[MKSixer]

In the interest of making the motorsports section of the forum more interesting and active, I'd like to start a thread capturing motorsports stories. I'm sure we have some good ones, collectively. I'll start this with the recollections of a member from another racing forum and his recollections of working as a contractor at Scuderia Ferrari about 7 years ago. It is a long read but VERY interesting and eye-opening.


From a poster in another forum:
Lots of people asked me what it was like to work at Ferrari, so I wrote this piece to avoid repetition:

You might be shocked!!!...



Quite a few people have expressed interest at hearing my views on working
for Ferrari F1 recently. So here goes:-

I've always wanted the experience of working there & had a couple of goes at
applying in the past but never had enough experience of the Catia CAD system
they use. I even had an interview in Maranello a year ago, though but did
not quite get a contract.

Late this summer, an agency rang me & asked if I was interested. Having had
a bit more Catia experience now, I said put me forward & thought no more
about it. They rang back a couple of weeks later & said I could start on a
contract until the end of the year, with a possibility, if the budget was
approved at the end of November, of 2 more months. I was working for Lotus
Cars at Hethel & things were looking a little shaky there. In fact, just a
few weeks later, my immediate boss & about 30% of the whole workforce were
laid off!

So off I went, drove down to Maranello, not really knowing what I was going
to do but what the hell - It was a good feeling to be going there plus I
have seen so little of Italy, I was determined to do something about that
too.

BTW - I had been recommended to Ferrari by someone I worked with at a
company in London about 12 years ago. He left that company & I took over his
work. It was such a mess, I ended up re-doing it all without telling
anybody. Now he's designing the composite monocoque for Formula 1 Ferraris!
Funny old world....

I booked into a hotel with serviced apartments, at the other end of
Maranello, which I knew from my previous visit there & was the best option
considering the terms of my contract. To find a proper let & get into the
Italian system would have created a bureaucratic nightmare & cost a lot more
money. A so called 4 star, Ferrari themed establishment, it was conveniently
placed for work, but hideously dull & boring with nothing around it. Nowhere
to even walk. It had a decent restaurant that was closed at weekends but there was a fine restaurant across the car park that was a too expensive to eat every day.
The hotel was darkly lit with an ancient tv showing only soppy Italian programs, which
refused to work more than 50% of the time. Internet was available but slower
than a snail in reverse & rendered outside communications impossible. I
later bought an Italian modem but that was only marginally better. Very
frustrating but I did a great deal of reading instead - back to the old
days!

And Maranello! - New York it is not! Apart from a few cafes & restos,
there's nothing to do there. Nobody even selling drugs, as far as I could
make out. A few ceramics factories & Ferrari souvenir shops & that's about
it. The 'official' Ferrari souvenirs were EXTORTIONATELY priced & mostly
made in China anyway... I didn't buy a damned thing! And there were about
half a dozen 'shops' where you could hire a Ferrari for 20 mins (about 80
euros) & be seen driving around town pretending you are 'it'...

Back to the job. The first few days were spent getting used to the layout of
the place & seeing all the 'sights'. It was just after shut down so the
place was not ultra busy & couple of weeks were spent on long lunches &
wandering about in the sun to different coffee bars & chatting about racing,
who you know in F1 & Italian girls, etc, etc.

The mechanical design office is in a rather spread out & haphazard building
next to the Fiorano test track. I enquired about some peculiar looking wooden box sections in the roof. It turns out that the building suffered from an earthquake a few years back. Some of the roof RSJs were visibly bent but deemed safe & were boxed in with differently sized boxes. Very reassuring… The wind tunnel & Aero Dept. are positioned
just about as far away as it can be on the huge site which doesn't make for
good communications. (Don't forget, they manufacture over 7000 sports cars
on the same site.) The office is near by the famous 'Cavallino' restaurant
which is itself positioned directly across a main road to the famous factory
gates you see in photos. (The entrance at the wind tunnel end is far bigger
though.)
There is a staff car park there which contractors are not allowed to use.
Thanks.
It was nice to take coffee breaks outside next to the track where there
would be occasional (old) F1, 2-seater F1, sports car & hire cars trundling
round. The circuit is well kept & has the feel of a proper track to it. And
Enzo's old office is in a preserved building that is still in the middle of
the track.

I'd estimate that about 20-25% of the design/race engineering staff are
Brits or people who have been based in the UK with other teams, many of them in senior
positions, so speaking English was no problem. I worked in a dark corner in
the same corridor as James Allison, Pat Fry, Rory Byrne etc. I was assigned
to the systems groups, which has a large remit over the whole car. The section leader had been appointed after working in the suspension dept. for many years, wasn’t too happy about it & I’m not sure he was on top of things. They seemed to struggle to find me things to do & was eventually
working on some new hydraulic fittings then composite electrical boxes. The Italian electrical guy, though very pleasant to talk to, gradually decided to pick more & more holes in my work because it was not done ‘his way’ & relations eventually broke down.
Although the working atmosphere was generally quite pleasant & friendly, as
time went on, it became apparent that I was put in contractor's 'mushroom
mode', with information & direction being given in small & infrequent doses.
I realised this was not going to change, so just settled in, doing what I
could. I could not attend any meetings, put my views & any suggestions were
usually met with blank or dirty stares. My thoughts were later confirmed
when I learned that my successor (an Italian) was hounded & treated badly by
the same couple of people I worked for & his short contract was not renewed.
I had already decided I was not going to renew the contract beyond December.
I was being driven mad by the boredom outside anyway.
I cancelled the Italian lessons I had booked as I knew I would be leaving &
just got by on self-teaching from a book.

Everybody should be issued with a swipe card soon after they start. I was
not for some reason nobody ever told me. As a staff member, with this card,
you can eat a nice 3 course meal in the very good restaurant for 1.20 euros.
As a contractor, with this card, if you fill in 2 forms & get them signed &
stamped, you are entitled to buy canteen tickets which cost 7.20 euros each
- work that out?!.. Because I had no card (& I asked for one each week when
I submitted my timesheet) I had to scrounge tickets from another contractor
& pay him. There was also another key you could buy to obtain coffee &
snacks from a machine, about which I was not informed that you could buy
anyway, until 2 weeks before I left. Also you could not open some security
doors without the swipe card. To go to lunch involved a 10 minute walk,
crossing the main road & trying to convince the security guards in 2
different gates going & the same 2 coming back, that I actually worked
there! One guard gave me a big dressing down one day, saying that if I did
not have a proper badge the next day, he would not let me in! He must have
spoken to HR or my boss because next day he was nice as pie & waved me
through with a smile. Strange are the ways of the Maranello Mafia...
Oh, & I had to present my passport & book in & out each morning & evening.

So I spent the first 3 weeks scrounging tickets, coffee & hanging onto the
other contractor. After this I decided not to continue with this demeaning
routine & just started walking up the road to the Museum café, where they
served good coffee & excellent salads, as well as being able to watch old &
new race highlights on the big screen. They also had wifi, which was very
useful! I struck up a good relationships with the 3 young ladies who ran the
café (possibly sisters?) & seemed to be there 7 days per week! (Buongiorno
David! Americano e insalata?...)
The Museum, by the way, is a large modern facility & was always well
populated with enthusiasts from all over the world & I had some nice
conversations with some of them. But the reception area obviously had a
drainage problem & stank of manure the whole time I was there! They even
sold Gilles Villeneuve 'anniversary wine' - a rather tasteless souvenir, I
thought.
Back to the office. At every racing team I've been to (except McLaren),
there has always been a rapport with the race team. One usually spends time
poring over the cars, measuring things & generally indulging in pleasantries
& light banter with those nose-picking grease monkeys...

Not here! You have to book an 'appointment' with the chief mechanic to go
near the cars. Pathetic. Even going outside for coffee, you have to walk
through the race bay & there is very little acknowledgement from mechanics &
you feel you are encroaching on their private property. Individually though,
like most people, they are perfectly friendly & normal. There was no feeling
of team spirit & nobody seemed bothered about discussing or analysing the
practices or races. There were not even any general debriefs for the staff after the races.

Ferrari certainly do things 'their way' but then a very experienced buyer type
contractor was brought in from the UK & quickly identified bloated
bureaucracy, wastage, overpriced & over ordered components, poor
manufacturing procedures & loads of other stuff from the past where money
can be saved. Whether this will acted on & make a quicker car remains to be seen.

I was also there to witness the sacking of Montezemolo. It was interesting
to watch the Fiat helicopter coming & going the day before & trying to
identify the passengers. He gave his farewell speech in the building site
that is the replacement building for the whole team. About 7-800 people had
to climb up 2 flights of scaffold & plank stairs to the 2nd floor where
there were electrical cables & bits of aircon trunking hanging down as well
as planks & tools lying around the floor. Thankfully no one was killed, as
he would have had to have taken the blame for that too. He received a great
reception though.
At my leaving ‘assesment’ with the section leader & DO manager, a grudging apology was given but the section leader kept his eyes staring at the floor the whole time…

The Emilia Romagna region is a fertile area for grapes, fruit & veg, as well
as being the region where Parma ham, Parmesan cheese & Balsamic vinegar is
produced & there is no shortage of good restaurants.
The area provides clay for the many ceramics factories. Partly flat, within
10 minutes drive of Maranello you start to go up in the mountains towards
Tuscany, where there is some magnificent scenery.

After a slow start, the sightseeing progressed well, with most weekends
being taken up with visits to Rome, Rimini, Lake Garda, Lake Como, Venice,
Bologna, Modena, La Spezia, Tuscany, San Marino & Portofino. So my plan was
largely successful & the late summer weather was beautiful, having changed
from the worst summer in living memory, just before I arrived. Couldn't be
better! And another great drive home through the South of France & Swiss
mountains & visits to friends In Frankfurt & Paris.

So all in all, a mixed bag of experiences but I'm very glad I did it.

Been there, done that, got the jock strap.

I'm back at Williams now, doing wacky vehicles again!

[M5Rick]

Thanks for putting that on MXS,it's how I somehow imagined what it would be like working for Maranello,great period buildings, sights,cars and track but under that traditional prancing horse 'if looks could kill' that's always been apparent since the early days.

[MKSixer]

Originally Posted by M5theonlyone

Thanks for putting that on MXS,it's how I somehow imagined what it would be like working for Maranello,great period buildings, sights,cars and track but under that traditional prancing horse 'if looks could kill' that's always been apparent since the early days.

It's like, "Hamlet", with cars thrown in. Awful. Just as I imagined.

[racerbruce]

Wowie!
Maranello certainly puts the "fun" in dysfunction!

[racerbruce]

Growing up in SoCal, a hotbed of motorsport, was incredible. I used to go to Friday and Saturday night drag races "under the lights" at Carlsbad Raceway in northern San Diego county. I witnessed one of the first sub-8 second runs by a Top Fuel Dragster and one of the first 200 MPH passes (today's Top Fuel car runs 3,7 seconds @ 330 MPH and the track is limited to 1,000 ft instead of the customary 1,320 ft which is 1/4 mile). Carlsbad became an internationally acclaimed outdoor motocross track as well and was the US home of the USGP FIM 500 CC motocross "world guys" from Europe, with last names some of you may remember such as DeCoster, Wolsink, Mikkola, Aberg, Lackey, etc.

I became deeply involved in off-road motorcycle riding and would also travel to the Borrego Desert at Ocotillo Wells where I rode desert as well. My skills and performance level of bikes progressed and I began competing in the 250 CC class in the sanctioned California Motocross Club series. I competed at two tracks: Carlsbad Raceway and Saddleback Park in Orange County. Carlsbad was the closest track to me and it became my "home" track, It was entirely surreal to be riding and competing on the same track that the USGP was held, and to know the world's best motocross factory racers (that was not me!) competed at.

The start of a motocross race is beyond hyper....many of you know there is a long "gate" that is just a little shorter in height than your front tire diameter, and is long or wide enough for about 30 bikes for the launch. My race bike was a 1975 Yamaha YZ 250 2-stroke with a 5 speed transmission and cutting edge monoshock rear suspension. It came with the "right stuff" from the factory that included a 21 inch diameter front rim, 18 inch rear aluminum rims, knobby race tires, small aluminum gas tank, plastic fenders, very wide motocross handlebars, side plates for racing numbers, racing designed expansion chamber exhaust, no kickstand, etc, etc. There is nothing like the power band of 2-stroke technology and when it "came on the pipe"....it was an absolute rocket.

Describing the start of the race or "launch" is beyond hyper. You and 29 others are lined up at the gate with engines off while the riders that just launched complete their race, As that race ends, the starter walks onto the track about 100 ft in front of you and waves their arm in a circle to start your bikes. You kick-start your bike and the sound of 30 2-stroke race machines fills the air. Here's where it gets crazy....you are so crammed in that the ends of your handlebars are literally touching the riders next to you; the noise from the bikes is so loud (even with your helmet on) that you literally cannot hear your bike running....and every time you blip the throttle, you can feel the bike vibrating between your legs; the starter then holds up a large board with "30" on it....this is 30 seconds before launch....and then the starter turns the 30 board sideways indicating 15 seconds to launch....and then the starter runs for the sidelines; you begin a mental countdown and appx 5 seconds before the gate drops to launch 30 race bikes, you pull in the clutch and click down and find 1st gear, and then you move from the saddle and literally put your crotch about 1/3 onto the gas tank to weight the front wheel so you don't flip over....and then you lean over the handlebars and stare intently at the gate and blank everything else out....and you move the throttle to WFO (many of you know that this means)....when the gate drops you are at wide open throttle and you literally let the clutch go to full release and you are LAUNCHED....the adrenalin and negotiating with 29 other racers as you wildly accelerate and find a way through the first turn is just insane; riders go down in front of you, beside you, etc and you are just trying to stay upright....and alive.

Remember, this is the home track for the USGP with incredibly difficult sections and a crazy climb up this huge hill, with a 180 degree very tight right hand turn at the top with a huge bermed corner; you would approach the turn at speed, shift yur seating position to 1/3 onto the gas tank to load the front tire for maximum traction and slam into the berm and rocket off the turn and start down the hill to the infamously named "Carlsbad Freeway" downhill section; about 1/2 way down this very steep hill, the track literally dropped away for a bit and you would free-fall at a very high rate of speed; you had to make adjustments of where your weight was on the bike and to ensure the front of the bike was "up" so you didn't go over the handlebars....I'll never forget that early in one of my races, I over-compensated pulling the front wheel up and I was not that far from going over backwards....at a high rate of speed....at the fastest part of the track; I remember seeing spectators at the fence start running away from the fence thinking I was going to eat it and in a very big way....I found a way to push the handlebars down and get the geometry back into a non-life threatening landing.

I went to practice areas near my home at least once a week, was lifting weights and running a lot to stay in shape so I could negotiate the 2-stroke racing machine.

http://www.carlsbadraceway.org/MX.html

This is me, just a few years ago....

[prompt]

Originally Posted by MKSixer

In the interest of making the motorsports section of the forum more interesting and active, I'd like to start a thread capturing motorsports stories. I'm sure we have some good ones, collectively. I'll start this with the recollections of a member from another racing forum and his recollections of working as a contractor at Scuderia Ferrari about 7 years ago. It is a long read but VERY interesting and eye-opening.

Lots of people asked me what it was like to work at Ferrari, so I wrote this piece to avoid repetition:

You might be shocked!!!...



Quite a few people have expressed interest at hearing my views on working
for Ferrari F1 recently. So here goes:-

I've always wanted the experience of working there & had a couple of goes at
applying in the past but never had enough experience of the Catia CAD system
they use. I even had an interview in Maranello a year ago, though but did
not quite get a contract.

Late this summer, an agency rang me & asked if I was interested. Having had
a bit more Catia experience now, I said put me forward & thought no more
about it. They rang back a couple of weeks later & said I could start on a
contract until the end of the year, with a possibility, if the budget was
approved at the end of November, of 2 more months. I was working for Lotus
Cars at Hethel & things were looking a little shaky there. In fact, just a
few weeks later, my immediate boss & about 30% of the whole workforce were
laid off!

So off I went, drove down to Maranello, not really knowing what I was going
to do but what the hell - It was a good feeling to be going there plus I
have seen so little of Italy, I was determined to do something about that
too.

BTW - I had been recommended to Ferrari by someone I worked with at a
company in London about 12 years ago. He left that company & I took over his
work. It was such a mess, I ended up re-doing it all without telling
anybody. Now he's designing the composite monocoque for Formula 1 Ferraris!
Funny old world....

I booked into a hotel with serviced apartments, at the other end of
Maranello, which I knew from my previous visit there & was the best option
considering the terms of my contract. To find a proper let & get into the
Italian system would have created a bureaucratic nightmare & cost a lot more
money. A so called 4 star, Ferrari themed establishment, it was conveniently
placed for work, but hideously dull & boring with nothing around it. Nowhere
to even walk. It had a decent restaurant that was closed at weekends but there was a fine restaurant across the car park that was a too expensive to eat every day.
The hotel was darkly lit with an ancient tv showing only soppy Italian programs, which
refused to work more than 50% of the time. Internet was available but slower
than a snail in reverse & rendered outside communications impossible. I
later bought an Italian modem but that was only marginally better. Very
frustrating but I did a great deal of reading instead - back to the old
days!

And Maranello! - New York it is not! Apart from a few cafes & restos,
there's nothing to do there. Nobody even selling drugs, as far as I could
make out. A few ceramics factories & Ferrari souvenir shops & that's about
it. The 'official' Ferrari souvenirs were EXTORTIONATELY priced & mostly
made in China anyway... I didn't buy a damned thing! And there were about
half a dozen 'shops' where you could hire a Ferrari for 20 mins (about 80
euros) & be seen driving around town pretending you are 'it'...

Back to the job. The first few days were spent getting used to the layout of
the place & seeing all the 'sights'. It was just after shut down so the
place was not ultra busy & couple of weeks were spent on long lunches &
wandering about in the sun to different coffee bars & chatting about racing,
who you know in F1 & Italian girls, etc, etc.

The mechanical design office is in a rather spread out & haphazard building
next to the Fiorano test track. I enquired about some peculiar looking wooden box sections in the roof. It turns out that the building suffered from an earthquake a few years back. Some of the roof RSJs were visibly bent but deemed safe & were boxed in with differently sized boxes. Very reassuring… The wind tunnel & Aero Dept. are positioned
just about as far away as it can be on the huge site which doesn't make for
good communications. (Don't forget, they manufacture over 7000 sports cars
on the same site.) The office is near by the famous 'Cavallino' restaurant
which is itself positioned directly across a main road to the famous factory
gates you see in photos. (The entrance at the wind tunnel end is far bigger
though.)
There is a staff car park there which contractors are not allowed to use.
Thanks.
It was nice to take coffee breaks outside next to the track where there
would be occasional (old) F1, 2-seater F1, sports car & hire cars trundling
round. The circuit is well kept & has the feel of a proper track to it. And
Enzo's old office is in a preserved building that is still in the middle of
the track.

I'd estimate that about 20-25% of the design/race engineering staff are
Brits or people who have been based in the UK with other teams, many of them in senior
positions, so speaking English was no problem. I worked in a dark corner in
the same corridor as James Allison, Pat Fry, Rory Byrne etc. I was assigned
to the systems groups, which has a large remit over the whole car. The section leader had been appointed after working in the suspension dept. for many years, wasn’t too happy about it & I’m not sure he was on top of things. They seemed to struggle to find me things to do & was eventually
working on some new hydraulic fittings then composite electrical boxes. The Italian electrical guy, though very pleasant to talk to, gradually decided to pick more & more holes in my work because it was not done ‘his way’ & relations eventually broke down.
Although the working atmosphere was generally quite pleasant & friendly, as
time went on, it became apparent that I was put in contractor's 'mushroom
mode', with information & direction being given in small & infrequent doses.
I realised this was not going to change, so just settled in, doing what I
could. I could not attend any meetings, put my views & any suggestions were
usually met with blank or dirty stares. My thoughts were later confirmed
when I learned that my successor (an Italian) was hounded & treated badly by
the same couple of people I worked for & his short contract was not renewed.
I had already decided I was not going to renew the contract beyond December.
I was being driven mad by the boredom outside anyway.
I cancelled the Italian lessons I had booked as I knew I would be leaving &
just got by on self-teaching from a book.

Everybody should be issued with a swipe card soon after they start. I was
not for some reason nobody ever told me. As a staff member, with this card,
you can eat a nice 3 course meal in the very good restaurant for 1.20 euros.
As a contractor, with this card, if you fill in 2 forms & get them signed &
stamped, you are entitled to buy canteen tickets which cost 7.20 euros each
- work that out?!.. Because I had no card (& I asked for one each week when
I submitted my timesheet) I had to scrounge tickets from another contractor
& pay him. There was also another key you could buy to obtain coffee &
snacks from a machine, about which I was not informed that you could buy
anyway, until 2 weeks before I left. Also you could not open some security
doors without the swipe card. To go to lunch involved a 10 minute walk,
crossing the main road & trying to convince the security guards in 2
different gates going & the same 2 coming back, that I actually worked
there! One guard gave me a big dressing down one day, saying that if I did
not have a proper badge the next day, he would not let me in! He must have
spoken to HR or my boss because next day he was nice as pie & waved me
through with a smile. Strange are the ways of the Maranello Mafia...
Oh, & I had to present my passport & book in & out each morning & evening.

So I spent the first 3 weeks scrounging tickets, coffee & hanging onto the
other contractor. After this I decided not to continue with this demeaning
routine & just started walking up the road to the Museum café, where they
served good coffee & excellent salads, as well as being able to watch old &
new race highlights on the big screen. They also had wifi, which was very
useful! I struck up a good relationships with the 3 young ladies who ran the
café (possibly sisters?) & seemed to be there 7 days per week! (Buongiorno
David! Americano e insalata?...)
The Museum, by the way, is a large modern facility & was always well
populated with enthusiasts from all over the world & I had some nice
conversations with some of them. But the reception area obviously had a
drainage problem & stank of manure the whole time I was there! They even
sold Gilles Villeneuve 'anniversary wine' - a rather tasteless souvenir, I
thought.
Back to the office. At every racing team I've been to (except McLaren),
there has always been a rapport with the race team. One usually spends time
poring over the cars, measuring things & generally indulging in pleasantries
& light banter with those nose-picking grease monkeys...

Not here! You have to book an 'appointment' with the chief mechanic to go
near the cars. Pathetic. Even going outside for coffee, you have to walk
through the race bay & there is very little acknowledgement from mechanics &
you feel you are encroaching on their private property. Individually though,
like most people, they are perfectly friendly & normal. There was no feeling
of team spirit & nobody seemed bothered about discussing or analysing the
practices or races. There were not even any general debriefs for the staff after the races.

Ferrari certainly do things 'their way' but then a very experienced buyer type
contractor was brought in from the UK & quickly identified bloated
bureaucracy, wastage, overpriced & over ordered components, poor
manufacturing procedures & loads of other stuff from the past where money
can be saved. Whether this will acted on & make a quicker car remains to be seen.

I was also there to witness the sacking of Montezemolo. It was interesting
to watch the Fiat helicopter coming & going the day before & trying to
identify the passengers. He gave his farewell speech in the building site
that is the replacement building for the whole team. About 7-800 people had
to climb up 2 flights of scaffold & plank stairs to the 2nd floor where
there were electrical cables & bits of aircon trunking hanging down as well
as planks & tools lying around the floor. Thankfully no one was killed, as
he would have had to have taken the blame for that too. He received a great
reception though.
At my leaving ‘assesment’ with the section leader & DO manager, a grudging apology was given but the section leader kept his eyes staring at the floor the whole time…

The Emilia Romagna region is a fertile area for grapes, fruit & veg, as well
as being the region where Parma ham, Parmesan cheese & Balsamic vinegar is
produced & there is no shortage of good restaurants.
The area provides clay for the many ceramics factories. Partly flat, within
10 minutes drive of Maranello you start to go up in the mountains towards
Tuscany, where there is some magnificent scenery.

After a slow start, the sightseeing progressed well, with most weekends
being taken up with visits to Rome, Rimini, Lake Garda, Lake Como, Venice,
Bologna, Modena, La Spezia, Tuscany, San Marino & Portofino. So my plan was
largely successful & the late summer weather was beautiful, having changed
from the worst summer in living memory, just before I arrived. Couldn't be
better! And another great drive home through the South of France & Swiss
mountains & visits to friends In Frankfurt & Paris.

So all in all, a mixed bag of experiences but I'm very glad I did it.

Been there, done that, got the jock strap.

I'm back at Williams now, doing wacky vehicles again!

Nice story, as Italian working in the car industry I'm not surprised about your impressions
How long time did you manage to stay in Maranello?
Does ferrari F1 pays better then the production side of the business?

[MKSixer]

Originally Posted by prompt

Nice story, as Italian working in the car industry I'm not surprised about your impressions
How long time did you manage to stay in Maranello?
Does ferrari F1 pays better then the production side of the business?

To be clear, these are not my recollections. They are from a person whom I'm acquainted with on another motorsports board. The detailed dysfunction gave me the idea to start this thread.

Cheers-mk

[MKSixer]

Originally Posted by racerbruce

Growing up in SoCal, a hotbed of motorsport, was incredible. I used to go to Friday and Saturday night drag races "under the lights" at Carlsbad Raceway in northern San Diego county. I witnessed one of the first sub-8 second runs by a Top Fuel Dragster and one of the first 200 MPH passes (today's Top Fuel car runs 3,7 seconds @ 330 MPH and the track is limited to 1,000 ft instead of the customary 1,320 ft which is 1/4 mile). Carlsbad became an internationally acclaimed outdoor motocross track as well and was the US home of the USGP FIM 500 CC motocross "world guys" from Europe, with last names some of you may remember such as DeCoster, Wolsink, Mikkola, Aberg, Lackey, etc.

I became deeply involved in off-road motorcycle riding and would also travel to the Borrego Desert at Ocotillo Wells where I rode desert as well. My skills and performance level of bikes progressed and I began competing in the 250 CC class in the sanctioned California Motocross Club series. I competed at two tracks: Carlsbad Raceway and Saddleback Park in Orange County. Carlsbad was the closest track to me and it became my "home" track, It was entirely surreal to be riding and competing on the same track that the USGP was held, and to know the world's best motocross factory racers (that was not me!) competed at.

The start of a motocross race is beyond hyper....many of you know there is a long "gate" that is just a little shorter in height than your front tire diameter, and is long or wide enough for about 30 bikes for the launch. My race bike was a 1975 Yamaha YZ 250 2-stroke with a 5 speed transmission and cutting edge monoshock rear suspension. It came with the "right stuff" from the factory that included a 21 inch diameter front rim, 18 inch rear aluminum rims, knobby race tires, small aluminum gas tank, plastic fenders, very wide motocross handlebars, side plates for racing numbers, racing designed expansion chamber exhaust, no kickstand, etc, etc. There is nothing like the power band of 2-stroke technology and when it "came on the pipe"....it was an absolute rocket.

Describing the start of the race or "launch" is beyond hyper. You and 29 others are lined up at the gate with engines off while the riders that just launched complete their race, As that race ends, the starter walks onto the track about 100 ft in front of you and waves their arm in a circle to start your bikes. You kick-start your bike and the sound of 30 2-stroke race machines fills the air. Here's where it gets crazy....you are so crammed in that the ends of your handlebars are literally touching the riders next to you; the noise from the bikes is so loud (even with your helmet on) that you literally cannot hear your bike running....and every time you blip the throttle, you can feel the bike vibrating between your legs; the starter then holds up a large board with "30" on it....this is 30 seconds before launch....and then the starter turns the 30 board sideways indicating 15 seconds to launch....and then the starter runs for the sidelines; you begin a mental countdown and appx 5 seconds before the gate drops to launch 30 race bikes, you pull in the clutch and click down and find 1st gear, and then you move from the saddle and literally put your crotch about 1/3 onto the gas tank to weight the front wheel so you don't flip over....and then you lean over the handlebars and stare intently at the gate and blank everything else out....and you move the throttle to WFO (many of you know that this means)....when the gate drops you are at wide open throttle and you literally let the clutch go to full release and you are LAUNCHED....the adrenalin and negotiating with 29 other racers as you wildly accelerate and find a way through the first turn is just insane; riders go down in front of you, beside you, etc and you are just trying to stay upright....and alive.

Remember, this is the home track for the USGP with incredibly difficult sections and a crazy climb up this huge hill, with a 180 degree very tight right hand turn at the top with a huge bermed corner; you would approach the turn at speed, slam into the berm and rocket off the turn and start down the hill to the infamously named "Carlsbad Freeway" downhill section; about 1/2 way down this very steep hill, the track literally dropped away for a bit and you would free-fall at a very high rate of speed; you had to make adjustments of where your weight was on the bike and to ensure the front of the bike was "up" so you didn't go over the handlebars....I'll never forget that early in one of my races, I over-compensated pulling the front wheel up and I was not that far from going over backwards....at a high rate of speed....at the fastest part of the track; I remember seeing spectators at the fence start running away from the fence thinking I was going to eat it and in a very big way....I found a way to push the handlebars down and get the geometry back into a non-life threatening landing.

I went to practice areas near my home at least once a week, was lifting weights and running a lot to stay in shape so I could negotiate the 2-stroke racing machine.

http://www.carlsbadraceway.org/MX.html

This is me, just a few years ago....
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Amazing story, Bruce!!

This is the most detailed description I've ever seen about motorcycle racing and the stress, danger, as well as your riding style!! WFO...love it!

Keep them coming!!