Repeating the Cycle
By Patrick Buganski
The Daily Journal
thedailyjournal.com

Millville, N.J. (August 13, 2008) – The California Superbike School is the largest high performance motorcycle riding school in the world, but it makes just two trips a year to the East Coast.

One of those stops is in Millville, at the New Jersey Motorsports Park. The group began four days at the 1.9-mile Lightning Raceway on Monday, attracting riders from New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania and Maryland.

"It's the best track within a pretty big radius of New York and Philadelphia," said Keith Code, the founder and director of the school. "We didn't know exactly what we were getting into, but I knew some of the people who were involved with this project from (Virginia International Raceway) and they seem to know what they were doing."

After just a half day on the track, the facilities had sold themselves to the club for future events.

"I can't see any reason why we wouldn't come back," said Dylan Code, Keith's son and a four-star instructor with the school.

Keith Code, a competitive rider and author of three motorcycle racing books and inventor of various training aids, founded the California-based school in 1980. Since then, the program has grown worldwide, visiting 92 tracks in 14 countries from Europe to Australia on a yearly basis. The school has taught 44 world and national champions over the years.

However, the trip to Millville will serve as a homecoming of sorts for Code, who cut his competitive racing teeth at Vineland Speedway.

"That was my first race, in 1962," Code said.

The Pittsburgh, Pa. native, said the school is meant for experienced riders who want to improve their skills. The main theme of the one or two-day sessions is control.

"Whether you're going slow or fast, you have to have a certain amount of control over the bike," Code said.

Prices for the school range from $450 for a single day with your own bike, to $2,250 for the two-day camp.

Motorcycles often come with a stigma of irresponsible drivers going too fast on the highway, and some might say a group like the California Superbike School would promote that type of riding. However, the students disagree.

"It's the opposite," said Spencer Page of Freehold, who attended the school for his fourth time Monday and Tuesday. "It makes your more civil on the street. I get all my aggression out here."