Carr does British flat track????

[mrwzrd59]

Kind of neat reason to cover the event but very lack luster in the normal weird Inman style.

Is it just me, or was Gary Inman neglecting details on purpose?

I can see the issue of those riders had "paid" Chris Carr to teach them a thing or two, but Geez, absolutely nothing about what they were taught???

Maybe that's all Gary picked up and was too busy trying to wax poetic or sumthin...

My advice would be to screw the thesaurus hunt and just lay some facts on us.

The story is just a loose ramble at best. Booooo!

[Mad4TheCrest]

Originally Posted by mrwzrd59

Kind of neat reason to cover the event but very lack luster in the normal weird Inman style.

Is it just me, or was Gary Inman neglecting details on purpose?

I can see the issue of those riders had "paid" Chris Carr to teach them a thing or two, but Geez, absolutely nothing about what they were taught???

Maybe that's all Gary picked up and was too busy trying to wax poetic or sumthin...

My advice would be to screw the thesaurus hunt and just lay some facts on us.

The story is just a loose ramble at best. Booooo!

Wiz, I think you are being too hard on Inman. Sure, the article was light on details, but Inman focused on giving us a feel for the importance of Carr's trip and why he'd agree to do it for so little money. I found the article a nice read that's given me an intro into British short track. Pete Boast, Carr's host and the series organizer, is a long-time bike journalist in British mags, and is himself a good writer. I can imagine he'll pen another version of the visit for BIKE or TWO (or one of the more frenetic brit mags).

Oh, and the article DID mention what Carr was teaching the riders who 'paid' for instruction: basic dirt track handling. If you re-read the article, you'll see that the Brit riders had developed some odd body positioning on the bikes - more speedway than short track, and Carr worked to break them of those habits to improve their riding.

I like this sort of article. It's both a slice of life look at an American racing hero in the last years of his career and a early glance at what might be a growing sport in Europe. And it introduced us to the weirdest name for a drinking establishment ever: Ozchem Billabong. Cool.

[mrwzrd59]

Yea Crestor, I know what the article said. I'm a flat tracker from way back when and I was dying to hear about the "handling drills" that I hear Chris teaches...Gary just was light on the facts. I understand that Mule has attended one of his schools and his compliment of the story showed that he enjoyed the read, but for me, it would sure help to have some "splainin" done for my own edification.

I hung up my steel shoe way back in 82 or 83 so I don't really NEED to know this stuff, just naturally curious. Maybe I was doin it all wrong? 13 feature wins over 7 years of racing makes me believe I had some semblance of proper control going on...I just couldn't run with those guys at Santa Fe...They hauled ass and I nearly ended my career chasing those rascals on more than one occasion! I spent way too much time up there determined to go faster and usually got smoked instead. Sigh.

I've read Inman stories before and some of my same observations still apply, he gets carried away with his own prose. JMOP.

Thanks for the input, I thought it had fallen on deaf ears.

[flattracker27]

Well, agreed that the article does not go into the training details. I was there, so let me give you some insights. 20 guys signed up for the training camp and we had no clue what to expect. The track is rather hard turf and not a cushion track, so Carr focused on learning to ride on such ground.

First thing, we were to try doughnuts at ultimate low speed on 100cc mini bikes on a really small track. The idea was to get a feel for the bike and get the riding position right. The doughnut shows you how you should sit on a bike on a small track with tight turns. Second exercise was riding the mini bikes single handed. Seems odd, but this forced you to lean in with the bike going in the turn. Then we were to try out what we had learned, 3 guys at a time, Carr giving feedback. Soon after, we went in small groups on the larger 400m track, Carr following each rider to observe and giving feedback afterwards.

Race day pictures at: http://www.dutch-brothers.com/gallery/album172

[Mule]

Originally Posted by flattracker27

Well, agreed that the article does not go into the training details. I was there, so let me give you some insights. 20 guys signed up for the training camp and we had no clue what to expect. The track is rather hard turf and not a cushion track, so Carr focused on learning to ride on such ground.

First thing, we were to try doughnuts at ultimate low speed on 100cc mini bikes on a really small track. The idea was to get a feel for the bike and get the riding position right. The doughnut shows you how you should sit on a bike on a small track with tight turns. Second exercise was riding the mini bikes single handed. Seems odd, but this forced you to lean in with the bike going in the turn. Then we were to try out what we had learned, 3 guys at a time, Carr giving feedback. Soon after, we went in small groups on the larger 400m track, Carr following each rider to observe and giving feedback afterwards.

Race day pictures at: http://www.dutch-brothers.com/gallery/album172

I've done the class twice and here's what I learned. If you do 1500 laps at Ken Maley's practice track in 2 days and fall down about 60 times, you'll be a little sore. Actually there were probably about 4-5 "Things" that they teach you. After that, you practice the crap out of the stuff over and over for 2 days. What do they teach you? First, "The line" (that helped me the most), keeping your bod perpendicular to the ground, sliding off the seat to the outside, arm positions, using the rear brake (I never did and still don't), applying power at the right time and doing all this in both directions. Seems like really simple stuff, but doing it wrong and having somebody pull you aside and explain it countless times is how you eventually get it right. It's all about "Feel" which probably wouldn't make for an interesting read. I don't think the story was supposed to be how to ride a flattrack bike as much as a story about Carr doing a cool thing for some extremely enthusiastic riders. The guys who were there will probably never forget the experience and could give a Rat's about how the article came accross. What I learned is imprinted in my brain forever. I guess G.I. could have mentioned that. Yet another perspective.

[BSAchop]

i enjoyed the article.
i like flattrack, though i never raced it. actually its the only form of racing i pay attention to.
that said, one could reasonably expect that most readers of that article were general public types like myself, and not former or current racers. as such, the article was written to highlight the trip and give exposure to both Carrs endeavor and the brit tracker scene.
Technical training details would have been a distraction.

[oldironnow]

Learning the doughnut - interesting - thanks flattracker27!



***

[850-Combat]

I've been a big Chris Carr fan since he started riding the 600 Wood Rotax. I saw him at Peoria back when. He kicked b u t t.

I liked the article, but then I was not expecting the article to teach me how to ride flat track. I think its really neat that Europeans and brits are getting interested in American flat track. Goodness knows most Americans don't seem to care much.

[BSAchop]

well, americans care more for the death of a weirded out pop star with a penchant for sleeping with children , than they do over the death of any of out servicemen or women in afghanistan. go figure.

[trev0006]

Thanks for the pictures.

Originally Posted by flattracker27

Well, agreed that the article does not go into the training details. I was there, so let me give you some insights. 20 guys signed up for the training camp and we had no clue what to expect. The track is rather hard turf and not a cushion track, so Carr focused on learning to ride on such ground.

First thing, we were to try doughnuts at ultimate low speed on 100cc mini bikes on a really small track. The idea was to get a feel for the bike and get the riding position right. The doughnut shows you how you should sit on a bike on a small track with tight turns. Second exercise was riding the mini bikes single handed. Seems odd, but this forced you to lean in with the bike going in the turn. Then we were to try out what we had learned, 3 guys at a time, Carr giving feedback. Soon after, we went in small groups on the larger 400m track, Carr following each rider to observe and giving feedback afterwards.

Race day pictures at: http://www.dutch-brothers.com/gallery/album172tirescars