like wildfire with the so called official poster floating around a variety of social media platforms. (more…)
Learning never stops and if you stop learning, it likely means you’re dead. I can’t remember who said that, but it is the cold hard fact about life and everything that goes with it, including riding a motorcycle.
No matter what sport or activity it is, even the world’s best will end up getting schooled eventually. Remember Valentino Rossi at his peak? He was the greatest. Everyone thought he was the best of all time and no one would ever race a motorcycle better than him. Then came Lorenzo with his Spanish aggression and pulled the World Championship rug right under Rossi’s feet. Not too long after came Marc Marquez with his elbow scrapping style and showed the seasoned veterans how primitive they were.
But fact is, even though Marquez is one of the all time greats, in due time, another rider who is perhaps just a couple of years old now, will someday make his debut and show us the impossible. Rossi? A spent force some say.
Learning never stops, and if you think you know it all then chances are you know nothing. And for motorcycle riders, that’s why riding schools like the California Superbike School exist – to coach us and to teach us the collective knowledge of years and years worth of coaching tens of thousands of students all over the world. It is the go to source of knowledge for bikers. The al-Qarawiyyin for our kind.
The California Superbike School (CSS) was established by a guy named Keith Code who started training riders back in 1976. An accomplished racer and a self described researcher, writer and educator, Keith’s CSS runs all 12 months of a year all around the globe, including Malaysia just recently.
It wasn’t the first time the CSS has been in Malaysia. The school has been offered here since the early 2000s but the last time it was here was back in 2006. So back again after 11 years, Bikes Republic was invited to attend the school by BMW Motorrad Malaysia – the sponsor for the school.
From the moment you reach Sepang International Circuit, ground zero for the school, to the point you leave, everything flows smoothly and there is a proper system to disseminate all that information.
The day starts at 730am on both Saturday and Sunday with a collective brief for everyone before you are disbursed into your own group. There’s a group for level one and level two riders, and another group for the more advanced level three and four.
There is a total of four levels to go through to officially graduate the CSS. But no matter how experienced you are or how many championships you have won, if you want to be coached by the CSS, you always have to begin from level one. We were signed up for level one and two which took place over the course of two days.
Level one and two starts with a classroom session, and that’s where they teach you the drills for about 20 minutes before letting you out on the bike for another 20 minutes to practise what you just learnt.
For the track practise sessions, BMW Motorrad provided us the ballistic new S1000RR to test our new found knowledge on. But despite all that superb electronics designed to keep you safe, a manic engine and trick suspension, we were kept in check by the constant shadow of the on-track instructors who follow you from behind to watch your riding style. After watching you ride, they will then overtake you, tap the back of their bikes with their hands to indicate to you to follow them, and will then proceed to show you how to do it right. So to test the full potential of the S1000RR, one of the greatest superbikes ever, we could not.
The first drill of the day in level one was Throttle Control, and the golden rule from this drill is smooth throttle inputs, always. You cannot expect a bike to do two things at once, you can either make it turn a corner, or you can make it go faster by giving it more gas. But to ask it to do two things at once is trouble. Unless of course you are smooth and consistent with your throttle. Turn One of Sepang Circuit for example requires you to brake heavy after the long straight, then turn into the corner. And only once the bike is settled in do you gently get on the throttle, hold it in place, and give it the full squeeze treatment once the bike is upright. Gentle throttle control will get you through any corner just fine, as we found it.
Drill two is mastering the Turn Points and the correct lines around corners. This is important to understand the entry and exit points of a corner. It is generally understood that all riders have their own riding style and the turning points of a corner varies from rider to rider. But there are three attributes that describe the ‘good line’ of a corner – 1) Good Throttle Control. 2) One Steering Input because too many inputs upsets the balance of the bike. 3) Straighten the bike as quickly as you can to be able to get on the gas early and explode out of the corner with as much speed and traction available. These are the basics of every corner, no matter what your Turn Point is.
The third drill is Quick Steer, and this is where they explain how your bike has two basic functions – changing speed and changing direction. The trick is to get comfortable with your bike and minimise the amount of weight you have on the handle bars. This is of course done by pushing your butt right back against the seat, and pushing your calf up by the balls of your feet to clip your thighs to the tank. Your torso then takes on the task of resisting the braking and cornering forces. By keeping weight away from the handle bar and the front tyre you are allowing the front of the bike to be as natural as it was designed to be, and that means you can better steer with minimal counter steering. And if you are wondering why you would need to counter steer on a bike, simple, because that is how a bike turns – push on the left handle bar to turn right and push on the right handle bar to turn left. So if you need to perform a Quick Steer maneuver, then the trick is to simply push harder at either end of the bar and this forces the bike to change directions quicker. Handy in fast switchback corners or when avoiding something on the road.
Mind you we had 20 minutes to practice everything after each tutorial. And usage of the track was limited to only the north track of the Sepang Circuit.
The final two drills of level one are Rider Input which teaches you that the less busy you are on a bike, the better it performs. So minimise all your squirming around in the saddle and the bike will perform as it is supposed to, and the less tense you are on the bike the easier it is to steer it. The final drill is Two Step Turning. This is where your eyes play the most important role simply because you, whether you notice it or not, unknowingly steer where your eyes are looking. Ever heard of Target Fixation? It is the most dangerous thing a biker can do and you can read about it by clicking here.
So by training your eyes to look at the Turning Point of a corner, you subconsciously point the bike towards it and turn when you reach it. And as soon as you locate the Turning Point, you need to look out for the next point you want to be. The idea here is to keep your bike steering to the first Turning Point, while your eyes are already searching for the second point. This takes practise and is not that easy, but once you learn to detach your sight from where the bike points to, your riding somehow becomes smoother and predictable.
Level two of the CSS took place the next day with the same morning route – a collective brief for all groups, and then tutorials for those who had finished level one the day before and have returned to study level two.
At this level, the drills changes from understanding your bike to using the environment around you to your advantage.
Reference Points was the first drill and it basically means to use a visual cue to mark the beginning of an action, like using one of the many marshall posts which are located around the circuit to mark braking or accelerating points. It provides a smooth flow of information through your eyes and helps you overcome target fixation as you consciously look for reference points around the circuit.
For example, I personally found the end of the curb at turn five the ideal point to pick the bike back up and aim towards the inside of turn five so I clip the apex just right. That’s how reference points work, it has a value to it, you just need to decide what that value is. That value may be braking, accelerating or cornering. We were told that there are generally three or four reference points per corner, one point that tells you when to roll of the throttle, another point tells you to brake, another to corner and the last one tells you to go full squirt.
One drill that really opened my eyes and improved my track riding was Change Lines. This drill encourages you to try different lines around the circuit. After years of riding on the same track we usually get stuck to the same old points to brake, steer and accelerate, but this drill wants you to try different braking points, corner entry points and accelerate points. You will be surprised at how well some other lines work than what you are used to, but of course there are some that end up being really bad too.
The second drill of the second day was called Three Step, and it is an evolution of the Two Step drill we learned back in level one. In the two step drill we are thought to look for two points – a braking point and a entry point. In Three Step, the aim is to look for a point to brake, another point in the middle of the corner representing the ideal point to place the bike in for a neat exit, and the third is of course where you want to be when you exit the corner.
The third drill is the ultimate solution to target fixation, it is called Wide Screen View of Track. The objective of this drill is to look at everything ahead of you rather than at just a single point. By looking at what lies around you, you better understand threats and dangers, and with practice, you will be able to recognise and avoid situations before they even happen. This is a tricky skill to master as it involves training the eye to look past what it would normally look at, but with time and practise, the Wide Screen View will help your riding. There is just one golden rule here, speed narrows down your Wide View and that is no good on road and track. So practice practice practice.
The final drill of the day is called Pick Up. Ever noticed how MotoGP riders will sometimes pick up their bikes while they are still hanging off in a fast corner? There are a few reasons why they do that. One of it is speed, because the faster you get your bike upright the quicker you are able to get on the throttle. A bike that is upright creates more drive than a bike which is still in a corner. Then there is the need for traction, especially in the wet or slippery corners. The Pick Up also helps with correcting a slide. But in a competitive race, the Pick Up is important because it helps manage tyre wear. Obviously a tyre wears down more quickly when it is managing a corner and trying to create grip to lay down more power, so naturally a tyre will be less prone to wear when it is upright. So there you have it, try to Pick Up your bike as soon as you can, and you can do this by managing your upper body. Keep your upper body in the turn, and simply use your hands to counter steer the handle bars to pick the bike back up. That’s the best way to do it.
So that’s that then, a total of 10 drills to learn over two days and two levels. The next time we attend the CSS it will be on to level three and four. But in all honesty, I would personally prefer to attend level one and two all over again simply because there is so much knowledge passed down that I would like to spend more time learning it and perfecting it before attending the following two levels. The knowledge is precious to say the least and the coaches are so good at what they do that you can’t resist but give them a tight hug at the end of it all. I did have a minor fall at the end of day two, but that’s a different story which you can read about here.
Not all of these coaches are racers, but not all racers make good coaches, just a few of them, but all of them understand the techniques thought in the CSS and deliver it the way Keith Code wanted it to. The aim is to create better riders and Steve Braugey, one of the main coaches at the CSS said it best, “we improve human beings, we just happen to do it with motorcycles.”
A special thank you goes out to BMW Motorrad Malaysia for inviting us to attend the CSS, it was a dream come true. The BMW S1000RR was perfect throughout the practice sessions and never put a wheel wrong. The onboard electronics and rider aids truly make you feel like a hero. At RM104,900, it is arguably the best and most advanced sports bike you could buy, and financing it is easy with BMW Credit which lets you own the bike for as low as RM1,395 a month. Click here for more information on the BMW S1000RR.
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