Motorcycle Racing News

INTRODUCTION:

Motorcycle racing, also called moto racing and bike racing, is a motorcycle sport of racing motorcycles. Major genres include road racing and off road racing, both either on circuits or open courses, and track racing. Other categories include hill climbs, drag racing and land speed record trials.

ROAD RACING:

Motorcycle 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.

MOTORCYCLE GRAND PRIX:

Grand prix motorcycles are prototype machines not based on any production motorcycle.

Grand Prix motorcycle racing refers to the premier category of motorcycle road racing. It is divided into three distinct classes:

MotoGP — 1000 cc four-stroke.

Moto2 — Introduced by Dorna Sports, the commercial rights holder of the competition, in 2010 as a 600 cc four-stroke class. Prior to that season, the intermediate class was 250 cc with two-stroke engines. Moto2 races in the 2010 season allowed both engine types; from 2011 on, only the four-stroke Moto2 machines were allowed.

Moto3 — Introduced in 2012, motorcycles in this class are 250 cc with four-stroke engines. Previously it featured 125 cc two-stroke motorcycles. This class is also restricted by rider age, with an upper limit of 25 for newly signed riders and wild card entries and an absolute upper limit of 28 for all riders.

SUPER BIKE RACING:

 

Motorcycle Racing

Super bike racing is a category of motorcycle road racing that employs modified production motorcycles. Super bike racing motorcycles must have four stroke engines of between 800 cc and 1200 cc for twins, and between 750 cc and 1000 cc 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.

 

SUPER SPORT RACING:

Motorcycle Racing

Super sport racing is another category of motorcycle road racing that employs modified production motorcycles. To be eligible for Super sport racing, a motorcycle must have a four-stroke engine of between 400 and 600 cc 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 Super bikes. Super sport machines must remain largely as standard, while engine tuning is possible but tightly regulated.

 

ENDURANCE:

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.
TRUE ROAD RACING:

True road racing is run on tracks built from closed public and/or park roads and sometimes extra pieces of purpose built track. In the past true road racing was very commonplace but today few races have survived and even fewer have been added. Only one truly international championship exists at present by the name of "International Road Racing Championship" (IRRC). Most races are held within Europe. Ireland is probably the country with the most true road racing circuits still in use. The Isle of Man probably has the most tracks per inhabitant or surface area. Other countries where true road races are held are the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Great Britain, the Czech Republic, New Zealand and Macau.


MOTOCROSS OR MX:

Motorcycle Racing

Motocross (or MX) is the direct equivalent of road racing, but off road, a number of bikes racing on a closed circuit. Motocross circuits are constructed on a variety of non-tarmac surfaces such as dirt, sand, mud, grass, etc., and tend to incorporate elevation changes either natural or artificial. Advances in motorcycle technology, especially suspension, have led to the predominance of circuits with added "jumps" on which bikes can get airborne. Motocross has another noticeable difference from road racing, in that starts are done en masse, with the riders alongside each other. Up to 40 riders race into the first corner, and sometimes there is a separate award for the first rider through. The winner is the first rider across the finish line, generally after a given amount of time or laps or a combination. Motocross has a plethora of classes based upon machine displacement (ranging from 50cc 2-stroke youth machines up to 250cc 2-stroke and 450cc 4-stroke), age of competitor, ability of competitor, sidecars, quads/ATVs, and machine age (classic for pre 1965/67, Twinshock for bikes with two shock absorbers, etc.).

SUPERCROSS OR SX:

Motorcycle Racing

 Supercross (or SX) is simply indoor motocross. Supercross is 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, 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.
SUPERMOTO:

 

Motorcycle Racing

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 and can take place either on closed circuits or in temporary venues.


 

ENDURO AND CROSS-COUNTRY:

ENDURO:

Motorcycle Racing

  

Enduro is a form of off road motorcycle sport that primarily focuses on the endurance of the competitor. In the most traditional sense , 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 and require maintenance work to be carried out within a limited time window or while the race is running. To prevent circumvention of the maintenance restrictions, the motorcycles are kept overnight in secure storage.

HARE SCRAMBLE:

Hare scramble is the name given to a particular form of off-road motorcycle racing. Traditionally a hare scramble can vary in length and time with the contestants completing multiple laps around a marked course through wooded or other rugged natural terrain. The overall winner is the contestant who maintains the highest speed throughout the event. In Florida, Hare scrambles start the race with a staggered starting sequence. Once on the course, the object of the competitor is to complete the circuit as fast as possible. The race consists of wooded areas and/or open fields.

CROSS-COUNTRY RALLY: 

Cross-Country Rally events 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.
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.

 INDOOR 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). Similar to size of the Arenacross Arenas or sometimes smaller the riders must have accurate throttle control to negotiate these tight Indoor Race Tracks.
SPEEDWAY RACING:

Speedway racing takes place on a flat oval track usually consisting of dirt or loosely packed shale, using bikes with a single gear and no brakes. 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.

GRASS TRACK RACING:

Grasstrack is "outdoor" speedway. The track are longer (400 m+, hence it is often also referred to as Long Track at world level), often on grass and even feature elevation changes. Machinery is very similar to a speedway bike.

ICE RACING:  

 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.

BOARD TRACK RACING:

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.

AUTO RACE:

Auto Race is a Japanese version of track racing held on an asphalt oval course and seen as a gambling sport.

Motorcycle Racing News