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Gettin Dirty!
After Oulton, a mate of mine from the Supermotard forum talked me into going up to Crail Raceway as they were doing a Supermoto trackday. This was the first time I had rode on a dirt/tarmac mixed circuit, but during the day I quickly got hooked. I then did Trax at Preston a couple of times, and will be going back soon when I've refitted my motard wheels.
For those of you that aren't familiar with the concept of supermoto, the
idea is to use a converted trail/enduro/motocrosser over a variety of surfaces.
So you can be riding on tarmac one moment, dirt the next, then hitting a dirt
berm or maybe a tabletop jump, then back on tarmac again. This all takes a
lot of adjusting to, and I don't pretend to be much good at it, but I still
enjoy it. Coming from a sportsbike & road circuit background with a tiny
bit of motocross thrown in, the first thing I had to adjust to was the fact
that you pretty much can't use your brakes on the dirt section. You're on
tarmac tyres, not knobblies and they'll wash out if you give them the slightest
reason. 
You can use a tiny
bit of front brake if you're running a front wet tyre due to the block tread
pattern giving a little bit of grip. You can't steer with the bars much, the
only way to make any real changes in direction is to lean the bike whichever
side you want to go and get on the power to bring the back end round. You
can use a little back brake but again not much, so engine braking is the preferred
way of slowing down. I've had the back wheel lock up under engine braking
alone at Trax since the surface is so loose! 
Basically it's one of those things that looks easy until you try and do it,
then you realise not only how much of a hard discipline it is, but how incredibly
talented most Supermoto racers are.
We're not worthy!
The other problem you face is again down to your tyres. When you come off a dirt section back onto tarmac, don't expect the same level of grip for the first turn each side as your tyres will be covered in dust. I always give a couple of chops on the throttle and enjoy the powerslide until it grips again, then you know you're ok.
At Preston Trax Supermoto circuit...
Either ride up that berm, or crash. Your choice (I crashed there later that day)
...cut slicks give good traction in the dirt...
