Scooter Sprinting
Scooter Sprinting for me has always been a part of scootering that was probably best left to the big boys!
Historically my personal opinion has been “if you want to go fast – get a motorbike”…..as I get older I am beggining to realise that sprinting has been/is/and will probably remain a large part of what keeps scootering alive.
I hope to try cover a bit of what is going on in the scooter racing world moving forward, and so have been inquiring into it for the first time.
Stuart Owen – writer of numerous book, and a sprint champion of years gone by has been kind enough to provide us with this brief history of the sport in the UK.
We hope you show your appreciation of his time and expertese in helping, it is a not very well documented pastime and I for one appreciate him taking the time.
Please consider purchacing one of his (very reasonably priced) books on the subject of Lambrettas in the Shop Area of our site?
Drag racing, sprinting, or whatever you wish to call it, is the sport of racing over the distance of a quarter mile in a straight line.
Usually carried out as a dual-lane race between two participants, but it is more about trying to beat the clock.
The idea is from a standing start; the rider attempts to cover the 440-yard, 1320 feet, in the shortest time possible.
Though it may sound easy to do so, it requires both rider and machine to be at 100% from start to finish.
Many factors govern how it is done because, though it requires as much power as possible, the rider has to be able to lay it down on the track. Problems such as wheeling of the line, and lack of traction causing the back wheel to light up are just two of the main obstacles to overcome. Physics dictates that the quicker a mass goes from standing to moving, in this case, the rider and machine, the faster the quarter mile is covered.
Therefore, extending the frame, lowering the centre of gravity, and raking the steering are three vital modifications required for the chassis to pull off the line at full throttle and keep the machine in a straight line.
The other major factor is weight, and the golden rule of sprinting is nothing should be carried up the quarter mile that isn’t necessary. That is why you see lightweight materials being used, holes drilled where possible and unessential items not being used. Brakes are also the enemy, and a drum setup without friction should be used using the engine to slow the machine down naturally in the runoff area.
Many other applications are required; anything that can shave even a tenth of a second off the time is worth doing.
The accepted governing body for two-wheeled sprinting in the UK was originally the National Sprint Association, or NSA for short, founded in 1958.
Scooters began to be involved in the mid-1960s, and it became part of the national scooter racing championships organised separately from the NSA when it was started in 1970. The NSA then took over the way into the sport for scooter riders once again as it became less frequent in scooter racing championships.
The first person to make real headway sprinting a scooter was Fred Willingham, who was a pioneer in the tuning and development required. This culminated in him being the first person to take a scooter under the 14-second bracket when, in 1972, he achieved the seemingly unthinkable time of 13.95 seconds for the quarter mile.
He set the benchmark for others to follow as a succession of riders pushed that boundary further and got into the golden bracket of sub-13 seconds. By 2002, only a handful of riders had achieved that feat, getting times down into 12.7-second territory.
In the 1990s the NSA was struggling as an organisation because it was possible to go and buy a motorcycle straight out of the shop and achieve times that just ten years earlier took a lot of development to do so.
That is when the Street Fighter/Straightliners series began independently of the NSA and spiced the racing up to encourage people to have a go; since then, becoming the accepted governing body of the sport. Part of this was to allow day participation rather than entering a championship.
It was also championed By Santa Pod Raceway and called RWYB “run what you brung”. That meant that scooter owners could try it out first before building a fully-fledged sprint machine to participate.
The sprint scene has recently undergone many changes that have altered it considerably.
Many of the tracks or runways used fell into a bad state of repair, making them too dangerous to use.
While other venues banned racing due to noise pollution, remembering two-stroke scooters can be exceptionally loud.
This has resulted in fewer places to go sprinting and some of the tracks available only having the option of an eight-of-a-mile distance.
That doesn’t mean you still can’t have a go or become involved, but there is one thing to remember about the quarter mile. Once you have a go, it lures you in and becomes an addiction as you only want to go faster.
That is where the challenge becomes even greater because, as man and machine, you are trying the most difficult discipline in the world, trying to beat time; best of luck to all those who attempt it.
© Stuart Owen 2024
Thanks Again to Stuart 🙂
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