British racer Dan Linfoot is an FIM Endurance world champion much more used to completing one-hour stints on tarmac in races lasting eight to 24 hours.
But ahead of ATPI FIM Speedway GP of Great Britain – Manchester R5 last Saturday, the Yoshimura SERT Motul star tried his hand at speedway – a sport featuring all-or-nothing races lasting just one minute.
With some expert guidance from Sweden’s six-time FIM Speedway world champion Tony Rickardsson and former New Zealand rider and coach Tony Briggs – son of four-time FIM Speedway world champion Barry Briggs – Linfoot quickly looked at home on the shale.
FIMSpeedway.com editor Paul Burbidge caught up with the 2024 24 Heures Motos (Le Mans) and Bol d’Or winner from Knaresborough, North Yorkshire to get his verdict on swapping his Suzuki GSX-R1000R for a 500cc Speedway GP machine.
Firstly Dan, how was your first on-the-bike speedway experience?
“It was really good to experience a different discipline on two wheels. I have followed and watched speedway for many years. I have been to one or two events and came to Cardiff to watch the FIM British Speedway GP.
“Riding a bike on a Grand Prix track was incredible. It was a great experience. The feeling on the bike was a lot different to what I expected, but I started to push myself a little bit more. Thanks to everybody for arranging it – it was really cool to get that experience.”
What were the main differences you found between riding an EWC machine and a speedway bike?
“The first thing was turning only left. The second was the fact you had no brakes. After that, it was about understanding how I could lean the bike and trust the grip.
“When I first took off, I didn’t have any feeling of grip. I felt quite tense on the bike and quite nervous. I didn’t understand how I could lean the bike over. With the advice of Tony and Tony, I tried to work on leaning the bike over a bit more and understand where that grip is.
“Then I tried to play with putting the rear under a bit more load. I’m used to opening the gas and pushing the limit on corner exit, so I was just trying to get some feeling for the rear of the bike and trying to turn on the gas and make it spin a little bit. I just wanted to start to understand those feelings of the bike starting to float underneath me.
“I know I was not even at a tenth of the limit of where the bike could go, but I really enjoyed it, and I would love to ride it more and get more experience of this discipline.
“I am only used to putting my knee on the floor – not really doing things any other way. It was great to have the advice of the guys to really start me off in the correct manner with body position and safety to get the bike around the track.”
Is there anything you experienced that you could take from speedway into your EWC races?
“It is a lot different, but being comfortable with the bike sliding is definitely something you could take into the discipline I do, although we do have systems on the bike like traction control that stop the bike from spinning too much because it wastes fuel.
“But having that confidence to let the bike float underneath you is definitely something you could put into your riding in a positive way.”
It’s fair to say you have to concentrate for much longer periods over an eight or 24-hour race than the Speedway GP riders, who contest five to seven one-minute heats in an event lasting around two and a half hours …
“Our stints are one hour long. We don’t ride any less than one hour in a race. There are three riders per team in a 24 or eight-hour race. You use your three riders, and you do an hour each. Fuel is your limitation. You are riding that bike until the fuel light comes on, which is after 58 minutes to an hour.
“You are managing energy and focusing on your target lap time. We get a lap time from practice that we try and maintain as much as possible and passing traffic during our stint is one of the hardest things. Trying to maintain your lap time while passing slower riders is the hardest thing in my current discipline.
“A one-minute race in Speedway GP is all-out action. I saw Dan Bewley riding the outside line on Friday night, taking to the berm and getting as much speed as possible down the straights. It was fantastic to watch, and I am completely hooked. I love it! I can’t wait to watch again.”
For the benefit of FIM Speedway fans who would like to see you in action on your EWC machine, what’s next for you?
“Our next race is in Japan. It’s the 46th Coca-Cola Suzuka 8 Hours Endurance Race from August 1-3, which is quite a famous race in Japan for all of the Japanese manufacturers – Honda, Kawasaki and Suzuki are all based there. We do get a lot of factory teams that come to join that race, which makes it a little more difficult for the EWC regulars.
“We are the reigning champions from last year, so we are carrying No.1 on the bike, which is a little bit of added pressure for that race.
“If any speedway fans would like to look at that discipline, please follow us via Max, HBO Max, discovery+ and the Warner Bros. Discovery channels.”
For more information about the FIM Endurance World Championship, please visit: https://www.fimewc.com/