The Racing Line at Auto Club Speedway - Motorcycle Circuit

Auto Club Speedway is a 2.0 mile, D-shaped superspeedway that hosts annual NASCAR events and some Indycar series. If you're reading this page, however, the real beauty of this track is an extensive interior road course with several possible configurations. For most track day and competitive events, the interior course is used in combination with Turns 1 and/or 2 of the superspeedway, resulting in the tight and technical being paired with the blistering speeds of the massive straight and 14-degree banked corners.

Unlike most facilities, Auto Club Speedway has dedicated layouts for cars and motorcycles. The motorcycle circuit adds a chicane to the main straight and enters the interior circuit between Turns 1 and 2. Although the four-wheeled vehicle lines are not exactly applicable here, they can still be used to represent underpowered bikes (Miata) as well as racey bikes with higher cornering limits. Even then, this particular layout does not result in much variation between the lines for the different vehicle types.

No sooner do you cross the start/finish line than the first test of your mettle presents itself. The chicane can be taken blisteringly fast, with Al entering at around 110 mph. Skipping ahead to Turn 5, be sure to hit both apexes, and trail brake deep into the corner.

Turns 7-9 are problematic for many riders, who aren't sure when to brake and when to gas it, and often end up missing the apex at 9. There's techically a short acceleration after Turn 8, but more important is scrubbing speed such that the bike can turn in early enough to catch a very late apex at 9.

The line is pretty straightforward from there on out. Turns 17-21 should be treated as one giant left-hander, apexing at 17 and 19. Don't be tricked by the fool's apex at 18 - you should be running 5-10 feet wide of of the left edge at that point.