Analyze my driving please? Tell me I suck. I can Handle it

Here is clip from my heat race this weekend. Tear it apart. What am I doing wrong? What could I do better? This race I was .5 - 1 second off the fastest guy out there. So be brutal. Tell me what I can do.

First, I love your shoes.

Second, I don’t know the track but it looks fun. The only thing on the big left hander around 7:09ish on the video you seemed to have taken the line I would think might be prefered compared to some of the earlier times where it seems you went into the corner shallow. I cant say for sure as I don’t run that track.

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I was fighting racerender when I uploaded this one. But here is the Speedhive data for lap to lap times

And here is one with data. Not sure why but the G axis is inverted. So need to do a little research into that. And obviously got a little two aggressive and cause me to run wide. Stupid stupid mistake that cost me a podium.

Just so you’re aware of it as well. Track was drying. So its a combination of my lack of skill and hunting a dry line. It was still damp in areas especially off-line.

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Quite a bit of wheel-sawing. Not big movements but it looks like when the kart is fully loaded up, you’re quick to countersteer. Could be the result of a damp track, but looks like the kart is driving you at apex and exit, rather than the other way around. You’re able to get away with it a little because the grip level is low, but sawing the wheel like that on a hot day where there is some grip is going to scrub even more speed. Also a couple spots where it looked like you were pretty early on the apex and scrubbed out wide on exit. Hard to tell specifically because I don’t know the track layout and this view can skew things a little.

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@tjkoyen yeah most of the sweepers were basically sliding all the way through. I didn’t notice myself working the wheel as much as I was until I watched the video. This is the most grip I have ever driven a kart in. Which is why I wanted some feedback. Here is an aerial of the track if that helps at all

Found this video posted. Here is a follow for a couple laps. And I can kinda see for myself what im doing. But @tjkoyen you can get a good view of how the kart was reacting.

im number 33

Fun race! Good job on not giving up and hustling back some spots.

Seems to me your kart has more than enough tire and you are riding on the “edge” quite a bit, thus the handsyness. Feels like you are constantly testing the line you are on, pushing it till it breaks a bit and then you repeat this again and again. So, many little inputs, rather than one nice initial input that you hold round the whole turn. In TJ terms you arent finding a “set”, you are making adjustments as you go. I bet this takes care of itself as you get more and more laps in.

I cant quite figure out your pace relative to the others. It feels like you could easily run up front but that the kart is getting ahead of you.

@Bimodal_Rocket im not to terribly far off pace. Fast time to me was a little over a second. I was 4th quick on the day. With the ones after me down 4 tenths or so as the next closest.

Im probably not finding the “set” because I honestly don’t know what it feels like. I have car habits to try and break. FWD time attack car driver means drive it in until you find the limit of traction. Lift, rotate, back on gas or lift on entry back on gas at apex for boost to hit on exit.

I know I am lacking seat time. And ill get there. But beautiful Seattle hasn’t cooperated as im trying to get some dry seat time. We are starting to occasionally see that bright thing in the sky though.

It’s a 4-stroke though, so to be fast, you have to drive for momentum as opposed to power. Mid corner adjustments steal momentum.

Imagine the line you could take from turn in to exit that is one input, that enters calmly and exits with building momentum. Look forwards to where you want the kart to go and squeeze the throttle to get you there. Modulate throttle more, lift less. Be less on/off.

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It will be very obvious what is correct, I should think. Indeed, you will feel it to know it. I think to hasten this you need to maybe look at thinking about how to flow a bit more and prioritize exit speed as opposed to hustle. You look like you are fighting the kart a bit. Laps are the answer.

Did you notice that you can adjust start/finish? Often the track map uses a wonky start that messes up times relative to what’s shown in your mychron. It’s never gonna be perfect, but with the same start line, it’s better.

@Bimodal_Rocket I did. And I’m ocd. I spent probably an hour plus trying to get it to sync. I ended up using the limiter bouncing to be my biggest key in to line it up.

Made me want to buy a smarty.

Sometimes they line up easily sometimes I just can’t get speed to match. I usually use crossing finish the first time.

If you show gauge In Quik it’s always correct. No idea why it’s sometimes impossible to line up.

After looking at the other video it helps give an idea of your posture, the kart’s attitude etc. It’s just simply a combination of little mistakes, lack of consistency, and too much steering input. Some corners you’re too early on the apex, some corners you aren’t grabbing enough curb. You just need more seat time, to make it all come together.

For example, 25:05 you put in a huge steering input, grabbed way too much curb and upset the kart hard. To me that looks like you just aren’t super familiar with the way the kart is going to react, so you overcompensate with a big input. That comes from lack of comfortability with the limits of the kart and lack of seat time.

25:25 you charge this corner way too hard and throw yourself off-line for the next corner. That comes from not fully understanding the corner complexes yet. You know which corner is which and maybe how to attack each corner individually, but you aren’t thinking of them in terms of groups of corners and how to get through the section fast rather than the one corner.

26:10 look at how much later this guy apexes that corner, and how he grabs more curb than you, setting him up much better for the following right-hander. You swing out way wide since you miss the apex in the left-hander. Again, that’s him understanding the section of corners better and emphasizing speed through the section rather than the corner itself.

That’s just a few things I noticed from this quick clip.

I’ve been driving for 18 years and still learn things every time I go to the track. Don’t stress too much about winning or being the quickest yet, you’re just not there yet in terms of seat time; it looks like you still haven’t fully mastered this track. Go out there and try different lines, different braking points, different postures and steering techniques and see how they feel, see what works for different corner sections and what doesn’t, and build up a set of knowledge and skills on how the kart will react given a specific input.

And remember that the brain processes memories and techniques overnight while you sleep. This is why we try something new over and over one day and can’t quite get it, but we sleep on it and come back and it all clicks suddenly. You just need more time to process the things you’re learning so you can build a knowledge base.

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Basically this. Your pace is v good relative to field. You just need laps and to revisit the karting basics. Get all that timing smoothed out and calmed down and you’ll be much faster.

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@tjkoyen your exactly right. It was probably dumb but this was my 4th time in a kart and my first time in this chassis.

I only have one more race at this track so I’m not to overly concerned with being perfect here. Just wanted some things to work on going forward.

I was trying a lot of new things here. I’m glad you mentioned curbs. After watching the video that follows me I see why I need to use more curb.

Thanks for all the input.

Edit: and waking up and thinking about it. Honestly couldn’t have picked a worse time to switch to a new chassis. I’m not blaming the chassis. But the old one did react substantially different. Combine that with the wet to drying conditions and it was a bad opportunity to try something new. Now I want more laps.

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Look ahead when karting. My immediate thought is you are behind kart timing wise. Seriously, spot your apex on turn in but move on visually. Look to your exit after you note apex, don’t dwell on the surroundings of your kart. Look to exit and your timing will follow.
Admittedly easier said than done, but give it a shot when there’s no one to crash into.

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