Hey everyone,
I just got back from a Gearup race at NY Race Complex this past weekend. Racing in Formula TAG, I was about a second off of the leader’s pace each lap. I tried a ton of different driving lines and styles but could not find that much time.
Can you guys watch the video and see what’s going on with my driving that I can improve to go quicker? Also my setup could be totally off too.
I’m running a 2020 OTK chassis with a Rotax Max EVO engine on it.
How’s your gearing compare?
4:30-4:36 It looks like this complex has little moments tang could be smoother. I’m guessing this costs a little time.
You are pushing really hard later stages. You are going for nice early throttle but having issues 3/4 way through. You are frequently having to make adjustments because you are putting too much power into the kart to soon… Try maybe rolling in the throttle more. Feed power in, use more modulation. Full when wheels straight philosophy.
That’s my 2c, for what it’s worth. I could be off but it seems like you drive well and are doing the right things but are doing it too forcefully.
This seems to have been pretty much in the chicane thing towards the end and sometimes also you would struggle with the next corner into the s/f straight.
Generally try to be more smoothly at the brake, for you can go out from the corner with more balance.
At 5:20 or so you were catching the two in front but at 6:00 plus the two start pulling away. How were your lap times trending? Dom mentioned gearing, experiment with taking teeth off, even if the max RPM drops. The track seems like a mid range track, which a Rotax is most suited for. When the grip comes up, drop teeth but you may need to smooth out the driving and get the chassis roll to take advantage of the taller gearing. Measure segment times and see where you gain or lose between setups and how consistent your driving is.
I am not experienced in that evo package but it did seem to me that I did not hear any limiter bouncy.
As far as driving goes, I think it would help out a fair bit to be a bit more proactive with your hands. You seem to be moving your hands in slow large movements and reacting to what the kart is doing. So try to be a bit faster but much smaller movements on the wheel. There might be a rotax vs x30 difference at NYRC but I honestly don’t know as I’ve never been.
Thanks for the replies!
At 5:20, I only caught up to them because they started battling for position.
And for the rev limiter, I had the gearing pretty low (13/72) and I think I topped out at 13.2k rpm. Unfortunately I didn’t have enough time to test going even lower, but when I went higher, my lap times suffered. I also seemed to have about a 2mph deficit compared to everyone else. Not sure if that’s due to my driving, or engine
Footwork looks okay but you appear to be apexing most corners a bit too early and washing out on exit.
Hands are a bit too busy at times too. It looks like you’re having to work the wheel a fair bit on exit, probably because you’re apexing too early and asking too much of the kart at apex and exit.
Also looks like you’re doing more pulling on the wheel than pushing. You want to be pushing with your outside hand to steer. Pulling the wheel pulls you out the seat and also puts a lot of potential energy in the wheel, so if the kart hits a bump or curb a bit wrong, you’re more likely to snap the wheel and upset the kart. Makes the kart more inconsistent. You want to turn by pushing with your outside hand to brace yourself in the seat for more consistent and better weight transfer.
I had this thought too as Marcos place seems to be big on fast bits and has little low speed areas. I recall Nick (x30) battling Ryan (rotax) on the full NJMP layout and they were accordioning constantly, rotax would pull away in the twisties and x30 would catch on straights.
Rotax has very strong midrange but loses out a lot on top and bottom end. So NYRC might not be the place for them.