Burnouts and staging.

Remember us talking about routine? Well here it is again! plan your burnout, I don't care how you do it just have a plan. Some people have a count (This is what I do), Some people look back to see smoke, Some people do short burnouts, some do long burnouts. I don't care how you do it but do it the same way every time. As you pull to the line find the spot you've chosen and line up into it lineup and make sure to feel as straight as possible.

Now here is the biggest importance on the starting line: Routine. Believe it or not I've watched video on every single racer in the SDBA. The biggest fault I've seen is inconsistent staging. Stage the same way every time! I've seen some of yall shallow stage then go deep the next round. Some prestage, let the other guy stage and then roll in and never stop rolling and go red or get lucky. So there's two parts to this. (A) find the point in the beams where you can react. As we all know, it is widely accepted that it takes .500 seconds for the human brain to see light and react. Our goal on the tree is to find a spot on the tree where we can leave and by the time it takes for .500 seconds to pass our bike is leaving. If you stage a 1/2" deeper or shallower your reaction will change. (B). stop yourself once you stage where you want.

Finding your spot. If you slow down and you look at the tree and you really concentrate, you can see 4 part of each light as the tree falls. Lets use the third bulb as an example. This is where you find your reaction time. the part of the light are as the light starts to come on, as the light is at its brightest, as the light is dimming down, and the short moment between the light and the next. If you leave when the bulb is brightest and you cut a .620 (also known as a .120) leave when the light starts to come on. If you leave at the brightest point and you redlight try leaving as the bulb dims. Play with it find where works best for you.

Now for my biggest pet peeve, rolling. Lets talk about stance, Most of you stage with your legs behind you near the pegs. This is a horrible decision. Your legs are dragging to try and stop the bike from rolling. On wheelie bar bikes this can be okay as most bar bikes have the rear brake as a lever on the handle bars. Street bikes don't. Look at the pictures below and ill show you. The first pic is Ken Schwartz. Notice his leg position. like I said its okay for him to do this as he has a handle bar brake and can keep himself stopped this way. I see a ton of people on street bikes who stage with their legs back there. The best place to keep your footing is with your legs and feet in front of you and then transition to the pegs after the leave.

Now lets look at Dustin Lee staging notice his stage and then the next picture how quickly he transitions

Keeping your feet and legs forward allows you to keep your strongest muscles from rolling forward. I always prestage, I put my feet out as far as I can with my heels touching the track and then I slowly roll in from heel to flat footed until I turn on the stage bulb and then I stop.

The last thing I want to touch on is when to go on the two step. If its bracket racing and I'm the faster bike, I prestage, stage, and as soon as their lights start to come down I go on the two step. If its a bracket race and I'm the slower bike I prestage, let them prestage, get on the twostep then roll in. If its an index race I do the same as if I'm the slower bike in a bracket race.