Headed by Nancy Foote and Walt Fulton, StreetMasters is a street riding course located in Lancaster and taught on Horse Thief Mile at Willow Springs. Unlike most track riding schools, it’s main focus is on street riding and the skills you require specifically for that type of riding. Unlike track schools, StreetMasters treats the track like a two lane road, with a line down the middle of the track serving as the divider and teaching you how to take those turns with precision as well as providing you with the knowledge on how to read those corners for your own safety.
Students of the class ride to Lancaster the day before and stay at the Hampton Inn in Lancaster where the morning classes are held and have a group dinner the night before to meet the staff and other students. Sign in begins at 7am and is followed by introductions of their staff and presentations of traction, braking and carving the perfect corner. At 8:45 everyone mounts up and rides to Horse Thief Mile at Willow Springs International Motorsports Park in Rosamond where the group is split up in groups A & B depending on experience (which they gather on your registration). Group A then goes over the drills on the track and mounts up as Group B does drills on the practice pad, alternating through the day. There is a Q & A with presentation and lunch in the hospitality tent from noon till about 12:40 and another discussion at 3 in the hospitality tent. The day is then rounded out with graduation drills on the practice pad and the graduation ride on the track…the ride in reverse to prove you’ve indeed learned the skills without the help and of the cones and memory of riding the course clockwise through the day. The day ends at 4pm where there is a graduation ceremony and group photo.
Due to my quick turn around time, Nancy and Walt had Rocky, their veteran instructor, accelerate the course and we did the afternoon courses at lunch so I could really experience the full nature of their school. I had the pleasure of borrowing Nancy’s bike a Kawasaki ZRX1200 which was a fabulously powerful bike to ride and so much fun to carve those corners with, it reminded me of the days of riding with my Monster. The lines are clearly different when riding for the street as opposed to riding the track and my track training had to be put on the back burner, a reminder when Rocky was beeping at me to “get in my lane”. I laughed and waved as I repositioned myself and resumed the lesson. In track riding schools we use the entire width of the track and “lines” to go faster and safer through the corners, at StreetMasters it is about using the “lane” and lane positioning to view around the corner for a safe exit. The similarities are the use of entry, apex and exit points however they are applied a bit differently for this street course. I highly recommend this course to anyone who wants to improve their street riding skills and carve out that perfect corner. The burden of safety lies with us and until the day that we even out the burden and force drivers to understand motorcyclists and the dangers we face, we can only arm ourselves with knowledge and confidence in our skills.
A huge thanks to Nancy Foote and Walt Fulton (the big wigs of the operation) for inviting me down, Peggy for being the “mom” of the group, Steve and Rocky for being superb instructors and Vince for sweating it out on the practice pad and providing comic relief. I couldn’t imagine a better way to spend the day and a more fun group of individuals to ride with. For those who are interested in attending the course, StreetMasters has extended an offer of 20% off for mentioning MotoVixens while registering. It’s all about the ride and Vixens Ride!!!