Motorcycle racing
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Motorcycle racing (also known as Moto racing and Bike racing) is a motorcycle sport involving racing motorcycles. The FIM is the international sanctioning body for motorcycle racing and most nations have their own governing bodies. Other breakaway/independent bodies exist on both a national and an international level.
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[edit] Categories
The FIM classifies motorcycle racing in the following four main categories.[1] Each category has several sub categories.
[edit] Road racing
Road racing is the racing of motorcycles on tarmac. Races can take place either on purpose-built racing circuits or on closed public roads.
[edit] Motorcycle Grand Prix
Grand Prix motorcycle racing refers to the premier category of motorcycle road racing.It is divided into three distinct classes: 125 cc, 250 cc and MotoGP. Grand prix motorcycles are purpose-built racing machines that are neither available for general purchase nor can be legitimately ridden on public roads.
[edit] Superbike racing
Superbike racing is a category of motorcycle road racing that employs modified production motorcycles. Superbike racing motorcycles must have four stroke engines of between 800cc and 1200cc for twins, and between 750cc and 1000cc for four cylinder machines. The motorcycles must maintain the same profile as their roadgoing counterparts. The overall appearance, seen from the front, rear and sides, must correspond to that of the bike homologated for use on public roads.
[edit] Supersport racing
Supersport racing is another category of motorcycle road racing that employs modified production motorcycles. To be eligible for Supersport racing, a motorcycle must have a four-stroke engine of between 400 and 600cc for four-cylinder machines, and between 600 and 750 cc for twins, and must satisfy the FIM homologation requirements. Supersport regulations are much tighter than Superbikes. Supersport machines must remain largely as standard, while engine tuning is possible but tightly regulated.
[edit] Endurance racing
Endurance racing is a category of motorcycle road racing which is meant to test the durability of equipment and endurance of the riders. Teams of multiple riders attempt to cover a large distance in a single event. Riders are given the ability to change during the race. Endurance races can be run either to cover a set distance in laps as quickly as possible, or to cover as much distance as possible over a preset amount of time.
[edit] Sidecar racing
Sidecar racing is a category of sidecar road racing. Older sidecar road racers generally resembled solo motorcycles with a platform attached, modern racing sidecars are purpose built low and long vehicles. In sidecar racing a rider and a passenger work together to make the machine perform.
[edit] True road racing
- See also: Isle of Man TT
- See also: North West 200
[edit] Motocross
The direct equivalent of road racing, but off road - i.e. a number of bikes on a closed circuit racing. motocross (or just MX) circuits are constructed on a variety of non tarmac surfaces (sand, mud, grass, etc but tend to incorporate elevation changes either natural or artificial). Advances in motorcycle technology (especially suspension) have led to the predominance of circuit with added "jumps" on which bikes can get airborne. Motocross has another noticeable difference from road race (as well as jumps) in that the starts are done en mass, alongside each other, propelling around 40 riders into the first corner in a "destruction derby" fashion. The winner is the first rider across the line (generally after a given amount of time or laps or combination)
Motocross has a plethora of classes based upon machine displacement (typically 125 cc/250Fcc MX2 or MX Lites and 250 cc/450Fcc MX1 or MX), age of competitor (typically for youth), sidecars, quads/ATVs, ability and machine age (classic for pre 1965/67, Twinshock for bikes with two shock absorbers, etc).
[edit] Supercross
Supercross (or SX) is simply indoor motocross. Noted it is in doors Supercross is also more technical and rhythm like to riders. Typically situated in a variety of stadiums and open or closed arenas, it is notable for its numerous jumps. In North America this has been turned into an extremely popular spectator sport, regally filling large baseball stadiums, leading to Motocross being now termed the "outdoors". However, in Europe it is less popular, as the predominate focus there is on Motocross.
[edit] Supermoto
Supermoto is a racing category that is a crossover between road-racing and motocross. The motorcycles are mainly motocross types with road-racing tyres. The racetrack is a mixture of road and dirt courses (in different proportions) and can take place either on closed circuits or in temporary venues (such as urban locations).
The riding style on the tarmac section is noticeably different from other forms of tarmac-based racing, with different line in corners, sliding of the back wheel around the corner, and using the leg straight out to corner (as opposed to the noticeable touching of the bent knee to the tarmac of road racers).
[edit] Enduro and Cross-country
[edit] Enduro
Enduro is a form of off road motorcycle sport that primarily focuses on the endurance of the competitor. In the most traditional sense ("Time Card Enduros"), competitors complete a 10+ mile lap, of predominately off road going, often through forestry. The lap is made up of different stages, each with a target time to complete that stage in exactly, there are penalties for being early and late, thus the goal is to be exactly "on time". Some stages are deliberately "tight", others are lax allowing the competitor to recuperate. There are also a variety of special tests, on variety of terrain to further aid classification, these are speed stages where the fastest time is desired. A normal event lasts for 3 to 4 hours, although longer events are not uncommon. Some events, particularly national and world championship events take place over several days, requiring the competitors motorcycles to kept securely and thus any maintenance work has to be carried out within a very limited window of time or during the event.
There is a World Enduro Championship (WEC) that has events across Europe, with a few excursions to North America. The most significant event in the Enduro calendar is the International Six Day Enduro ISDE (formerly the ISDT), where countries enter teams of riders (i.e. Enduro's "World Cup"), as well as club teams - the event combines amateur sport with the professional level sport, it also takes place in a much more geographically dispersed range of locations.
In addition to traditional Time Card Enduros held over a long lap, a variety of other forms of sport have been taken up; notably "Short Course Enduros", a shorter (in lap length) form of Time Card Enduros Hare scrambles and "Hare and Hounds".
[edit] Cross-Country Rally
Cross-Country Rally are much bigger than enduros. Typically using larger bikes than other off road sports, these events take place over many days, travelling hundreds of miles across primarily open off road terrain. The most famous example is the Dakar Rally, travelling from Western Europe (often Paris) to Dakar in Senegal, via the Sahara desert, taking almost two weeks. A FIM World Rally championship also exists encompassing many events across the world, typically in desert nations. These events often run alongside "car" rallys (under the FIA).
[edit] Track racing
Track racing is a form of motorcycle racing where teams or individuals race opponents around an oval track. There are differing variants, with each variant racing on a different surface type.
[edit] Indoor Short Track and TT Racing
Indoor races consist of either a polished concrete floor with coke syrup or other media sprayed or mopped onto the concrete for traction for the tyres of the motorcycles, or on dirt that has been moistened and hard packed, or left loose often called a cushion. Motorcycles race on an oval track, or over a single jump with a right hand turn called a TT track. Similar to size of the Arenacross Arenas or sometimes smaller the riders must have accurate throttle control to negotiate these tight Indoor Race Tracks.
[edit] Speedway
Speedway racing takes place on a flat oval track usually consisting of dirt or loosely packed shale. Competitors use this surface to slide their machines sideways (powersliding or broadsiding) into the bends using the rear wheel to scrub-off speed while still providing the drive to power the bike forward and around the bend.
[edit] Grass Track
Grasstrack is "outdoor" speedway. The track are longer (400 m+, hence it is often also refereed to as Long Track at world level), often on grass (although other surfaces exist) and even feature elevation changes. Machinery is very similar to a speedway bike (still no brakes, but normally two gears, etc).
[edit] Ice Speedway
Ice racing includes a motorcycle class which is the equivalent of Speedway on ice. Bikes race anti-clockwise around oval tracks between 260 and 425 metres in length. The race structure and scoring are similar to Speedway.
[edit] Board track
Board track racing was a type of track racing popular in the United States between the second and third decades of the 20th century, where competition was conducted on oval race courses with surfaces composed of wooden planks. By the early 1930s, board track racing had fallen out of favor, and into eventual obsolescence.
[edit] Auto Race
Auto Race is a Japanese version of track racing held on an asphalt oval course and seen as a gambling sport.
[edit] Other categories
[edit] Drag Racing / Sprints
Drag racing and/or sprints is a racing venue where two participants line up at a dragstrip with a signaled starting line. Upon the starting signal, the riders accelerate down a straight, quarter-mile long paved track where their elapsed time and terminal speed are recorded. The rider to reach the finish line first is the winner. This can occur upon purpose built venues (e.g., Santa Pod), temporary venues (e.g., runways or drives of country houses). In addition to "regular" motorcycles, top fuel motorcycles also compete in this category.
[edit] Hill Climb
In hill climbing, a single rider climbs or tries to climb a road going up a hill in the fastest time and/or the furthest up the hill before ceasing forward motion. Tarmac events are typically on closed public roads and private roads. The same concept is also used off-tarmac, usually on steeper hills.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
[edit] Sanctioning bodies
- Fédération Internationale de Motocyclismo (FIM) - World governing body
- Motorcycling Australia (MA)- Australian Governing Body
- Auto Cycle Union - UK governing body
- American Motorcyclist Association (AMA) - US governing body
- Motosport South Africa (MSA) - South African governing body
- Federation Francaise de moto (FFM) - French governing body
- MCUI Southern Centre - "governing body of motor cycle sport in Leinster, Munster and Connacht" (i.e., Republic of Ireland)
[edit] Misc
- Motor Circuit Racing control board, organisers of the British Superbike Championship
- Racesafe, British Superbike Marshals' organisation
- Motorcycle-Glossary.com Motorcycle Glossary.
- 300 curves of Gustav Havel - traditional road race in Horice, Czech Republic. Also known as Czech Tourist Trophy. News, photos, videos, riders
