Extreme asphalt education

Are you satisfied with your riding ability?  What if you could spend two days with a team of top professional racers, whose goal was to make you substantially better and faster?  Would you do it if the price was only double what you’d spend to participate in a regular trackday weekend?

For many of us, the cost / value ratio of most racing schools is a bit tough to swallow.  Sure, you’re riding at a world-class venue and eating a catered lunch cooked by professional chefs.  Yes, you’re hanging out with people who are very famous and very fast.  (Or not, if the school’s namesake doesn’t bother to show up that weekend…)  In the bargain, you’re told what it takes to ride quickly and you get to participate in a limited-attendance trackday.  You can spend upwards of two grand on such an exciting adventure.  The problem is that attending such an event might not actually cause you to improve very much as a rider.

If what you desire from a race school is an intense, no-frills, boot camp of high performance riding technique that will unquestionably make you faster, then 2011 Daytona 200 winner Jason DiSalvo’s new Speed Academy is for you.  This affordable, no-frills course is about you, sportbikes and speed.  You’ll spend $895 for a two-day whirlwind of intense instruction, which is about the same amount of cash you’d give for a pair of trackday weekends at a premium racecourse.  The venue for Speed Academy is Talladega GP; a track that is long on technical challenge but woefully lacking in high-end features like sculpture or world-class landscaping.  Lunch?  You’ll be eating Subway sandwiches and might even get some chips on the side.  Hey, good enough for Jerrod is good enough for Jason and besides; you’ll be so engrossed in the video review and critique session that takes place while you eat each day that you won’t taste the food anyway.  Think Speed Academy, not Special Amenities, and you’ll be on the right track.  Over the course of this program, you’ll be pushed mentally and physically.  Literally, you won’t have a moment to yourself.  This is not an event which you attend as a lark or for bragging rights.  Come prepared to work and be sure to bring your highest expectations.  This ain’t no game, son.  It’s school.  If you’ve come to learn, you won’t be disappointed.

Speed Academy is unlike anything else out there.  Jason DiSalvo has come up with a fresh way to ride that takes full advantage of today’s modern equipment and tires.  His techniques essentially drive a stake through the heart of the Cult of Countersteering; which means that to become a DiSalvo disciple, you’ll have to completely rethink what you know about high performance riding.  New age babble?  Quite the opposite.  Jason’s concepts work and his Speed Academy is filled with drills that prove it.  You’d better be ready to work for your newfound skills because this school is the real thing and your complete participation is not just expected but actually demanded.  With a student to instructor ratio of  4.25 to 1 and constant video review, you’ll get perhaps more critique than you’ll be comfortable with at first.  That’s OK though.  Leathers were designed to cover thin skin and at any rate, the rest of your fellow students will be in the same boat.

So what is the magic secret of Jason DiSalvo’s riding technique?  Countersteering, the Holy Grail of race school doctrine for the past two decades, isn’t really discussed.  Instead, DiSalvo maintains that you steer the motorcycle with your body weight and the front brake lever.  Lean angle is the enemy, since it steals traction.  This simple concept is the basis of Speed Academy but in practice, there’s a lot more involved.  The techniques used to implement Jason’s method and the drills used to drive it home are different from anything we’ve ever experienced. Combine this with the personalized, almost loving attention that each student receives and you’ve got a learning experience unequalled in our sport.

At most schools, you receive a lecture about a certain aspect of riding and then are sent out to try it.  Maybe you’ll get the technique right or maybe you won’t.  Perhaps you’ll decide not to attempt what’s been suggested and just ride laps instead. (This often happens when a rider feels intimidated by a new technique and thus is hesitant to try it.)    Back in class, you’ll gather with your schoolmates and nod with feigned enthusiasm when the instructor asks you if that last drill helped.  This is not the way Speed Academy works.  Imagine a drill that has you ripping down-track at 100+ mph; your path blocked by the flesh, blood and bone of a quartet of the country’s best racers, who are bending and squinting to study the telltale action of your forks as you brake!  The instant you come to a stop among your teachers, you receive one-on-one feedback.  Obviously, if you run one of them over, you’ll be asked to redo the exercise…  Hey, this isn’t even the craziest thing you’ll be asked to do at Speed Academy and you can expect such up close and personal critique at every step of the journey.

Classroom lecture is a big part of any school environment.  The two chief instructors for Speed Academy are Jason DiSalvo and Brian Stokes.  The dynamic between these two is simply incredible.  They share the teaching spotlight with seamless teamwork and contrasting styles that blend together perfectly.  Jason is the energetic, enthusiastic cheerleader of the two; full of vigor and a “You can do it” attitude.  Brian has a “Talk slow, ride fast” teaching style that is both very Southern and very easy to respect.  When either speaks, you’ve no doubt whatsoever that any and all bullshit has long since been distilled from the message which they are providing, while the contrast in their delivery and the pair’s fantastic ability to hand off to one another keeps you engaged with the curriculum at  all times.  To back these grizzled vets, rising stars Garrett Gerloff and Kyle Wyman assist both off track and on while impressing us all with their frightful velocity and youthful immortality.  We couldn’t help but observe that DiSalvo and Stokes might be better served by drowning these lads in the creek off Talladega GP’s Turn Two, rather than mentoring and encouraging them…

Speed Academy’s on-track action is different from what you’d expect.  While open lapping and lead-follow sessions (the staples of most schools) do occur at times throughout both days, at least half of the riding is done “Superpole style.”  You’re waved off alone by a starter, gather speed, proceed to a given spot on the track, perform the specified action required in the given drill before a group of instructors, receive feedback on the spot and then complete the lap to await another chance.  A student rolls off about once every twenty seconds, which keeps the exercise moving right along.  You get three or four attempts in each drill session.  The open track and lead-follow sessions are interspersed throughout the day to reinforce what you’ve learned.  While this does limit the amount of riding you get to do, it prevents your on-bike time from being just another opportunity to practice your usual riding style.  Once you’ve focused on a specific technique and performed it for your teachers, you almost can’t wait to feature it in your next set of flying laps.  We actually found ourselves easily ignoring the temptation to dice it up with other students so that we could spend more time working on technique.  The stuff we were learning was just that fascinating!

Perhaps the most inspiring aspect of this school is its personal, intimate feel.  With just eighteen students and four instructors in the mix, everybody is quickly on a first name basis.  Face-to-face, real time critique is supplemented by on-bike video, shot using GoPro cameras.  Athena data loggers are also used, providing a GPS-based record that shows just exactly what each student is doing.  Your triumphs and goof-ups are right there for everyone to see.  Horrible as this may seem when you read it, in practice it actually works to bond the group together.  Coaches and students form a team of twenty two riders striving as one to make progress and in the end, everyone learns from each other’s mistakes.  You wouldn’t think that such a system could work but it does, brilliantly.  The reason is twofold.  First, these instructors are so talented as riders and so good at teaching that you can’t help being humbled by them.  Once stripped of your ego, you can truly learn what they have to teach you.  The second ingredient is that these top racers don’t bring any attitude to the party.  DiSalvo, Stokes, Gerloff and Wyman are four of the nicest, most personable guys you’ll ever meet.  As a student, you’ll actually find yourself trying your hardest to please them with your performance.  It’s one teacher in a million who can inspire that kind of loyalty in a student and Speed Academy has four such educators on staff.

The sense of family and camaraderie born while class is in session continues after hours.  When Jason and the staff head out to dinner at the end of the first day, they make sure to tell everyone where they’re planning to go.  Given the chance, who wouldn’t go out to eat with Jason DiSalvo, Brian Stokes, Kyle Wyman and Garrett Gerloff? What you don’t expect to happen is that by the time the school is over, these riders have begun to seem more like friends than teachers.  Chalk that up to the love these riders feel for their sport and the genuine enthusiasm they have for sharing what they’ve learned with the rest of us.

One outstanding extra which was offered at this first Speed Academy event was that each rider also got to work with Brad Stokes, brother to instructor Brian and an employee of Ohlins USA.  In addition to adjusting every bike’s suspension, Brad also addressed the class on the second day.  His lecture covered plenty of ground; all of which was suspension related.  Honestly, we’d have been happy to attend a whole separate school, completely dedicated to Brad and the wealth of knowledge he possesses.  This part of the program will be offered as often as Brad is available.

Speed Academy is not for the weak.  If you’re looking to hobnob with famous racers while participating in a casual trackday, look elsewhere.  Unlike events of that ilk, it takes a certain amount of focus and commitment on your part to get the most out of this school.  Having completed the first day, we were both mentally and physically wiped out, yet as we sipped our morning energy drink and conversed with fellow students before the second day got started, we noticed a funny thing. We weren’t the only ones already thinking about wanting to take the school again.   How could this be?  The truth is that you simply couldn’t absorb as much information as these racers are sharing in only a single attendance.  The average rider’s ability to comprehend, process and implement just doesn’t move as quickly as these guys can teach.  You’re left with the lovely dilemma of absorbing what you can, going home to practice what you’ve learned and eventually coming back for another helping of knowledge, critique and assistance.  By the time Day Two was over, the Speed Academy crew was scrambling to figure out what they could offer in the way of return student and buddy discounts.  Even they hadn’t been able to foresee how in love with the program their first attendees would be.

Editors David Vaughn and K3 Chris Onwiler will forever be able to claim membership in the first graduating class of Speed Academy alumni.  Without question, they’re both DiSalvo disciples now and can’t wait for the next opportunity to get to the track and practice what they’ve learned.  After more than a decade each of racing, writing and coaching, our editors have found a brand new direction to explore from the seat of a sportbike.  If a pair of stubborn, old-school knee draggers like Dave and K3 could learn a whole bag of new tricks from this school, imagine what DiSalvo’s program would be worth to someone with less experience?   If you’re a racer or trackday rider looking to improve your skill set, Speed Academy offers the high velocity education that you crave.