For those who don't know, CLASS is a rider school put on by Reg Pridmore, former world champ AMA superbike roadracer. His son Jason, last year's AMA 750 champ is in the running for the AMA superbike championship this year. Jason didn't attend the CLASS this year, he was racing in Colorado. However, Reg did his usual job of teaching and entertaining at the same time.

The class begins with an orientation where Reg goes over his riding philosophy. He basically intructs you to ride the track slowly and practice on your form, something that's hard to do. His feeling is if you think about what you're doing and work on the basics you'll get more out of your time on the track. He divides the riders into two groups, "A", more experienced riders and "B", beginning riders, or those who have not run CLASS before.

This was my second CLASS so I ran with the "A" group this time. You can go as fast as you like with either group, but with the A's there's less time screwing around and more time on the track. I had a hard time sleeping the night before so I kept my speeds down. I slowed way down on the straightaway so anyone behind me could go around, then I worked on my cornering. I had three goals for this CLASS:

1. Work on my gearing. At WLTD #1 in May (was it May?) I had a hard time keeping track of what gear I was in and remembering which gear to use for which turn. I made a deliberate effort this time by saying, out loud into my helmet, the gears as I went through them. It seems like a dumb thing to have to do but when you spend 100% of your concentration on a turn it's easy to forget which gear you're in. I improved a lot on this one.

2. Work on my form. Also at WLTD I had a hard time keeping in form. Let's face it, WLTD was a free-for-all, at least for me. It was fun, but I didn't work on anything. I just zoomed around like a friggin' idiot. The $250.00 fee for CLASS seems like a lot, but the hands-on instruction you get from guys like Reg or Jason is invaluable. After talking with Reg I learned to keep my lean pointed right and my vision straight. Reg's whole approach is body steering. You run the whole bike with your body, not with the handlebars. It's the complete opposite of the Superbike School approach. Once I figured out what Reg was talking about it felt really natural. I improved in this area more than any other.

3. Work on my lean. One thing I got out of WLDT #1 was that A) my suspension sucks, and B) if I don't want to drag my pegs I need to lean off the bike better. It seems easy right? You just lean off the bike more. Wrong. The amount you lean is a function of how fast you're going. If you lean off while you're going too slow you'll low-side. If you don't lean enough you'll catch a peg or pipe or worse. At first my goal was to drag my knee. Ok, dumb goal but what that really means is I want to go fast enough to need to drag my knee, and I want to lean correctly to avoid dragging parts of the bike. Anyway, by the end of the day I could drag my knee on just about any left hand turn (S.I.R. is counter-clockwise), but I'm having trouble with my right. One more day on the track and I should be O.K.

Overall it was a great day. I'm braking at least a full second later than I used to on a couple of turns and I have more room to go still. By gaining some confidence and braking later I was sling-shotting around those guys that blasted me on the straights. It feels good when you do it right! I kept it really slow because I got about 4 hours of sleep the night before and I was pretty groggy. Funny how you feel wide awake once the adreneline hits you, but nevertheless I didn't push it. My new tires, Michelins this time, worked great. They feel a little better than the Dunlop 204's, and the street compound is definitely harder, but at my level they're perfect for me.

For anyone taking CLASS in the future I can recommend a few things. First, pay attention to what they tell you. If you don't think about what you're doing you won't learn anything and you can't repeat it. You don't need to be going fast to learn the basics. In fact, the faster you go the less you'll notice and the less you'll learn. Second, bug the hell out of the instructors. Reg and Jason are the best source for info and they're very willing to help. Ask the other instructors too. They each have a different riding style and approach each corner differently than one another. If you get a couple of viewpoints it helps you form your own. Reg usually has a philosophical answer for you. If you ask which gear to be in on turn 2, he'll ask you which gear you feel most comfortable with on turn 2. It makes you think about it.

Next week is California Superbike School from Keith Code. I'll be in level 2 this time. I'll put up the report next week!