For off-season practice on KA: hard vs. softer tire compounds?

1

Hey! So I know that KA only races Evinco blues, but would you still drive on reds for the sake of practice during off-season?

I heard that driving on both compounds helps you get a better sense of the kart, making you a more versatile driver overall. Still, I’m not sure if it’s worth it: softer compounds wear faster and are just never used in KA races.

Which would y’all recommend for training: A) driving only hard compounds, B) driving a mixture of both - in that case, how should I rotate between the two?

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I’m a fan of practicing on the compounds you’ll actually use.

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Agree, practicing on tires you’re actually going to race on gives you opportunity to tune and drive on the tire that matters.

Driving on a tire you don’t race on is useless except for getting time in the seat.

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Long ago, I showed up to a GN with 3 extra sets of YFBs when the spec tire was YFC. It was not till half way through day 2 of practice that I jumped on the YFCs. Put me way ahead on the set up. When I jumped to the Cs…I was top of the time sheets…and ended up qualifying 3rd in KT Light…a class that was no joke in the 90s. Finished P5. This was back before they let us run 55" wide. What a nightmare it was trying to make a European kart work at 50" wide…

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Same tire compounds or harder if you had to make a choice. No point making your life easier, or masking mistakes by being on a soft compound tire.

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