Harley Side a.k.a Hot Sauce is one of the latest prodigies of the Race Center rider mentoring program. Harley only did his first track day less than 12 months ago and on his 4th ever visit to Phillip Island he clocked a very impressive 1.41.4 on a 600cc bike, wining 2 from 3 races.
So how is this possible? And is this something you can do?
Firstly the Race Center rider mentoring program is not designed just to help those with ambitious racing aspirations. It’s designed to help riders achieve whatever their goals using our experience. Be a goal of to be a safe, confident track rider or riders wanting to take their racing to a more serious and profession level.
The very first step is a conversation to assess your goals, current situation and then we look to help map the best path forward for you.
So why has Saucy been able to progress so fast? Well there are a number of factors, the main ones:
· Harley has a great attitude. He doesn’t just receive advice, he listens to it, absorbs it and if he doesn’t understand it he asks questions.
· He respects the advice given and works with it rather than continually seek 50 different opinions
· Harley has great grounding from riding dirt bikes since he was a kid, this helps speed up the process but does not mean those without this experience cannot achieve great things. It will just take a longer.
· Harley’s goals and path are realistic for his experience level and budget. Budget is super important to long term improvement.
· Harley has a lot of determination but more importantly he can balance it well enough with reality.
· Harley absolutely loves riding a motorbike regardless if it is a race or not. He just loves the thrill.
· Harley has been smart enough to get a good bike and enlist the help of experienced people he trusts. A good bike doesn’t need to be expensive. It just needs to be balanced and user friendly.
On top of those key ingredients Harley has been working on specifics in the order of which items will net the biggest reward for effort. This order or path is determined by his Race Center mentor who uses their experience and continually assess each rider.
Some of the specifics we have been working on with Hot Saucy are:
· Understanding the key lines of each track, apex points and key areas where he will make lap time gains. This is done before each new track he learns and we constantly refer to these items whenever at that track
· Understanding the need to be aware of coasting time.
· Understanding what his bike is looking for from him, how it works and how to be at one with the bike. This understanding helps lead him to understand if he needs a setup change or not.
· How to use all the race track (and more as he did on Sunday haha).
· Overcoming fear.
Our founder Darren Sciberras a.k.a. Super Daz (or Super Damage as he was known in his early days) was lucky enough to have received some brilliant mentoring himself from the likes of Ken Onus and Trevor Manley plus others. Over the last 14 years it has developed into what is now the Race Center Mentoring program
It’s a program open to all and a program that has netted a lot of rider improvement over the years 😊
For more information please don't be shy to get in touch with us or check out this link:
https://www.racecenter.com.au/trackside-support