Danny Walker's American Supercamp / San Jose (06/05

Danny Walker's American Supercamp / San Jose
06/05 - 06/06/98

In a nutshell, American Supercamp teaches you the basics of sliding a motorcycle around a dirt track while Danny & company provide insight into applying these techniques to road racing and dirt track racing. His drills teach you the tricks of sliding the rear wheel, steering with the rear wheel, point-and-shoot turning, and sliding both the front and rear in unison - all with the aid of the rear brake and the throttle.

Our class was held in a 100' x 200' barn at the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds in San Jose, Ca. Eighteen students attended, many of them road racers, including Lee Parks of Motorcycle Consumer News magazine and quite a few AFM regulars. The guest instructor was AMA Grand National Dirt Track racer Will Davis (#21). Danny and Will were backed up by assistants Scott and Tetsu.

Steve and I enrolled in the class to learn more about the art of sliding a bike around, and we weren't disappointed (except perhaps with our lack of skill!). Will made it look so easy - run down deep into the corner, use the rear brake to lock up the rear tire while simultaneously turning / sliding the bike, get off the brake and on the gas and head down to the other end of the track. The first session went pretty well - I think I fell down only two or three times. I must have hit the dirt thirty times before the day was through. Class ended about 5:00p and I was sore, grinning, bruised, grinning, beat up pretty good, and grinning. Walking was a chore, moving was a chore, sitting was a chore, thinking hurt my head.

Since the majority of the class was made up of road racers, Danny spent some time Saturday morning discussing how to apply the Supercamp drills and techniques to road racing. Besides getting a feel for the bike slipping and sliding and being comfortable with it moving around, the major points were getting balanced on the bike (footpeg / handlebar positioning) for better overall control, and the advantages of using the rear brake (carefully). Like most racing / safety schools, American Supercamp taught us the basics and some new tricks, but we have to take those drills back with us and practice, practice, practice to really develop them into something we can use on the road course.

Danny & company put on a great class - professional without being stuffy, lots of track time and personal attention. We were greeted each morning with a huge spread of breakfast goodies, and lunch was a catered affair. Tetsu and Scott were always on hand to help out with bike problems - not that there was anything wrong with the bikes before we got a hold of them. The Honda XR100s are tough little bikes, but we hit the dirt a lot and managed to break off our share of clutch levers.

Was it worth the money - you bet, but only if we take the effort to practice what we learned. Would I recommend the class to other road racers - yes again, but bring lots of advil!

Bob.