DirtTwister takes a lap around "Manchester Round 1"
Manchester Round 1 is the second round in Reflex's MotoCareer Supercross Series 1. There are 3 Supercross series in the game. The first series consists of 3 SX tracks (Stone Point Round 1, Manchester Round 1, and Fort Dodge Round 1). This is a short SX track that introduces several aspects to riding an SX track. There are a couple of sections that will teach you how to ride across multiple table tops, without any big penalties if you get out of sync. There is a triple type of jump that doesn't have much of a run out of the turn. Instead of being a normal triple, it really just doubles to the top of a table top. If you clear the table top it' is a triple. If perfect you have the possibility of a quad as shown in Scawn7's video. This is an excellent example of how to make a track with options, with the ability to quickly recover from mistakes.
The Start From the start gate you can't see much. The starting lane goes over a mound and you really can't see beyond it. Your view is dominated by the giant score board on the right. Get ready. Once out of the gate you can see the track is a little rutted and soft and as you will soon find out can be slippery in spots. Once over the mound get ready for turn 1.
Turn 1 On the short straight before turn 1 there is a mound going all the way across the track. When racing you don't really notice it, but you do notice that the bike gets a little up in the air and affects your turning depending on what direction you were headed when you crossed over it. Turn 1 is about a 75 degree turn to the left and depending on the arc you have coming into it can be quite tricky. If you look at the picture coming into it you will see a dark streak down the middle. This is muddy and slippery. You don't want to be turning on it. So cut inside or stay outside. If you are doing a gradual arc into it from way outside then it probably isn't a problem and your speed will carry you threw. This is a theme on this track. There are several slightly muddy spots that will affect your turning, so you need to modify your line accordingly. As you exit the turn you come onto a jump that will jump you onto what is essentially a short table top with a saddle. A saddle meaning that the surface of the top of the table is concave (higher on the ends). The saddle helps you jump off, so this is a good place to learn how to jump on and off a table top. Some of the tracks will have several flat tables in a row that you will want to skip across the top off. This track is a good place to learn and the saddle aspect of the table top assists you in the jump off into turn 2.
Turn 2 This turn is a 180 degree turn. You want to clear the little lip as you enter turn 2. You want this to be a fast turn and rail the outside. A berm will build as the race wears on. The jump takeoff as you exit turn two is the same across the top so you can vary your line depending on who else is there. As jump out from the turn there is another small table to skip across. If you are really fast you can actually clear the table. Most people land on the table and jump into the three bumps after the table.
Turn 3 Turn 3 is about a 75 degree turn to the right. There is a big slick spot right down the middle of the turn. If you go to the inside of turn 3 make sure to complete your turn before hitting the takeoff. There is a kickup jump before a sloped table. It can be tough to consistently clear the lip of the front of the table. Because of the slick spot, the not quite clearing the table and bouncing over some bumps, you may end up at the triple's takeoff with not quite enough pace to make the triple, which is fine you can double in and then prepare to be as smooth as you can over the final single. If all goes well you will be tripling into turn 4.
Turn 4 Turn 4 is a tight 180 degree left hander that is immediately after the triple's landing. You really want to clean the triple clean to get a good entrance into 4. If you case the triple or land short and have to hop over the landing you will waste a lot of time. There is also a big slick spot on the inside of the turn. Rail around the outside and get prepared to blastdown the whoops. I have a hard time with these whoops. I can't seem to consistently launch into them and get a good run. I find that I will wheelie or hop. At the same tme practicing these has helped me on other tracks.
Turn 5 Turn 5 is more then just a kink to the left it is probably trickier then it at first appears. It seems that people dismiss it as much of a turn, but then have a hard time not catching the tuff blocks beause they didn't turn enough. It is probably about a 60-70 degree turn to the left. I like to stay to the inside and slowly angle over to the right on the way to turn 6. Notice that there is a slick spot in the middle here also. As you leave turn 5 you will be setting up for a step up jump. After the stepup is a small triple into turn 6. You can completely clear the stepup and then you are prefectly setup for the triple. If you land on the stepup then you will probably lose the timing through the triple. It is possible to jump from the stepup into the triple and double out. This track has several options like that, so if you mess up you should be able to get back into rhythm right away.
Turn 6 As you land the small triple you need to setup your line for turn 6. There are a couple of slick spots in the turn, they are clearly visible as you approach the turn. If your turn is a gradual arc they are not much of a problem, but if you are trying to square off because you came in to far to the inside then you will lose momentum. I like to triple to the outside and have a nice arc through turn 6. At the exit of turn 6 is the table top triple I spoke about in the summary at the top. If you come up short you have a nice saddled table top to land in which will let you hop over the following jump. If you triple then you are all set to hop up onto another stepup. There is also the possiblity of a quad and Scawn7 demos that in a video. The stepup at the end of the straight has several possibilities. If you have the speed that Scawn7 does in the video then you will clear the stepup into turn 7. If you are out of sync and getting back up to speed you may use the last uphill ramp on the stepup to launch over the small jump at the entrance to turn 7. If you end up ontop of the stepup you may still be able to clean the last jump into 7. The third picture on the right shows the jump sequence and off in the distance to the left is athe finish line jump. This track is relatively short and that finish line comes up pretty fast.
Turn 7 As you enter turn 7 you will again see that there are a couple of slick spots in the turn, This is the finish line jump. You want to keep your momenum up to make the landing, but if you are racing on the final lap all that matters is that you get to the lip of the jump first, so while racing I will try to keep a nice arc through turn 7, on the last lap I may be more abrubt and take a tight inside line and not worry about my momentum.
Finish Line The finish line jump sets you up for turn 8. Hopefully you had enough momentum to cleanly clear this jump. This will set you up with a lot of momentum for the stretch from turn 8 to turn 1. If you look to the left of the scoring tower you can see the hump that can cause problems at speed as you turn on the starting line straight.
Turn 8 There is plenty of room to land as you enter turn 8. The stretch back to turn one is a top speed run at full throttle. You should gracefully arc across the starting line area, because the entrance to turn 1 is very slick and you want to make the turn into turn 1 as large a radius as possible. The starting line will get rutted and bounc e you around, remember the hump in the middle will get you airborne. It's easy in Reflex to get a little anxious and start to turn before you are back on the ground. A little fo this is ok, but too much and you will instantly face plant, so pay attention to when you get airborne and if you will be over ruts when you land.