Champ biker remembers a lesson in oil

Jolet Jao careens around the bend. Dirt spatters. His speedometer reads 260 mph. Past first and second laps, Jao nears victory, ahead by 16 points. Applause erupts. then... BANG!

Two years had passed yet Jolet still shakes his head in disbelief as he recounts that day when he lost the National Superbike championship crown at the Batangas Racing Circuit (BRC). He still could not forget the loss. The sound of his engine exploding while he was about to clinch the title was a tragic thing any racer who has spent all his life on the track could more than bear.

Finding out why things went wrong, though, wasn’t hard for Jolet. It was only a simple mistake, but it cost him 40 points in the series, the championship and, worse, his personal bike.

With four motocross and four road race championships tucked in his belt – five, if he wins this year – Jolet treats his racing bikes with the utmost professional care.

"I maintain my clutch every race. I have it changed regularly. I also change the oil a lot, check my gearing, change the spark plugs," he says.

His loss two years ago taught Jolet the value of using the right oil. When he joined the Shell Advance Racing Team last year, he was introduced to the company’s Advance VSX4, a semi-synthetic oil for four-stroke racing bikes.

"Four-stroke bike engines have very different needs from auto engines," Jolet says. He has learned that four-stroke engines are more compressed and tend to heat up faster. Hence, without proper lubrication, they are more prone to overheating.

Jolet is back in the lead of the National Superbikes Series. He says his Yamaha R6 bike,which he started using when he signed up with Shell, is now better protected from wear and tear because of the new lubricant. "I learned my lesson well," he confessed.

Jolet’s bike no longer overheats even after 15 laps."With no problems in my clutch and gearing systems, I can go as fast as 260 to 270 mph,’ he brags.

There are other additional benefits, he says. "For example, I can now do four races instead of three before I change my clutch. And I don’t encounter the slightest problem with my engine after I change oil."