Toni Sharpless Supersonic Road Race School | Page 2 | GTAMotorcycle.com

Toni Sharpless Supersonic Road Race School

Got my first course done and in the books. There were about 10 participants in total, 2/3rds of which were kids. I think there were three groups, each with their own coach, so the group sizes were very small and had good teacher-to-student ratios.

I did "5: Going Pro", which is mostly aimed at folks who have a bunch of track experience and want to go racing. I was the only one doing that particular course, so I got Jake LeClair as a coach all to myself for the day. As a result, the format was super flexible.

Since this was my first track outing of the season, I mostly just wanted to blow the cobwebs off and get someone to review my riding to make sure that I wasn't doing anything glaringly wrong. I've done FAST phase 1 a million years ago, and Racer5 more recently, but this was the first time I've ever done any specialized training one-on-one like that.

I did a "hybrid" day where I rode a pitbike in the morning and the Ohvale in the afternoon (costs the same as just doing the Ohvale all day). I gotta say, the Ohvale is intense, and is way faster than I am. I was not capable of coming close to the limits of the brakes or the tires, and as I got tired in the afternoon I did not feel like trying to push to reach those limits. I mean, you can putt around on it and still have fun, but I could reach the limits on the pitbike fairly easily and experience the tires sliding around, and even one big front-end washout, without crapping myself. So after a bit on the Ohvale we switched things up and I did circle-drills and figure-8-drills on the pitbike to my heart's content (these are something that I specifically wanted to do to improve my ability to get to big lean angle quicker and more confidently).
 
Did my second day at the school yesterday. Similar to last time, there were 6 or 8 kids and 2 adult students. The kids were in groups of 3 or 4, with up to two instructors per group, as Toni was getting some extra instructors trained up. This time I had Ben LeClair as an instructor all to myself (doing course 6 'circle drill'), and the other adult had Tomas Casas.

For the higher level courses you'll usually end up alternating between sessions of follow-and-lead laps with the instructor and sessions of whatever drills seem appropriate for your desired focus and skill level.

The figure-8 drills that were my focus last time now feel easy. I've always been tentative on corner entry, so we did a new oval drill where you turn in and lean it over while being as hard on the brakes as you can, to the point where the front wheel starts to squirm and slip. On a street bike this feels like being millimeters away from death, but on a pitbike it's almost no big deal. If you fall, it's only a couple of inches to the ground and you just look like a goofy turtle stuck on its back for a few seconds. Back out on the track after the drill my entry speed was instantly faster, without the usual sense of trepidation that the front end is going to wash out.

The other drill was the circle drill itself. Part of the track had flooded the day before, and there was a fine layer of dirt on one section (don't worry, they didn't run the kids on the dirty section). But we did intentionally run the circle drill on that dirty section and it was awesome. It's hard to describe how good it feels to be leaned over so far on dirty pavement that I could have dragged an elbow if I had thought to try, and to properly feel exactly what the tires were doing as they were on (and over) the limit of traction. This is exactly what I wanted from the little bikes.

I did the 'hybrid' thing again, with the ability to hop between a pitbike and the Ohvale as necessary. This time I could actually get close to the limits of the Ohvale in a few situations, but it's still very clearly an expert-level tool. Ergonomically, it's also a lot harder and much more tiring to ride than the pitbike.
 
Ash said:
Did my second day at the school yesterday. Similar to last time, there were 6 or 8 kids and 2 adult students. The kids were in groups of 3 or 4, with up to two instructors per group, as Toni was getting some extra instructors trained up. This time I had Ben LeClair as an instructor all to myself (doing course 6 'circle drill'), and the other adult had Tomas Casas.

For the higher level courses you'll usually end up alternating between sessions of follow-and-lead laps with the instructor and sessions of whatever drills seem appropriate for your desired focus and skill level.

The figure-8 drills that were my focus last time now feel easy. I've always been tentative on corner entry, so we did a new oval drill where you turn in and lean it over while being as hard on the brakes as you can, to the point where the front wheel starts to squirm and slip. On a street bike this feels like being millimeters away from death, but on a pitbike it's almost no big deal. If you fall, it's only a couple of inches to the ground and you just look like a goofy turtle stuck on its back for a few seconds. Back out on the track after the drill my entry speed was instantly faster, without the usual sense of trepidation that the front end is going to wash out.

The other drill was the circle drill itself. Part of the track had flooded the day before, and there was a fine layer of dirt on one section (don't worry, they didn't run the kids on the dirty section). But we did intentionally run the circle drill on that dirty section and it was awesome. It's hard to describe how good it feels to be leaned over so far on dirty pavement that I could have dragged an elbow if I had thought to try, and to properly feel exactly what the tires were doing as they were on (and over) the limit of traction. This is exactly what I wanted from the little bikes.

I did the 'hybrid' thing again, with the ability to hop between a pitbike and the Ohvale as necessary. This time I could actually get close to the limits of the Ohvale in a few situations, but it's still very clearly an expert-level tool. Ergonomically, it's also a lot harder and much more tiring to ride than the pitbike.
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Awesome review! Have a few questions for you. Did you crash? If so, how much did they charge you?

I dont see a schedule for their courses, do you sign up for the course you want to take, and then they give you the days that they are teaching that specific course?

Thanks
 
TheMenacE said:
Awesome review! Have a few questions for you. Did you crash? If so, how much did they charge you?

I dont see a schedule for their courses, do you sign up for the course you want to take, and then they give you the days that they are teaching that specific course?

Thanks
Click to expand...
Yeah, I "crashed" a handful of times in the drills. It's hard to call them crashes though, since the speeds are so low in the drills. I managed to break the tip off a brake lever in one. No charge for that. I did have their insurance in case something major did go wrong, but to be honest you'd have to really make an effort to do more than break a lever or footpeg off, even on the higher speed track sections. All the bikes are set up with plastic bar ends and footpeg plates, so it's almost impossible to hurt them.

The website isn't the greatest. Call or email Toni to get the latest dates. Covid has really made a mess of scheduling with all the kart orgs fighting for track time, so it really helps if you're flexible on the dates. I had my dates rescheduled a couple of times between lockdown stuff and weather, but I'm fortunate enough that I can take vacation more or less whenever I want.
 
Oh, while I'm thinking about costs, also note that the higher level courses assume that you're bringing your own gear. You can rent their gear if you want, but it's not included in the price of the higher level courses like it is with the intro courses.

If you're bringing your own gear, you might want to bring your older stuff if you prefer to keep your good/new stuff looking pristine. Depends on how hard you want to push. If you're doing two or three days of the drill-type courses you might want to budget for a new pair of knee sliders and maybe even toe sliders when you're done. At one point I took a break because my knees were getting hot from dragging them so much. Fun stuff.
 
Ash said:
Did my second day at the school yesterday. Similar to last time, there were 6 or 8 kids and 2 adult students. The kids were in groups of 3 or 4, with up to two instructors per group, as Toni was getting some extra instructors trained up. This time I had Ben LeClair as an instructor all to myself (doing course 6 'circle drill'), and the other adult had Tomas Casas.

For the higher level courses you'll usually end up alternating between sessions of follow-and-lead laps with the instructor and sessions of whatever drills seem appropriate for your desired focus and skill level.

The figure-8 drills that were my focus last time now feel easy. I've always been tentative on corner entry, so we did a new oval drill where you turn in and lean it over while being as hard on the brakes as you can, to the point where the front wheel starts to squirm and slip. On a street bike this feels like being millimeters away from death, but on a pitbike it's almost no big deal. If you fall, it's only a couple of inches to the ground and you just look like a goofy turtle stuck on its back for a few seconds. Back out on the track after the drill my entry speed was instantly faster, without the usual sense of trepidation that the front end is going to wash out.

The other drill was the circle drill itself. Part of the track had flooded the day before, and there was a fine layer of dirt on one section (don't worry, they didn't run the kids on the dirty section). But we did intentionally run the circle drill on that dirty section and it was awesome. It's hard to describe how good it feels to be leaned over so far on dirty pavement that I could have dragged an elbow if I had thought to try, and to properly feel exactly what the tires were doing as they were on (and over) the limit of traction. This is exactly what I wanted from the little bikes.

I did the 'hybrid' thing again, with the ability to hop between a pitbike and the Ohvale as necessary. This time I could actually get close to the limits of the Ohvale in a few situations, but it's still very clearly an expert-level tool. Ergonomically, it's also a lot harder and much more tiring to ride than the pitbike.
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Sounds like an absolute blast. I’m very envious
 
How is the day broken down? In class then out on the track to practise what you just learned?

Have you done fast or racer5? How do they compare?
 
TheMenacE said:
How is the day broken down? In class then out on the track to practise what you just learned?

Have you done fast or racer5? How do they compare?
Click to expand...
No classroom at all. There's a very quick meeting first thing in the morning that goes over what the safety flags mean, and a picture board for the kids that shows what good body position and grip positions look like. Everything else is done on the track, or verbally and informally with the instructor between track sessions.

On-track sessions are usually 15 minutes or so, starting out with follow-the-leader type stuff behind the instructor. Then usually a 15 minute break in the pits, then usually a drill of some sort. The group sizes are so small that what you end up doing will likely be tailored to your skill and comfort level.

It might be handy to know approximately what a racing line looks like and why you'd use it, but if you're a typical street rider starting at level 3 you really won't need much theory to get going. They'll sort you out based on your skill level when you get there.

I did FAST phase 1 probably 15 years ago. From what I recall, there was a lot of classroom time; maybe 50/50 classroom/track? Something like that. I have a large stack of books on riding, so the classroom portions of FAST didn't really teach me anything new, but they would have been very useful for a street rider with no exposure to track concepts. Part of my FAST day was rained out, so the track time seemed especially limited. Still a good time, but it didn't significantly alter my riding because it was just a single day with fairly limited track time. I'd probably recommend doing phases 1, 2 and 3 on consecutive days to get the most out of it.

I did the Racer5 course 4 or 5 years ago, and I've done a lot of their endurance races on their bikes. Across the three days of the Racer5 course there was one hour long classroom section. Everything else was done informally and verbally with your instructor in between track sessions. It's not necessary, but I might recommend reading a book like Twist of the Wrist 2 before doing the course. Like Supersonic, Racer5 is very much about hands-on track time experience. Racer5 has a strong focus on proper, safe track etiquette and is a very good choice for anyone wanting to do track days. Plus, there's the whole endurance race thing on their bikes if you just want to dip your toe in before buying a track bike setup, which is what I did.

It's not really fair to directly compare the three, because I did the basic/intro courses with FAST and Racer5, while I did the more advanced courses with Supersonic, so the nature and purpose of what I was doing in each was different. As a broad generalization though, I might say that the experience on the pitbikes is sort of concentrated. If you imagine that you want to focus and work on one specific facet of going through a specific corner, let's say your body position, or your throttle control, or whatever. On a big track you get the chance to do that specific corner once every two minutes or so (ie: a full lap), and the entire corner lasts perhaps two seconds. On a pitbike in something like the circle drill, that 'corner' lasts as long as you want it to last, and you can do it over and over again as soon as you want.
 
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Love your write ups! I'm not new to track days, been tracking for about 6 years now, probably a total of 20-25 track days. But after a lowside at the track last year, I lost a lot of confidence when I did my first track day this year. It could have been the fact that it was my first track day of the season, or it could be the lingering memory of my crash last year.

Though I've never been to a track school, I've read some riding technique books(totw2, sportbike riding techniques) and practise what they preach. But I want to make it a goal to take as many courses and make myself the best rider I could be. My schedule is crazy so I'm just trying to figure out which should be on top of my list. Super sonic school seems really appealing to me, and racer5 has the huge benefit of their endurance races after you graduate.
 

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I want to be comfortable with being uncomfortable. Feeling both tires wiggle and fighting for grip is something I would never dare try on a big bike, but on a pitbike, it seems less nerve wrecking.
 
Cool, yeah. I know exactly what you mean. I went a bit over the limit in a Racer5 endurance race, freaked out and did a stupid panic reaction, and ended up in a sling for 5 or 6 weeks. Got some cool titanium out of the deal, though. That crash set my confidence back perhaps as much as two years.

If you go with Supersonic, with your track experience, definitely aim for level 4. Since it'll probably be just you in your group, and maybe one other student, the distinctions between the courses end up not being that important. After they assess your riding to make sure you're not a danger to yourself or others you'll have a lot of flexibility in what drills you tackle.
 
This season will be over be for you know it since we're already in August. 😕

I talked to Toni and here are her dates if anyone is interested in squeezing in some minimoto track time:

July, 28, 29, Aug 4, Brechin Motorsports Park (near Orillia)

Aug 18, 19, Flamboro Speedway (near Hamilton)

August 25, 26, 27 Lombardy Karting (near Ottawa)

September 1, 2, 3 Flamboro Speedway (near Hamilton)

September 10, 11, 12 Canadian Tire Motorsport Park

September 14,15,16 Brechin Motorsports Park (near Orillia)

October 13,14,15,20,21,22 Brechin Motorsports Park (near Orillia)
 
Went out today it was great. Not sure my hips flex enough for "track riding". If anyone asks it was "Fraser".
 
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