After 25 years in karting, I finally had my first “official” shifter kart race last Saturday. I’ve driven shifters in the past, but it’s always been on open practice days, so this was the first official session to count. Man is it violent.
I had to break-in the engine in the morning practices as rain ruined that opportunity the day before, so I was still being very conservative about giving it high rpm’s, and trying to short shift, but I started getting in a groove as the day went on.
I’ve documented on here the revival of Batavia Motorsports Park in NY, as you can see, is now hosting races. While they’ve done a great job of resealing the entire track the straightaway “bump” at the start finish line is still very present and I’m pretty sure I was getting close to 4 wheels off the ground hitting it.
What has really bothered me is what is causing extreme fatigue in my arms. I’ve raced TaG for years, and have never had such physical strain on my body as I have recently. I train at the gym multiple times a week and play sports outside for the last 5+ years, so I know I have the endurance and upper body strength.
The pain on the inside of my arms just kept increasing to a point where during the feature, as seen here, my left hand was cramping so bad I couldn’t get it back on the wheel at one point. The wheel feels extremely heavy as if driving a car with no power steering.
From reading some threads on here, I’ve deducted the following conclusion, but I’d love to hear some input if anyone else has experienced anything similar.
Low grip track
Low Temp
Old Tires (Lot’s of Understeer, push/pulling the wheel)
I plan on putting on a new set of tires and adjusting the caster the next time out to see if It makes a difference, but I’m also hoping this isn’t a sign of something else going on.
I battle arm pump as well, and find that often grip too tightly. I make a mental effort to relax some on the straights, but some of it is just acclimating to the high demands of sprint racing. You can play with the fulcrum arm on the steering column some, but this changes the rate and total throw of steering also…caveat emptor.
Skill issue (mods plz don’t hurt me we’re coworkers)
I tend to have a similar issue even with single speed 2 strokes. Typically the first day/weekend is tough on my arms and general conditioning, but once I get through that first weekend I’m fine. 206 has pretty consistently been fine no matter how long it’s been, but I’m wondering how my first weekend back in a KA in 4 years is going to be once I get a kart together.
When I was getting my SCCA license I noticed I was getting sore on the inside of my arm from pulling back on the shifter so often with a sequential, I wonder if it’s something similar to that with your left hand since you have to pull the wheel to turn left instead of pushing with your right arm where you have more leverage bracing against the seat. Was it consistent between both arms or just your left?
I’m sure we’ll talk about this once we get to Birmingham on Thursday too
Being active and in the gym doesn’t translate to driving a shifter kart. The reality is that a shifter is an order of magnitude more demanding on the body than a TAG kart, so the best training is going to be seat time. Ensure that you’re properly nourished and hydrated as well!
I have found at times that driving on old tires can be more physical on the arms due to having to fight the wheel. New tires may be easier from that standpoint, but you’ll experience higher load on your neck and core.
I was pretty surprised by how little the difference was for me. I was expecting to come away really tired by the jump in speed, effort, and mostly steering with my left arm.
I feel some of it can be supplemented with gym training. I focus pretty heavily on forearm and grip strength making sure I get in an exercise or two in every other workout. For me the only thing I can’t build up strength or condition is the ribs. If I’m out of the kart for any stretch and come back it’s the ribs that are sore the next day.
The only thing that came away sore for me after my first time ripping a shifter yesterday was my right elbow after I rammed it into the cylinder at Mach Jesus going for my first upshift.
So I had the same thing happen with the arms. The thing I tried was a steering wheel angled spacer. I believe mine is 15 degrees. It really helps as far as the arm fatigue goes. It allows me to push and pull on the wheel more. I also started to focus on not holding the wheel as tightly while driving. That helps a lot too.
It helps to figure out where you can get away with low grip pressure. If you hold on “tight” the whole time you’re gonna pump up. Often times coming off a corner you can mainly use your left palm to guide the kart and grab gears by pulling your right elbow back, not using your forearm muscles other than to hold the shifter. Also, you can typically have a much looser grip on the wheel that you think while braking.
Like Ted suggested, I almost always run slower/lighter steering with the tie rods closer to the steering column to help with arm fatigue. I’ve also found that just more shifter practice with longer sessions to help slow things down and create more mental bandwidth helped in that I could then make that conscious effort to lighten my grip, because early on there wasn’t much room in my brain to think about anything other than “OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD”.
My wife sewed in a small little pad in the elbow for me when I ran KA. I smashed those damn fins so hard I’m surprised I never broke one off. Might need to do the same again or just be more aware of where I’m flinging the elbow.
