| |
Building A Training & Practice
Supercross Track |
Start date 1989
Latest date of Revision, Up-date,
and/or Addition is 02-14-2005 |
| Purpose & Disclaimer |
| The purpose of this chapter “Building A
Training & Practice Supercross Track” is to aid the
off-road motorcycle rider and racer in the designing and
construction of their own track. It is our sincere hope that
by presenting this material we will give riders, racers, their
families, and race teams the information they need in its
design and construction. This chapter was developed to
assist in the learning process, however, we assume no
responsibility for the way you use this information. |
| Building Your Track |
| Having a quality built technical training
and practice Supercross track is an absolute necessity in
today’s advanced level of competition. Without one you
will not be able to compete at the level necessary to even
qualify in today’s raci41 market place. Keep in mind
that the majority of you do not know how to operate big earth
moving equipment let along how to design and construct a
highly technical training and practice Supercross track.
So remember there is a lot more to building a track like this
can you can imagine. You should know that the Supercross
does not care if you get hurt. Therefore designing
safety features into your track goes without saying.
With this in mind allow me to make this suggestion to
you. While you start the design work on building your
Supercross track at least call a qualified track build and
investigate what their constructions fees would be. You
have nothing to lose and everything to gain. So, let’s
talk for a moment about a track builder I know to be highly
qualified. |
| Having Your SX Track
Professionally Built |
| I want you to pay careful attention to this
paragraph and keep it in mind as you read on through this
chapter. Lonnie Taylor, a Pro
rider and professional track builder driving big earth moving
equipment for over 20-years is the individual who builds most
of the east coast Supercross and outdoor tracks for the
mid-states and east coast pros including Larry Ward and James
Povolny. He used existing dirt saving you anywhere from
450 to 550 tandem loads. What this means to you is a
large financial saving of dollars and cents. If you
could purchase a tandem load (12 cubic yards) of clay dirt for
$50.00 per load, 450 loads would coast you $22,500.00 and 550
tandem loads would coast you $27,500.00. And another
saving to you is he ability to landscapes and sets up water
drainage and conservation, while he builds your track.
He is very inexpensive. My best advice to you is to call
him and see what he would charge to build your professionally
Supercross track. His phone number is
910-850-8090. |
| Designing & Building Your
Supercross Track |
In this chapter you will learn the vital
role and the importance of a well designed and constructed
training and practice track. Nothing beats quality time
on the bike on a quality track. The guidelines set forth
in this chapter, the type of planning necessary, and the
methods of building your track is of great importance.
Having a great Supercross training track not only allows you
to learn and develop your raci41 skill levels but attracts
other Pro riders to come an ride your track. Watching
them ride and having the ability to train with them is nothing
less than a great benefit to you.
Remember this
success clue throughout your raci41 career or whatever job you
wind up doing. "Your Thinking Process is your best
Racing Weapon! And it is your best success weapon, as
well. Becoming the great student –means that you are
always be willing to learn more. Your thoughts dictate
your focus. And your focus becomes your reality.
Your reality is the direction of your growth and development
and your success in life. The choices you make dictate the
life you live. Follow your heart.” |
| Pre-Planning Information |
Let’s talk about planning for a
moment. Racers do not start out planning to fail but
they do start out failing to plan. So pay careful
attention. A well designed, constructed, and developed
plan is your road map. It will keep you on-course
allowing you to reach your destination. Great success
follows a great plan. Good success follows a good
plan. Poor success follows no plan. Planning is
the first step and action of any successful journey.
Without this step you will fail. I wonder why so many
good riders never recognize the need for a well planned and
constructed training and practice track to assist them in
reaching their necessary skill level development and raci41
goals. "Problem Recognition" is truly a major
weakness for most people, especially motocross riders. This
weak link, without a doubt, has cost too many good riders
their careers and potentially great riders, their
championships. This is a hard lesson to learn. It is not a
problem in our race college as we teach the art of careful
planning.
Most do not plan. It should not be this
way, but it is! Why is that? Maybe this chapter
will change, influence, and upgrade your "Thinking
Process". Learning to recognize problems before
they get started is a real advantage in reaching new goals and
heights. But just what is, "Problem
Recognition"? Let's start at the beginning.
The first rule of raci41 deals with "Problem
Recognition". It states; "Always evaluate your performance for
weak areas so you can improve them". Does this statement sound
familiar? "The top rider is always compelled to
evaluate his performance so he can apply what he has learned.
So he doesn't repeat the problem. And so he can escapes into
the solutions." So let me make a vulgar statement
that is a true today and it way yesterday; "You need a well
planned and constructed practice and training to properly and
purposefully develop your skill levels. The misconception in
the above is that you don't need a lot of land to do so; you
only need a small amount of land to do so.
At some
point in your MX raci41 career development you will decide to
build your own Outdoor National (NX), Grand Prix (GP),
Arenacross (AX), or Supercross (SX) race track. If
you are going to be and stay competitive with the top riders
of today you must have your own track to practice on and to
stay highly proficient. |
| Safety |
| This type of track does not care if you get
hurt therefore the first and for most important theme in
designing and building any Supercross track is;
"Safety"! Safe means the absence of Risk. But
nowhere on this planet is there an absence of risk so the word
safe must be replaced with the word “Risk Factor”. So
let’s discuss Risk Factor for a moment. |
| Risk Factor |
When you finally realize that every
activity, from sleeping to walking across the road, carries
with it a certain risk factor you will also realize that it is
important to reduce the “Risk Factor” in the
design and construction of your Supercross track.
Supercross training, practice and raci41 puts the rider
in a very high level of risk therefore risk management in your
design and construction requires your best efforts. The
first step in reducing the ”Risk Factor” is
the proper educational presentation on the risks involved in
Supercross practice and raci41 and how to lower them.
Designing and building safety features into each obstacle is a
very important consideration. Keep in mind that all
things are subject to the law of Cause and Effect and that
every action will produce a reaction. The place not to
discover this law is during actual practice or the race.
One of the best ways to construct a great Supercross track
comes from the acquired knowledge from many years of
experience in both raci41 and building.
So, let’s
take a moment and look at another profession who, at one time
had the highest risk factor in their operation and through
proper education reduced their risk factor to a level safer
than walking across the street.
Flight, at one time,
had a very high risk factor but, through education, training
standardization, and improved technology, it is now a low risk
factor. As a result of this effort, flying is one of the
safest ways to travel today. Building your Supercross
must logically fall into this level of educational
evolution. |
| Rider Risk Of Injury |
Keep in mind that the design and
construction of your track must allow for a minimum of
“rider risk of injury” situations during all
phases of your training and practice sessions. Yet, at
the same time, your practice and training track must be more
technical than those you will actually race on. Hence,
your training and practice track must be designed and built to
allow for:
1. Lower probabilities of rider risk of
injury
2. More technical than the actual race tracks
3.
And a place that allows training and practice
We,
therefore strongly recommend that you design your
training-practice track around the "Safety Of The
Rider". Safety comes first. We have always found that
"20-20 Hind sight" with respect to rider injury is always a
very painful teacher. But a well planned 20-20 foresight
system prevents the rider from experiencing those unwanted
20-20 Hind sight events. |
| Technical Designs |
What is meant by "Technical Designs"?
Technical designs, in their broadest since, means the design
and construction of obstacles, whether by themselves or
together in a section or group that challenges the rider
highest skill levels. This level of track demands that
you have an accurate and current designs, including the actual
plans of construction with their measurements that are
involved in building a Pro Supercross stadium track. You
may, at first, think that building a Supercross track would be
relatively easy and simple thing to do. It is not! It is very
demanding and requires your absolute attention, creativity,
and patients. Accurate and precise planning is the key.
Designing and drawing the track out in detail form is your
first planning step in its construction.
If this is
your first time in designing and building a Supercross track
that may I suggest that another useful step would be to go
onto the web and do a search for Supercross stadium designs
presently being used to learn from them. These existing
functional track designs will help teach you what to do and
what not to do. What comes first, second, and so on in their
construction. Also going to a stadium and watching
professional track builder build one is very helpful to you.
It will help answer the following questions:
1. In what
order or sequence is the track laid out and built.
2. What
type of dirt to use and where do I get it.
3. How many
loads or cubic yards of dirt it takes to build each
obstacle.
4. What slope angles are required for take off
ramps, landing ramps, and
when to use or
change those angles.
5. How to calculate slope
angles.
6. How to tell, show, and mark off obstacles so
that heavy equipment
operators can build
exactly what the plans, diagrams, or drawings call for.
7.
How much dirt cost per load or cubic yard.
8. How to slope
or plan water drainage for the land where the track is
being
build.
9. How to plan and
build an underground watering system for your track.
10.
Zoning and ordnances for the land for its construction.
11.
What type of heavy equipment is needed?
12. How much it
cost per hour.
13. How to keep and maintain the track after
it is build.
14. Landscaping and water management
As you can start to see from the above, planning and
building a track to the level that today's competition demands
takes time and money if it is to be done right and, at the
same time benefit you to its highest potential to do so.
It will be, in any ways challenging for you.
Where do
we start first? A suitable piece of land is needed first. You
may ask, how much land? Today's stadium SX tracks are
approximately 400' x 400' field in size. Actually, I have
found that you can build an excellent precision training and
practice track on 1.5 acre for NX or SX. But how does a
practice Supercross track fix into the total picture of
motocross racing? |
| Cross Training |
Part of the total picture deal with cross
training Supercross with other forms of raci41 such as outdoor
national and road raci41 or flat tracking. Mixing
or cross training them leads you to advantages you are not yet
aware of, but they are there, nevertheless. As an
example, Supercross lacks the speed found on the outdoor track
but it is filled with technical and complicated obstacles.
Each obstacle is demanding and requires correct execution in
order to enter the next. With obstacles always following,
requires the rider to always be constantly be alert, both for
the next up-coming obstacles and for other riders. One after
another, always one after another, there is no time to rest or
let you guard down. Twenty minutes of constant high energy
levels of alertness.
So, negotiating high densities of
both track obstacles and other riders determine your race
results. In fact how well you perform the next obstacle is
directly influenced by how well you performed the obstacle
before it. Supercross demands that the rider make as few to no
mistakes to keep his speed up during each lap. Hence,
Supercross teaches the rider perfection and precision. At no
time during each lap can a rider relax, sit back, and coast a
few seconds. All obstacles, like jumps, straight-a-way,
whoop-de-do's, or corner, are hocked together. How well you do
one is dependent on how well the did the one before it. That
is to say, how well you do the straight-away is dependent upon
how well you performed the previous corner, jump, whoop-de-do,
or table top. Supercross teaches you the attitude of mistake
free raci41.
Outdoor motocross allows a more relaxed
style. It is not as demanding. Don't get me wrong, it is
demanding, but to a much less extend than Supercross. Outdoor
raci41 is at a much greater or higher speed level compared to
Supercross. Outdoor motos are longer and requires much longer
levels of endurance. Supercross demands a combination of about
2/3 the endurance level of outdoor but a high level of
awareness and ability to successfully respond in close in
threshold speed level. Generally speaking a Supercross
moto is about one half that of outdoor moto.
Cross Training Considerations
And
that cross training mixing the Supercross precision,
perfection, and mistake-free raci41 with outdoors' speed, long
endurance levels, and relaxed atmosphere. If you are going to
be competitive and win titles you must have a practice
competitive Supercross track. But there is much more to cross
training other than just mixing Supercross with outdoor cross
(see the chapter on; "Cross Training"). |
| Getting Started |
Now, let’s get started in designing and
building your track. A sheet of graph paper is necessary
and to scale down to the blocks within the graph paper the
measurements of each track obstacle including
straight-a-ways. So, now let’s discuss the following
topics:
1. Dirt Fall Angles
2. Straight-a-ways
3.
Alleyways
4. Water Drainage
5. Packing (rolling) The
Launch & Landing Surfaces
6. Slope Angles & The
Bike's Suspension
7. Obstacles
1. Jumps
2. Double
Jumps
3. Rocket
Launches
4. Reverse Ski
Jump
5. Double and Triple Jumps
Launch and Landing ramp angles
6.
Triple Jumps
7. Training &
Practice Triple Jump
8.
Whop-de-dos
9. Table Tops
8.
Calculation Slope Angles For Launching and Landing
9. Slope
Charts For 10°, 15°, 20°, 30°, & 35° Slope Angles |
| Dirt Fall Angle |
Dirt fall angle is a term used to describe
the angle formed when the dirt is piled up on top of
itself. The dirt fall angle tells you how much dirt will
fall and extend out beyond your straight-a-way for any
specific dirt height. Once you have the angle of dirt
fall you can calculate a slope chart that will tell you
how much extra or wide the pile of dirt will be. So, it
tells you how much wider your straight-a-ways will be and how
much wider to plan for our alleyway.
Example
If the straight-a-ways are
20' wide, and the dirt fall is 5' wider (remember to calculate
5' dirt fall into the alleyway on either side of the obstacle)
and you want your alleyways to be 10' wide between
straight-a-ways.
Alleyways
Alleyways
depend of the amount taken up by the dirt fall distance and
the width of your heavy equipment. Most tractors are
about 7' wide but can go up to 8' wide if the equipment is
larger. I planned my alleyways to be 10' wide and plan
on 10’ total distance of dirt fall making the total distance
involved in dirt fall and alleyways to be about 20' plus or
minus a foot.
Like road highways, the straight-a-ways
should be slightly sloped both ways, from its mid-line, to
drain the rain water off into the alleyways. The slope
is approximately 2% either side of the straight-a-ways
mid-line allows for water drainage. I used a blade
attached to the back of my tractor to made this slope angle.
Water Drainage
Water allows flows
down hill. That is to say it flows from a high point to
a low point. Drainage should be calculated before track
construction begins. The alleyways are constructed to
carry the rainwater away from the straight-a ways and
obstacles and towards a predetermined place of water storage
to collect water run off. Axton, VA constructed a lake
in the middle of the track to catch the rain water, store it
to be used for track surface watering during the races.
You may want to consider the construction of a pond at the
lowest point on the land where the training track is located.
Straight-a-ways
If possible it
would be nice to have a 20' wide straight-a-way like the
Supercross tracks seen in Pro raci41. The cost in dirt
alone will double or triple the overall cost in its
construction. Using existing dirt here is a great
solution in reducing the cost factor involved in the dirt.
However wide you plan to built our practice track
straight-a-ways they must be, at least, 1 1/2 times wider than
your heavy equipment. This is to allow for the equipment
running up and down the launching and landing surfaces without
being to narrow to roll pack the surfaces.
1.
Width
A. Supercross 20' (Just
under 3 bike lengths)
B.
Arenacross 14' (Right at 2 bike lengths)
Arenacross is
approximately 2/3's is size of Supercross in track width
dimensions. |
| Laying Out, Marking, &
Building Each Obstacle |
From experience we have found that the best
design used to layout each obstacle for big equipment drivers
to follow comes from the construction of a set (two) of PVC
plastic plumping pipes 7" tall mounted on a 14" square ply
board base. We placed one PVC pole on either side of the
obstacle we were building. They were placed wide enough
to allow big equipment to maneuver around the obstacle without
hitting them. We used red plastic ribbon marker on each
PVC pole to denote the height we wanted for that
obstacle. We completed the slope angles by placing a red
flag at ground level on either side of the obstacle where we
wanted the slope to taper to the ground. This simple
layout and set up allowed big equipment drivers to do a good
job in constructing and building each
obstacle.
Packing (rolling) The Launch &
Landing Surfaces
Rolling the tractor wheels over
the top of the jump packs and rounds the sharp peak at the top
of the jump. But remember to be very careful when
rolling the tractor tires close to the outside edges of the
jump. The dirt may give way causing the tractor to go
out of control down the side of the jump and have an accident
even possibly roll over.
Slope Angles & The
Bike's Suspension
Because of the forward sloping
front end suspension of the bike it will manage up to about 32
to 33 degrees of change in surface angle. 30 degrees is
the optimum change is surface angle if that change remains
linear. 30 degree launch surfaces that are curve up go
against the bike's suspension designs and can cause it and the
rider to loop out. Curving up launch ramps are dangerous
and often time cause unnecessary accidents, some result in
injury.
1. Jumps
On a more serious
note and caution - Remember never to take any jump for granted
or get lazy in performing it. Jumping can get you in
over your head very quickly. Jumping is a lot of fun but
always take it serious.
2. Double
Jumps
This practice double jump is designed for
safety. It has a shorter jumping distance, shallower
landing ramp (20 degrees) and a decreased casing angle on the
landing jump. Remember, a practice track must
necessarily be demanding but designed so that if you make a
mistake you have a much less probability of getting hurt.
When you can display you abilities to perform this
jump everytime then consider remaking the landing jump from a
20 degree landing ramp to a 30 degree down ramp.
Practice Double Jump - Up ramp 30
degrees, down ramp 20 degrees
Start out with a peak-to-peak distance
of 20’ or less in distance
when you first start
learning this jump.
3. Rocket Launch
(like the Finish line jump)
The standard peak to
peak distance is 40' to 45' and is usually found in the second
straight-a-way on the Supercross track. John Savitskis
(Stadium Dirt Designs) designed has designed most of the jumps
used in Supercross. He created the safe launching and landing
angles of 30 degrees, 20 degrees, and 10 to 15 degrees.
These angles have proven themselves to be safer than the ones
being used over the last four to five years where we lost top
20 riders to accident and injury by mid Supercross season.
In Supercross this was the second
straight-a-way jump obstacle
4.
Reverse Ski Jump
The standard jumping distance is
from 25' to 30'. This is another one of John's
creations. This jump is demanding but can be forgiving
if you follow his blueprint design. And it can be a
nightmare is you don't.
Reverse Ski Jump
Double
and Triple Jumps Launch and Landing ramp angles
A.
Launching surface ramp angles are 30 degrees
B. Landings or
Casing surface ramp angles are 20, 15, & 10 degrees
depending on the jumping distance.
5. Triple
Jumps
The take off jumping ramp is at or very near
30 degrees. The first landing jump (jump #2) has a 20
degree landing ramp surface angle. The second landing
jump (jump #3) has a 10 degree to 15 degree landing ramp
surface angle.
The first jump has a standard height of
6 feet. The second jump has a standard height of 4 1/2
feet. And the third jump has a standard height of 3
feet.
A standard peak to peak triple jump distances
are:
1. From the first jump's peak to the second
jump's peak is 40'
2. And from the first jump's peak to the
third jump's peak is 65' to 70'
However, in learning
the triple jump that requires a lot of time and practice to be
able to perform, I recommend a training triple to start
with. Let's take a look.
The Training
& Practice Triple Jump
The regular competition
distances can be applied into this jump if the riders' skill
levels display his ability to perform this jump.
This is a safer version of a 63' triple jump. Note
the connection of the second and third jumps together making
them look like table top. Actually, it is called a
descending table top jump.
Whop-de-dos
In 2005 the standard size and length of
whop-de-do’s measures 10’ apart from peak to peak and 28” to
30” in height. So, a section of 10 whop-de-do’s is 100’
long. You now find whop-de-do immediately following
triple jumps or immediately after a 180° berm turn. The
rhythm sections now are combining obstacles whether the same
or different that produce and require a higher level of rider
skill development to do them. The top rider creates even
more advanced combinations that are greater than what he will
race on a Pro Supercross track. This allows his skill
level development to be ahead of the other riders.
Table Tops & Step Ups
Table
tops require a lot of dirt to construct. In the 1980’s
they were the obstacle everyone loved to do. As time
when on and obstacles become more challenging the table top
advanced to step-ups and step-downs. And by the
turn of the century step-ups and step-downs had advanced to
the W structure you see below.
The development from the old style table top to its
more advanced form, I call the “W” shape, has upgraded the
rider’s skill level.
To complex the W jump even
more track builders have placed a 30° 3’ high launch jump into
the W structure and have placed another 3’ jump an equal
distance on the other side of the W table top as a landing
ramp. Keep in mind the difficulty of jumping this
complete structure. Only a few can do it. From the
first 3’ launching jump before the W to the 3’ landing ramp
after the W is 63’.
Calculation Slope Angles
For Launching and Landing
Slope angels are used to
construct both the launching and landing ramps of any and all
jumps and whop-de-dos. The longer the jump the shallower
the landing slope. Most double jumps have both a 30
degree launching and landing slope angle surface. Triple
jumps have a 30 degree launching angle, the second jump has a
20 degree landing angle, and the third jump has a 10 to 15
degree landing angle. Slope charts are prepared to
construct the jumps quicker, more accurately, and
easily.
Slope Charts For 10°, 15°, 20°, 30°,
& 35° Slope Angles
1. This first set of slope
charts are for 10 degrees
This 10 degree Slope Chart goes out to 10'
and up to 20" high
This 10 degree Slope Chart goes
out to 20' and up to 44" high
2 . This
second set of slope charts are for 15 degrees
This 15-degree Slope Chart goes
out to 15' and up to 54" high
This 15 Degree Slope Chart goes
out to 25' and up to 7' high
3. This third set
of slope charts are for 20 degrees
This 20 degree Slope Chart goes
out to 10' and up to 45" high
The
20 degree Slope Chart goes out to 20' and goes up to 7'
high
4. This forth set of slope charts
are for 30 degrees
This 30 degree Slope Chart goes
out to 10' and up to 5'9" high
This 30 degree Slope Chart goes out to 18' and
up to 10' high
5. This fifth set of slope charts
are for 35 degrees
This 35 degree Slope Chart goes
out to 10' and up to 7' high
If you
need slope calculations for any other slope angle please refer
to a trigonometry math book for the calculations of the needed
slope angle. However, in my opinion and my math
calculations this angle is too steel for both lunching and
landing angle due to the geometry of the bike’s front fork
tube angles. | | |
