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