Casey Stoner on drifting. How and when: With the next and final 2013 MotoGP round in 9 days at Valencia we thought it would be fun to post this quote. Normally, when youre sliding the bike under control, it means youre in control of it. It means that youre mentally doing it on purpose, youre not just going into a corner and its starting to slide. Its something that only works in certain corners in this type of racing, it doesnt work in all the corners. When it does work, sometimes it can be a bit scary; you can go into the corner, and if you make a small mistake when you are sliding, the finish of it can be a catastrophe. When your heart beats really hard is when you slide when you dont really want to. Its basically about confidence going into the corner, knowing exactly what youre doing, what the bikes doing and then having the will to either go into the corner harder or get on the gas harder to try and break the rear. Most of the time when you break the rear it means youre going to highside. So theres a fine point between breaking it and keeping it, and breaking it and ending up flying through the air. Its really difficult to explain, you know when you can and when you cant and not many riders are able to do it and to do it well, especially to be faster. Anyone can slide a bike, but to slide and be fastest is something more complex, to try to minimize the amount of spin. Its more or less impossible to give [one] answer because every situation is different, every corner you must slide through is different to the others. The system to make the bike slide is completely different. Sometimes you have to really go in, push the front hard, and close the gas to make the front want to turn, then the rear will come round more easily, as you get the weight off the rear. Then another time, you have to go into the corner and basically slowly break it away, though if you break it away too quickly, its just going to want to highside. “ The process for me is commitment. In Turn 3 at Valencia, Turn 3 at Phillip Island, its the same sort of commitment. You have to go into the corner with a lot of aggression - both corners are very similar, both of them are left handers, medium fast left. You have to go in there a lot harder, weight the front, take the weight off the rear, and then get on the gas very quickly, but to a certain point that it doesnt want to come around too quick. But you have to get on the gas quicker to break the rear, because theres a lot of grip in these two points, it doesnt want to come around. Valencia theres a lot of grip, in Phillip Island, youre in 5th gear, theres not a lot of power in 5th, so you have to really push it hard to make it break away, and then from that point you need to keep the corner speed. If you slide and youre sliding too much, then youre losing all your corner speed. If youre sliding and not sliding enough, then the grip will come back and when the grip comes back, youll push the front and fold it. Its really difficult to explain. You have to consciously do it, he said. Some corners call for picking the bike up and driving it out hard, but these couple of corners in particular, Turn 3 at Phillip Island and Turn 3 at Valencia, these are corners that after the left, theres a right that you have to get it back for. So most people go through there, roll through the corner, and theyre rolling going wide and they have to get back for the next one. While Im sliding it, keeping it tight, keeping the corner speed, and then Im already ready for the right. Thats how I use that corner. Turn 3 in Sepang is completely different. Because youre carrying corner speed on the side, the bike immediately wants to spin, and you can spin all the way to the curb on the way out. But youre losing that drive for up the hill, so basically it will start to come round, it comes round a lot slower, but you want it to come round a little bit, so that when its pointing in the right direction, you can pick the bike up and drive across the curb. Theres different techniques to different corners and when they should be used, depending on grip levels, and a lot of different things. Unfortunately, most of the time these days, sliding is not the fastest way, theres only some corners where it can still work.
Posted on: Tue, 29 Oct 2013 18:00:42 +0000
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