MotoGP Championship 2007 in Le Mans, France

Sadly, I don't got enough time to watch the race since I'm too busy handling my final exams.

So, here's the result.

Po.	No.	Riders	Tyre	Team	Machine	Maker	Laps	Time	Best Lap Time	Best Lap
1	71	Chris Vermeulen		Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	GSV-R	Suzuki	28	50:58.713	1:39.477	6
2	33	Marco Melandri		Honda Gresini	RC212V	Honda	28	51:11.312	1:40.050	4
3	27	Casey Stoner		Ducati Marlboro Team	Desmosedici GP7	Ducati	28	51:26.060	1:39.537	5
4	26	Dani Pedrosa	MI	Repsol Honda Team	RC212V	Honda	28	51:36.041	1:38.744	5
5	66	Alex Hofmann		Pramac d'Antin	Desmosedici GP7	Ducati	28	51:47.879	1:40.161	6
6	46	Valentino Rossi	MI	FIAT YAMAHA TEAM	YZR-M1	Yamaha	28	51:52.276	1:40.273	5
7	21	John Hopkins		Rizla Suzuki MotoGP	GSV-R	Suzuki	28	51:59.786	1:38.678	5
8	65	Loris Capirossi		Ducati Marlboro Team	Desmosedici GP7	Ducati	28	52:19.954	1:38.678	5
9	6	Makoto Tamada	DL	Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3	YZR-M1	Yamaha	27	51:34.842	1:38.915	5
10	50	Sylvain Guintoli	DL	Dunlop Yamaha Tech 3	YZR-M1	Yamaha	27	51:40.165	1:38.825	6
11	11	Fonsi Nieto		Kawasaki Racing Team	Ninja ZX-RR	Kawasaki	27	51:50.572	1:43.681	4
12	5	Colin Edwards	MI	FIAT YAMAHA TEAM	YZR-M1	Yamaha	25	51:06.769	1:48.875	2
13	4	Alexandre Barros		Pramac d'Antin	Desmosedici GP7	Ducati	27		1:39.970	5
14	10	Kenny Roberts	MI	Team Roberts	KR212V	KR212V	26		1:51.967	4
15	1	Nicky Hayden	MI	Repsol Honda Team	RC212V	Honda	25		1:39.485	5
16	56	Shinya Nakano	MI	Konika Minolta Honda	RC212V	Honda	20		1:40.004	6
17	14	Randy De Puniet		Kawasaki Racing Team	Ninja ZX-RR	Kawasaki	8		1:39.522	5
18	24	Toni Elias		Honda Gresini	RC212V	Honda	7		1:39.288	7
19	7	Carlos Checa	MI	Honda LCR	RC212V	Honda	6		1:39.866	5

This is the latest championship table.

Source from Bridgestone and MotoGP.

Under Construction..

My blog will be under construction for about a week. But, all of you still can browse in my posted posts.

Anyway, enjoy....

Biking Techniques (Part 48)

Conclusion

Am I Going Fast Enough?

A track day is the New Math of motorcycling. It really doesn't matter how fast you are, as long as you use the right method. Working on lines, working on weight transfer, working on braking points -- all these are things best practiced while riding below 10/10ths.

To start with, you may even get slower as you unlearn bad habits and slow down to get things right. A squid charging at the corners might well be faster than a rider learning the right techniques -- at first. After a while, the rider practicing proper skills will be faster than the squid -- and by then the squid may well be off in the weeds staring at a wrecked bike.

Remember also that part of the process is letting go of "feeling fast." The object is to go fast without it feeling fast, being in control of everything that's going on.

So come out of today with your measure of success being your own personal improvement. It doesn't matter who's faster or who's slower, just that you yourself have worked on your technique and improved.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 47)

Rain is FUN!

But the real secret to riding fast in the rain is simple: enjoy it!

Riding fast in the rain gives you a unique opportunity to examine the dynamics of riding the bike. The tires' response time is slower, you have to take more time over your actions, and the overall effect is of riding in slow motion. You have more time to think about what you're doing, observe how the bike reacts, feel what's happening. You can learn more by riding on a wet track about bike-handling skills than you can in the dry.

If that doesn't thrill you, find something else to enjoy. I used to love watching the way the front tire on my Intruder threw up a line of spray, especially when it was illuminated by the headlamp at night. I love the sound of rain on the helmet. I love the way I can so easily see through my Rain-X'd visor when the cars around me are peering through ineffective high-speed wipers. I love watching the spray thrown up from the bike ahead of me. All these are things that adjust my attitude to riding in the rain, give me something to enjoy so I can relax and concentrate on riding.

But heck, I also love watching snowflakes in the airflow around the front of the bike, so maybe I'm just crazy...

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 46)

Vision

You can't ride if you can't see. This applies whether you're doing 10mph in city traffic, or 180mph on the racetrack. So prepare for rain to give you the best visibility.

There are two keys to seeing in the rain -- clearing the rain from your visor, and preventing fog on the inside.

Clearing the rain from your visor is easy: Rain-X. Apply it using the directions on the bottle, and it'll work as advertised. The faster you go, the clearer will be your visor.

Eliminating fog is harder. A Fog City Fog Shield, applied correctly, will do a fine job. (I find it works best to polish the inside of the visor with a very fine plastic polish before applying.) Some people don't like them, and in that case there are a number of alternatives. Various commercial anti-fog treatments are available of widely varying effectiveness. There's also the scuba diver's standard of rubbing saliva over the faceshield and rinsing with water -- it works just about as well as the commercial products, and is free; and you'll always have saliva at the track. Some people have had success with Rain-X on the inside of the visor, which does reduce fogging, and also beads it up and helps it roll off. In all those cases, a breath guard inside the helmet will help.

If it's really bad, there's always the car racers' standby: Attach a lump of duct tape to the bottom of the visor, so that you can jam it down and still have a ¼ inch or so of gap between it and the helmet. If it's flood conditions, rain will get in, but at least it won't fog up the visor.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 45)

Drag Strips

If it's that wet, you won't be able to roll on much in the corner as you take a Rimshot. You'll be exiting the corner straight upright, without a whole lot of speed, a couple of feet inside the outside of the track to avoid the exit rubber. Now you have a drag strip straight to the braking zone for the next corner.

So in flood conditions, the course is a series of Rimshots and Drag Strips.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 44)

Rimshots

When it's really wet, riding a "correct" line can take second rank to finding traction. If the track's well-used, or there was a sports-car race right before the bike event, the rubber will be on the line -- it will lay down in the braking zone, go across to the inside, and track back out at the exit. So taking the line will put you on slippery pavement.

Under these conditions, you'll find the most traction following the radius of the corner -- a Lazy Line. You have a choice of following the outside of the corner, or the inside -- both take about the same time to get around the corner, but on the outside you'll be going faster and therefore have better exit speed from the corner.

So that's what a Rimshot is: a Lazy Line deliberately taken around the outside of a corner in the wet to find more traction.

Approach the corner on a line offset from the normal tire track. Brake in a straight line, trail off and into cornering as you cross the dry line, and roll on slowly through the corner as you follow the outside. You should have the bike mostly straightened up as you re-cross the rubber on the dry line, and accelerate on a line offset from the normal tire track on the exit.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 43)

Find the Most Traction

When it's really wet, as opposed to damp, going fast means finding the most traction. If some parts of the track are wetter than others, you want to ride on the drier part.

As you ride around, be aware of the track and how the water gathers. Most corners on a track are banked to the inside, so the water will run from the outside in. That means that in the case of a wide banked track, the water will be significantly deeper on the inside than the outside -- on an oval in a Southern cloudburst, you could easily be talking about ¼ inch difference. That's a lot of traction difference. Likewise on the street, the road tends to be crowned, so the center of the pavement will have less water than the edges. Ride where the water's shallow.

Coming out of -- or into -- a corner, you may find that years of racing have left a small depression where heavy cars have worn and compressed the asphalt. That will be deeper than the surface either side of it. Ride where the water's shallow.

It's not only depth of water to consider, but the traction of the surface. For many years, Summit Point had long concrete strips through many corners where cars had worn the surface. That concrete was treacherous in the wet. So pick your line to avoid the concrete. Also, a well-used track in a dry spell will build up rubber on the line. That rubber will be slippery until it washes off -- pick your line to avoid those streaks.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 42)

Rain

There's nothing magical about riding fast in the rain. Moisture doesn't change vehicle dynamics. All the principles you use in the dry also apply in the wet. Modern tires -- the latest generation in particular -- provide excellent traction in the wet. There are factors you need to take into account to go fast, though...

Give the Tires a Chance

In the wet tires take longer to adapt to new demands. A tire can break free easily if forces are fed into it too quickly. Braking hard before weight transfer has developed will lock up the stickiest sport tire. Countersteering suddenly can break the front loose. Accelerating too hard can throw the rear into a vicious slide. Nevertheless, all this is easily controllable. All you have to do is remember how vehicle and tire dynamics work, and always give the tire a chance to catch up with the bike.

Don't Forget How to Ride

The same techniques you use in the dry are the ones you use in the wet. Tires still have most traction when they have most weight one them. Smooth transitions between braking and turning, and turning and accelerating, still give you the most traction. In fact, it's more important in the wet to do it right, because it's easier to break the tires free with sudden changes. Build the forces smoothly -- braking, cornering, accelerating -- and your tires will reward you with good traction.

Remember Dynamics

Let's look at approaching a slow corner at high speed, like Courage at VIR. As you approach the end of the straight, you need to allow more space for braking -- not just because you can do less braking before locking up, but because you have to build your braking force more slowly.

You come out of your tuck and start squeezing the brakes. As you brake, weight transfers to the front. As weight transfers, the front has more traction. Continue to squeeze the brakes on harder -- as weight transfer builds, you'll be able to brake harder. The more you brake, the harder you can brake! You'll find that provided you squeeze the brakes, and let the weight transfer forward, you'll be able to brake almost as hard in the wet as in the dry.

So now you're approaching the corner under hard braking. There was never a better time to take advantage of trail-braking! With the extra traction you get from the weight transfer, you can turn in quite rapidly under braking. Still, it is a wet track, so give the front tire a chance to build the cornering force -- don't snap into a countersteer, keep your inputs smooth and progressive.

Now we've turned into the corner. We're still braking. As the cornering force builds, that's giving your extra force on the tires -- trail off the brakes as they're no longer needed, and start to roll on smoothly before the apex.

Once again, the tires need longer to build forces. Don't roll on as hard as you would in the dry, because the sudden torque can break the rear loose. But do roll on, because like braking, the more you roll on and transfer weight to the rear, the more the tire can handle the acceleration.

So the very same techniques you use in the dry are exactly what you need to do in the wet. You'd be surprised how fast you can actually go in the rain, provided you remember how dynamics work, and ride properly.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 41)

Passing

On Corner Exit

Every successful pass on a straight comes out of the corner before. To pass someone on a straight, you have to exit a Type I faster than they do. That means you need to have enough space between you mid-corner to roll on properly on the exit. You want to reach your own track-out point as if you had the corner to yourself, and then use your extra speed to pass. So don't go into the corner right on their tail, give yourself enough room to allow for catching them up at the track-out point. When you reach your track-out point, you should be going faster than they are, and in their slipstream. With them punching the hole in the air for you, you can just power on by.

On the Straight -- Drafting Pass

Here you back off from the bike in front, and use their slipstream to build up momentum which you then use to slingshot by. Not only will you have momentum to pass, but as you move out of their slipstream they lose the benefits of you drafting behind them, so they'll slow down right as you are going by them.
Today, make sure you leave plenty of space between you. Like drafting in general, this puts bikes close together and therefore at increased risk.

Into the Corner -- Late Braking

This is a very effective pass, but because of the intersecting paths of the bikes we won't be using it on the track today. During a race, this is probably the most common and effective pass -- and it's also the one that's most often done badly. The possible consequences of doing this badly is why we don't allow passes on the inside in corners today.

In the Corner?

To pass someone in a corner, as opposed to into the corner, you must be much faster than the bike you're passing. Here it's mainly a matter of remembering that the rider you're passing will be following their own line -- which might be one you don't expect -- and it's your responsibility to get by safely.
If you can, it's generally better to hang back in the corner, and execute a pass on corner exit as described above. That will give you good exit speed, and good speed on the next straight, whereas passing in the corner wrecks your line and slows you down all the way along the straight.

The Outside Pass

The "outside pass" is an oval racing technique. You can't really use it on a road course except on really long corners, or unless you have a serious speed advantage over the bike you're passing.
The technique is to take the Lazy Line, mostly following the outside of the turn, to get in front of the other rider before you approach the track-out point. That means you won't take as good a line as normal, and won't get as much drive out of the corner, and that's why you have to have a big speed difference to make it work. If you don't, it's trivial for you to get passed back by a simple corner exit pass.

You have to remember that until you have passed the other bike, they have right of way. They can take their line to the outside at the track-out, and might not even be aware that you are there. So to do this pass, you must be sure you complete it while still in the corner. Part of the usefulness of this pass with car racing is that you can put your car in a position where they can't track out all the way, and so lose exit speed -- all that achieves on a bike is being run off the track.

Passing the Coordinator

I am expecting you to take the opportunity to pass me when you can. I will be disappointed if you don't. Through the day I will from time to time set up situations where you can practice your passing technique. Sometimes I'll signal for you to pass, sometimes I won't, but nevertheless if you see the opportunity to get by, don't be afraid to take it.

Unless I've signaled "follow me," of course... in that case I'll probably be slower than necessary just to make sure you get the right line or whatever. Passing then would be counter-productive. But that's the exception, not the rule.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 40)

Other Mistakes

Shifting

Missing an upshift

No problem. Just pull in the clutch, roll off the gas, and shift up again. Maybe you'll be in the right gear, maybe you'll be in one higher, but it'll work.

Missing a downshift

Now if you miss a downshift, you have other worries. It will distract you, and probably mess up the braking you're doing at the same time. Keep braking deeper into the corner as you shift up into the next gear (going down an extra one would be very bad!), and turn in for a very late apex as if you missed the braking marker. You'll be very slow around and out of the corner, but it'll keep you on the road.

Braking

Braking Too Late

Keep braking. Go deeper into the corner and brake more until you slow way down, then turn in for a very late apex. If you're approaching the edge of the track, don't look at it, but look in towards a late apex and turn in anyway. The chances are the bike is capable of doing it (since you left a traction reserve today) and you will scare yourself but not crash.

Cornering

Scraping the pegs

Like I said earlier, scraping the pegs is a sign you leaned too far; I also talked about what to do to stop doing it next time. But what about this time? You're in the corner, rolling on the throttle, and the peg starts scraping.

What do you do?

The simplest answer of course is "nothing." Lean your upper body in more, roll on the gas, and ride the bike through the corner. That's not easy to do, of course -- the natural reaction is to get off the gas, and that's just asking to crash. You don't want to upset the suspension. Keep in mind that when you're in the corner, you want the bike to be smooth. Even when you're dragging the pegs -- or hard parts for that matter -- you must avoid doing anything sudden.

If you have a shaft-drive bike, rolling on the gas very hard can lift the rear end of the bike up and pull the peg clear of the ground. (To a certain extent this works on chain-drive bikes, but it is a lesser effect and depends on swingarm geometry.)

You can straighten the bike up some too, but avoid doing sudden corrections -- don't upset the bike. It doesn't take much to lift the peg off the ground, and a sudden jerk on the bars is likely to cause more problems than you have already. All you need is a small correction.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Our motorcycle's club (Kabuki Riderz) have been posted in a motorcycle's magazine!

Our last trip to Teluk Senangin a few months ago was posted in this month Roda-Roda motorcycle's magazine. Thanks to Bob (Action_Kamen) for the report and also thanks to the others who had made the trip possible. Hope we can make another more trips next time in the future.

Biking Techniques (Part 39)

How to Fix It

Your priority is to get back on the correct line as soon as you can. The longer you leave it, the harder it is to correct. If you correct it early enough, the impact on your exit speed can be small; leave it to the end, and it'll affect your speed much more -- for example, your speed in a drainage ditch is pretty low.

Go wider, slow down, turn back in

You can widen your line, which reduces cornering force and gives you back traction reserve. Then slow down. That reduces your speed so you can turn tighter, so you can then hit the right apex.

Don't roll on the gas... as much

If you're beyond at the apex when you notice you're early, don't roll on the gas as hard. That gives you back a traction reserve, which you can use to tighten your line before rolling back on the gas.

Hold the bike down to the apex

If you have traction reserve, and if you have cornering clearance, you can recover from an early apex by holding the bike down along the inner edge of the curve until you approach the real apex, when you can get back onto the proper path. Remember that you still need to be rolling on the throttle to keep the bike settled -- don't make the mistake of backing off mid-corner.

This photo from TrackDoD 1 shows me at Courage, correcting an early apex by holding the bike down into the corner. The clue that I'm being a Sleazeball is the angle of the front wheel -- it's turned to the outside of the corner, countersteering hard to keep lean angle on the bike. By this point in the turn, the bike should be unwinding the curve and coming back to vertical, and shouldn't be scrubbing off acceleration by so much steering input.

Photo by Mike Ragsdale

Get it right next time

If you notice it at the track-out, you've already gone too far to fix it this time. Make a note of it and use a later turn-in and later apex next lap. Use your mistake to revise your site picture of the entry to the turn.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 38)

Signs of an Early Apex

The worst thing you can do, street or track, is apex too early. You'll end up running out of road, ideas, and options very rapidly at the exit. Since we want no-one crashing today, I want you all to learn to recognize when your apex is early. The sooner you recognize it, the sooner you can fix it.

So the single most important thing you can do to be safe on a racetrack -- or the street, for that matter -- is to be able to recognize an early apex and convert it to a safe line.

Partial List of Things to Look For

Site Picture

Your first clue that you're headed for an early apex is your site picture. You can often tell you're turning in early -- to an early apex -- when you do it, based just on realizing that you're not in the right place. If you can catch your mistake now, it never becomes a problem -- you just delay your turn-in until the right place. No-one will even realize you made a mistake at all. This is how the top racers never seem to make a mistake.

Angle at the turn-in

Most of your turning should be done at the start of the corner. If your angle when you turn in is too shallow, you've turned in too soon. Widen your line by straightening up the bike until you can turn back in again on the right line. You'll lose very little by correcting your mistake this early.

Can't get on the gas before the apex

If you find you can't start rolling on hard by the time you reach your apex, then you've left too much turning for the end of the corner. That means you've come in too early. You need to straighten the bike up a little to expand your traction reserve, use that reserve to slow down, and turn in again for the right apex. You'll lose some speed, but you'll recover early enough in the corner to make a decent exit.

Angle at the apex

By the time you get to the apex, the bike should be pointing pretty much down the following straight. If you're pointing towards the edge of the track, you've apexed early. If you have enough traction reserve, you can hold the bike in to the inside of the turn until you reach the right apex; otherwise you'll have to straighten up, slow down, and turn back in for the correct apex.

Can't unwind through the apex

Before you reach the apex, you should already begin to come back upright as you unwind the turn. If you're still trying to hold it down into the turn, your apex is too early.

Can't roll on through the turn

Once you start rolling on, before the apex, you should be able to keep rolling on hard through the turn. If you're still holding back on the throttle, you're still doing too much turning towards the end of the turn.

Angle at the track-out

On the proper line, you should reach the edge of the track as the bike comes upright and parallel to the edge. If you're still turning when you get the to edge of the track, that's a sure sign you've been a Sleazeball.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

A Motorcycle's Rider Down Today!

Got this news from a friend who passed by the location of the accident. It happened at Cameron (the road from Simpang Pulai to Kampung Raja). Been told that the rider (CBR 1000RR) passed away. Not sure if it is true or not. If not, hope that the rider is ok. I was told that it was happened between 3-4pm. The pictures I recieved were from my friend.


This bike was knocked down by the car who's doing reverse. He (the driver) unnoticed the bike behind him.

*edited*

The rider name is Hafiz, 23, from Penang. Pass away, Al-Fatihah.

MotoGP 2007 Championship in Shanghai, China.

It was a great race anyway. Rossi have made a mistake when he tried to overtake Casey Stoner and made him overshot. Although he drop to 3rd place because of that mistake, he manage to overtake back John Hopkins to snatch 2nd place. Casey Stoner won the race, with Valentino Rossi at 2nd and John Hopkins at third.

The Ducati was really strong for the circuits that have really long straights. The results will be update later.

A riding trip to Kuala Klawang (21st April)

This will be a slight of brief report about the ride.

We met at 'Gerai Makcik' (a food shop) about 9 am. There's only 6 people joined the ride.

We rode till the 'bridge', quite close to Titi Kong. Titi Kong means Titi Village.

Then, we headed up to Tekala's waterfall.

Met up a few bikers joining a charity event near to the waterfall.

Then, we took a dip into the waterfall. It is a nice place for outdoor activities.

Before we headed home, we went to the charity event to have our lunch, hahaha.

Then, we headed to Tesco Klang to have some teas.

After that, we headed home.

Thanks for those who were inviting me for the ride.

MotoGP 2007 Championship in Istanbul Park, Turkey

I'm very sorry for the late updates, since last 2 weeks were my busiest week with a lot of projects, assignments, tests and quizes.

Anyway, I'm still will update the results in Turkey in this blog.

MotoGP

250


125

source from MotoGP.com

Biking Techniques (Part 37)

The VIR Spiral Revisited -- the REAL line!

The VIR South Course has one corner where almost every line modification reason has to be taken into account. It is of course the complex called the Spiral. I'm sure you all thought it looked interesting enough when we considered a flat racetrack back when we looked at Type III corners, but that doesn't even begin to describe it.

The first turn of the Spiral is right at the crest of a hill -- you'll be going over a crest in the turn, and it's off-camber as soon as you get over the crest. It then drops thirty feet into the Type III at the bottom, and from there rises uphill again, with the Type I slightly banked.

So first we have to take into account the Type II being on the crest of a hill. Since the traction will drop dramatically as the bike goes over the crest, and we'll have less ground clearance in the off-camber turn, we have to slow more than we would for a flat corner of this type. We also can't trail-brake as much into the corner because of the crest of the hill. Fortunately, the entry to the turn is quite steeply uphill, and we can use the extra traction there to brake later and harder before we turn in. Then we have a moment to get back on the gas, which will help plant the rear in the downhill off-camber section, then back on the brakes and trail-brake into the right-hander at the bottom of the hill.

Now let's look at the exit from the complex, the Type I. Since it's slightly uphill and banked, we can take advantage of the extra traction to brake more rapidly, turn in more rapidly, and get on the gas hard while we're still turning. We can go deeper, turn harder, and be full on the gas well before we reach the apex.

Now back to the right-hand Type III in the center of the complex... This corner is initially off-camber and downhill, so we have to trail-brake smoothly and gently, and turn in smoothly. We end up taking this turn as a sweeping curve, under power, exiting to the right side of the track into the braking zone for the final left-hander.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 36)

Elevation and Camber

There is an added complication that has to be taken into account in the line -- changes in the slope of the track, whether uphill or downhill (elevation), or banked or sloped outwards (camber). This affects how much total traction you have available, and in some corners can change the line quite radically.

Traction

Simply put, whenever the bike is being pushed up by the road -- uphill, or a banked turn -- it's like you have extra weight on the tires, so you have more traction available. That lets you brake harder, turn harder, accelerate harder, and mix those more radically.
Whenever the road is dropping away from the bike, you have the opposite effect -- less traction. That means you can't brake as hard, turn as hard, accelerate as hard, or mix those as readily.

So you want to take advantage of uphill and banked sections to do most of your turning there, and try to keep fairly straight in downhill or off-camber sections.

Ground Clearance

Camber also affects how much ground clearance you have while cornering. You can use much more lean angle in a banked turn, and that emphasizes the need to make use of the banking to do most of your turning. On the other hand, in an off-camber turn, you can't use as much lean angle, and so you need to be more careful.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 35)

Did I Get It Right?

Exit speed is the only real measure of how good you are at a corner. If you want an objective measure of how well you did a corner, get yourself a site picture of the exit and pick a spot just after your track-out point. Your rpms, or speed, there is the measure of your corner. If it's a corner where you have to shift after it, see where you have to shift up -- the sooner you have to shift, the better the exit speed.
Another measure is that you should be riding the whole track. There should not be one point on the track where you're not working hard at it. If you find yourself cruising a section of the track, then you're not applying enough attention to it and need to think harder about that area.

Complete lap times mean nothing unless grid position is at stake. I'm not going to address the special needs of a qualifying session, except to say that they don't apply for any other type of session

So we don't need no steenkin' lap times. They mean nothing today. With the techniques I've outlined, you will know whether you got it right or not, for you and your bike on this day. Don't waste attention on worrying about lap times. Take each corner right, exit fast, and the lap time will come.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation

Biking Techniques (Part 34)

Is This One Corner or Two?

Some long turns -- generally 180 degrees or more -- give you a choice of lines. A good example is Courage on the VIR South Course, which connects the front straight and the infield straight leading to the Spiral.
With these corners, you can take it as a single Type I. You can turn in once, take a late apex, and exit it onto the next straight just like a textbook Type I.

You could also divide it into two corners, a Type II coming off the front straight and a Type I exiting onto the infield straight.

Which one do you use?

Which one works best for you depends on a lot of factors. Does your bike accelerate, brake, and turn rapidly, or do you have to take longer braking, have low power for acceleration, and take longer to turn? In the former case, you can dive into the Type II, snap it over, and launch out of the Type I. In the latter case, the tight turn in the middle takes too long and loses too much speed to be worth it, so a single long Type I will give you better exit speed.

As a general rule of thumb, if you can take it as a single corner, try that way first. It's not easy, because you have to turn very late and turn your head way around to look for the apex. In some ways it's more difficult that way, because hitting the apex so far around the corner is mentally hard to do -- it's easy to be a Sleazeball -- but it is the better initial line.

Are there exceptions? Sure there are. No matter what type of bike you have, if the corner is tight enough, you will have to slow down to a crawl in the middle of the corner. In that case, you'd just as well slow enough to take it as a Type II/I Combo, since you have to brake a lot and accelerate from a minimal speed.

Skills you have to master first

Taking a corner as a double II/I requires some technical bike-handling skills that are not easy to put together.
Look at the line above, and you'll see that there's a lot happening very quickly. You get on the brakes, turn in, get back on the gas, back on the brakes, flick the bike over very rapidly, and get back hard on the gas again. Mess up any one of those, and if you're not accustomed to how rapidly things are happening, you can be in trouble very quickly indeed. Also, in the case of Courage at VIR, you no longer have the option of the "escape road" if you miss your braking.

Like everything else on the track, slow down when you're working on this. Get the line and technique right, and as you get comfortable with it you can attack the transitions harder.

Using this on the street

Any of you who've seen me ride twisties in the mountains will immediate recognize one of the ways I go fast in the very tight stuff -- for me, every switchback is a II/I combo. It's very hard work, gets some very funny looks, but it is fast.

You have to be careful, however, not to over-ride your sight lines. If you can't clearly see the point where you'd transition between the Type II and the Type I, you can't safely take it that way. It works best in switchbacks, where you can see not only the whole corner but the straight following it too.

From TrackDoD Novice Group Orientation