UK Dirt Track Training Day

The long-running Peter Boast Short Track UK school (that I took about nine years ago when I first thought about racing) has moved to Leicester Speedway track. Sideburn reader Graham Braid (middle in the group shot) attended with a bunch of his mates and sent this report.

Easter Sunday is normally a day with the family, bunnies and chocolate eggs, but not this year, because myself and four friends managed to get a pass out for good behaviour and do what we planned and failed to do last year.

A day at the Short Track UK run training school where you learn the basics of dirt track racing. After two of us competed in last year's Dirt Quake we were inspired to attend the training day, as it was run by the 2009 UK Champion and founding light of the UK Dirt Track racing series, Peter Boast. We attended Leicester Speedway track and found a very relaxed but informative approach was adopted by the instructors, which included the 2013 Pro class champion Aidan Collins. We donned our steel shoe and set out on a small oval on the track aboard converted small capacity CCM dirt track bikes. We learned to put weight on our left leg and let the bike drop and slide under us. It was not long before all of us had managed to put it into practice.

The next exercise was to brake hard into the turn causing the back of the bike to break away, and get used to slowing down and sliding the back of the bike out. As these bikes have no front brake this is your safety measure if you are going too hot into the corner. 

Once we had all got to grips with the fundamentals,we practised race starts, which was done in pairs as drag starts. Great fun and got the adrenalin pumping!

For the final part of the day we were all let loose on the full track to practise what we'd learned, Unfortunately, we'd had quite a bit of rain during the day, so it made the track pretty slippy and tricky, but we still couldn't wait to get out there and have a go. 

It was an extremely enjoyable day,and as we say in Liverpool,it was a boss day! 

Bearing in mind that two of the group had no off-road experience they picked it up very quickly and at £135 for the day, which included hire of the bikes and refreshments, was very reasonable. It is something I would encourage any motorcyclist to try. Not only does it improve your bike skills ,but you might even catch the dirt track bug. We have!