... is a British informal phrase, defined as to "start doing (something) enthusiastically or with determination." In the world of motorcycle road racing, it is most often heard during the broadcasts of British Superbike series racing, when one of the riders with a reputation for more bollocks than brains arrives on the scene of a scrap for position and an announcer booms out, "Oh yeah! 'eel get stuck in, 'ee will!"
Endurance racing requires a different type of "getting stuck in." It requires brains and controlled aggression. It takes a rider who is blindingly quick and equally smart, someone who knows exactly when to dive to the inside of another rider for an apex and who knows when to hold off. Raw speed remains critical, but discretion usually is the better part of valor in an eight-hour or longer contest. Actually, it's usually the smart move in a race as short as a GP or a Superbike World Championship sprint race.
But sometimes, sometimes ...
Let's just say that there is such a thing as being too smart. Motorcycle racers do things that seemingly defy the laws of physics. And when you try to do something that you're not sure if it's going to work, if you open the throttle 10 yards earlier than you thought was possible or brake 10 yards later, the resulting euphoria can be addicting. Abandoning caution - and making it work - can take your breath away. Racers live for moments like those.
Anthony Delhalle is one of the best in the business when it comes to balancing speed and aggression. He's a multi-time World Champion in the discipline of motorcycle endurance road racing. His speed is undeniable, his mistakes rare, and the combination of the two makes him one of the most-respected figures in his field and a pillar of the Suzuki Endurance Racing Team rider squad.
Into Delhalle's orbit entered one Juan Eric Gomez, also a World Endurance co-champion for SERT and a manager for Racing Team JEG, which races in the FIM CEV Repsol European Championship. It's a private but professional operation based in Spain that helps give up-and-coming riders and mechanics in the sport experience in the field of motorcycle road racing.
Gomez kept offering Delhalle a spot on the Superbike he fielded. Delhalle always had a good reason to turn the offer down - he was a contracted Suzuki rider at the time JEG campaigned a competing brand. There were conflicting race dates between the FIM EWC and the Repsol CEV championship.
But this year, Gomez went out and got a Suzuki. And Delhalle had no reason to say no anymore. Dominique Meliand, SERT manager, wasn't thrilled with the plan, but didn't say no. "Obviously, I do not think he jumped to the ceiling saying "whouaaa, it's great," Delhalle told Moto Revue.
So Delhalle went sprint racing. He offers very logical reasons. It's good training, something he can't get with SERT, which can't afford to go testing whenever its riders want to go riding. A front-line EWC bike is an expensive, sophisticated piece of kit. And in the Repsol series, Delhalle rides a different brand of tires and can learn something, and he can push his personal limits as well.
The point of all of this is that if you haven't seen it yet, go to Youtube and watch the Repsol CEV Superbike races from Jerez this season. The highlight, beyond any question, is watching Delhalle getting stuck in, good 'un proper.
The first indication that Delhalle is dropping "controlled" from "controlled aggression" comes about two-thirds of the way through the first race of the double-header. Aboard the Racing Team JEG Suzuki GSX-R1000, Delhalle is drafting the Leopard Yamaha Stratos YZF-R1 of Alejandro Medina down the front straight. At the end of the straight, the GSX-R1000 veers toward the apex at a rate of speed that, from half a world away, you can see isn't going to work. Delhalle makes the pass (undoubtedly Medina heard Delhalle yelling "Yee-haw!" as the Suzuki went past) then runs wide, the front slides, the rear slides, and Delhalle is closer to the outside edge of the track than the apex when he finally turns the big Suzuki.
Notice served.
The next laps continue in this vein. Delhalle gets past Medina and promptly spins up the rear tire on a corner exit, launching himself out of the saddle. Every turn is a spectacular near-disaster. Marc Marquez would have covered his eyes watching this. And the climax comes in the run to the flag, where Delhalle and Medina throw elbows and swap paint. If Delhalle did this in an endurance race, Dominique likely would run out onto the track, grab Delhalle off the bike as it went past, and French-slap him all the way down Pit Lane. But it was a sprint race, and it was all (barely) within control and within the limits of acceptable risk-taking in a sprint contest.
Delhalle put it on the box, taking third spot. He learned something, certainly. He sharpened his skills, got familiar with new tires, trained in a competitive environment, etc., etc. All good. All legit.
But best of all, 'ee got stuck in, good 'un proper.
