sounds like quite the weekend! Sucks about the wreck but it can happen, shouldnt happen too often so dont be too worried about it. Looks like youve already been able to experience the last minute furious fixup, something I have yet to do since im in a tent program, so im kind of jealous. 206 tends to be a very competitive class and youll get a lot of really quick people. Id honestly recommend investing in a gopro, as reliving a race is half the fun. Best of luck, it seems like youll be mixing it up with the pack in no time.
Sounds like a rollercoaster of a weekend. A Cup Karts event probably wouldn’t be the first event I would recommend as your initial toe-dip into actual race events, but you don’t know until you know.
Are you able to run any local club events? Would be a much easier learning curve to go up against equal newbs rather than jumping into the deep end. And cheaper!
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Welcome to karting! 
So, you’ll develop emotional calluses. I seemed to have adopted a “what will be will be” attitude before each race. There are just so many things that can (and do) go wrong, that expecting adversity is the order of the day.
In reality, bad days are few and far between. You do find yourself getting caught up less and less as your experience with playing in traffic increases.
Also, if you flip and there’s no footage to show it off, what’s the point? Let’s find you an action cam.
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I have some footage, but it will bore you to tears watching all my slowness as I struggle to keep up with the rear of the pack.
Can’t post it, as I guess the file extension is not authorized on KP.
Post it on YT than post the link. I’ve found time from some of the quick guys here picking my laps apart😂
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My internet connection is so slow, after 16 hours it was only at 21%. Freaking Centurylink SUCKS! 
Starlink is on order and becomes available during 4th QT 2021. So I guess I’d be hording my race videos until them. Country Living at its finest 
Just got my new GoPro7 Black too. 
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That is glacial. That’s not even usable. Can you stream stuff ok?
No worries, video sizes at this quality are crazy. Good luck
Steaming went out out the window when we moved from Oregon to Florida last year. Things you take for granted. Figured the whole US could stream, but at this point after moving to the Florida panhandle, I feel like I’m in the Taliban living in a cave . . .
Dirka, Dirka
Ugh. Sounds like you have a satellite connection. Is the panhandle rural? I thought Florida was pretty densely populated, where its populated. I’ve sadly only seen the tourist stuff and convention centers.
Depends where in Panhandle. I’m in a rural area about 5 miles from the beach. CenturyLink has a stangle hold here. Its not sattlite, but its the slowest broadband I’ve ever experienced.
Have you tried starlink…?
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I think satellite would likely be worse, but dunno.
I’m dumpling my 25 mbps COX for Starlink, which should be 100+ mbps.
This 2 minute video of me struggling with the dude in second to last place, took 3 days to upload. Might be boring for some, I’m pretty terrible out there.
For context, this is Cup Karts South, Masters Class LO206, in Jacksonville, FL last week.
Also, my first race ever.
Not bad…at this point, everything is a learning experience. I never heard you really hit the rev limiter. Only briefly on the last lap. Have you tried going up a tooth or two on the rear sprocket. The track seems pretty tight except for the one loooong straight. I think a slightly larger axle sprocket will give you a little more acceleration out of the corners. You should be able to shave off more time than you will loose at the end of the straight.
On a side note: Nice use of the banking, you pick up some ground on him in several spot at corner exit, but he pulls you on the straights. FYI, most time is gained in the corners (or rather corner exits). The more speed you can carry out of the corner means more speed onto the following straight.
Check your data and see at what RPM you are getting back on the throttle through the turns. If you are too far below the peak torque band, you will not get a good run out of the corner. You can use this to tune your gearing. Compare the steepness of the curves of your RPM traces. If it climbs too slow, go up a tooth. If it peaks quickly and plateaus for too long, go down a tooth. Compare them by time above a certain range, not distance. This will help you know if the trade off for acceleration out of the corners outweighs the longest straights.
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Looks really good for your first race! You overcook it into the corners sometimes causing you to slide and lose time, but when you don’t you are right on that guys pace. There’s one left hander followed by a right handed that you could fix. That right hander seems to be easily full out even if you are all the way in the inside, so I’d take advantage of that and use the full exit on the first left hander before it
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I thought that looked really good for a first race. You were calm and basically smooth. Normally, I’d see either too hesitant or too agressive into corners with lots of tire noise and lateral sliding.
Outside of one little moment, you were planted. There’s a turn or two where the back end starts to want to come around. That might be you holding turn angle too long or maybe pushing the throttle out of the corner a bit more than necessary (or both).
Nice track! Nice drive!
What I find I’m struggling with the most is really several things:
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Drafting. Being that previously I’m usually alone on the track, I’m having issues finding ways to get sucked into someones draft. I tend to hang back when I’m probably not suppose too.
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Gearing. I have a mental block going on here. More teeth more torque? That day I was banging off my rev limiter about 1/2 way down the straight. I was running #219 19/64. On the straight was where people were pulling away from me.
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Exiting Turns- I find that whatever I’m doing is causing my chassis to bind. So my RPM’s drop and it seems like it takes forever to gain that momentum back.
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Tire pressure has been kicking my butt lately. At Jacksonville I was running 12 psi and it seemed to work? At my local track, just last weekend during my local, I was flying (for me) and then around lap 6 everything went to hell. I lost all traction all of a sudden and I spun out three time on that single lap alone. Again, running 12 psi at the start. As I got off the tracked I checked them again, due to the heat; and it rose to 14.5 psi. For the next race I aired down to 10 psi, and had no issues.
I’ll try to upload my last race at my local. So you can see what I’m talking about. Went from all good to Stevie Wonder Racing during lap six.
The couple of laps you uploaded there looked really good for being as new as you are. Even more impressive given that it was at a pretty high level event, well done!
For drafting, there’s nothing really special you should have to do with driving. Basically just stay behind whoever you’re following and don’t lift. I wouldn’t put too much thought into this one, it’ll come on its own.
Gearing - more teeth on the axle will give you more pull out of corners but you’ll lose some top end and hit the rev limiter sooner. I haven’t driven 206 before, but I’d imagine that riding the limiter on straights for certain tracks is going to be very normal. Even in x30 riding the limiter at some tracks isn’t uncommon. My advice here would be to just experiment and let the stopwatch be your guide.
Exits - similar to what Dom said, it looked to me like you were holding the wheel left/right harder and longer than you needed to rather than unwinding the wheel to let the kart flow out of the corners. The goal should be to take the line that keeps the wheel pointed up as much as possible and to stay within the limit of the tire. When you slide through the middle or choke off your exit you’re going to kill your momentum.
Tire pressure - you’ll find that you’ll work within different tire pressure ranges for different tracks you go to, and also weather conditions will play a large role in what pressures you go with. Generally you’ll be dropping pressures at higher grip tracks and when it gets hotter/sunnier. Low grip surfaces and cooler/overcast conditions and you’ll usually be bumping the pressures up some, but these also aren’t hard and fast rules. Sometimes it can be just a preference thing, as lower pressures make the tires feel softer and allow the sidewalls to flex more - some drivers tend to like them lower on average for this reason and sometimes some people tend to keep them higher. This is another area where I’d say just experiment with it and let it come with experience.
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