The one thing I can honestly say there’s no substitute for is seat time. Practice practice practice. Then practice some more. Last season was my first - same situation. Take my local track for example, during race weekend my fellow masters run between mid 58 to high 59s for podium spots, I missed that round because I was out of the country so I don’t really know where I would be, but during practice my best up to CoVid was 1:03 - some four seconds off, some of that deficit is down to track condition, lots of rubber gets put down during a race weekend vs lots of sand any other time. Looking at it though and seeing a 4+ second difference I’ve been like where the FFFFFFF can I find 4 damn seconds?? One of my fellow masters told me practice your ass off. So I have been.
These last two months I’ve been doing around 120 laps a week, guess what…I’ve got that best down to 1:01 and that on practice tyres in the height of summer (45 deg C) not early spring when race weekend is (25 Deg C) and with new tyres. I’ve still got work to do, and I’m still around 10 lbs above the weight limit (all my class are below and have to add ballast) but I can’t wait for the season to start!
Sim racing also helped during CoVid - your brain is constantly bombarded with braking point/turn in/apex/exit which can lead to a degree of sensory overload. I found SIM racing really helped in that regard - I’m much better able to anticipate and process whats coming next.
Robert: I too came from rc actually. I was karting years ago and then did rc for the last 5 and got back into karting this year. Karting is much more of thrill than rc because like you said your in the driver seat. Working on the karts are a lot easier because of the size (I was in 1/10 scale) but alittle more $. On race day I’m about 15lbs over the minimum weight with minimum gas in the tank. I was thinking 15lbs would be 0.1 seconds slower on a 40 second track but I guess it would be closer to 0.3??? This gives me something to work towards. If I’m within 5lbs of minimum would be good so I don’t have to worry to be under.
Hi Andy, yeah started working out last year to get into better shape and to make weight. I ran last year at about 20lbs over, and now for our masters class we run 380lb.
Being 15lbs over is without a doubt slowing you down. How much is hard to say but I would gather .3sec a lap is close. I would suggest your first goal is to get to minimum weight, as a start. The advantage of being even lighter is you can put weight where you want it. Have you ever had your kart scaled with you in it?
yes I have to get to minimum weight. Yes On race day I’m 405lbs before lunch lol. Min weight is 390 and the straight is uphill so yes your probably right at .3 which is a lot on a 40 second track. Getting under 390 would be a lot of work but getting to 390-393 would be very possible even by the next race day. Now that I know it’s that much I’m going to work towards it. I don’t want to put myself at a disadvantage of that much for something that doesn’t cost anything at all. Thanks for the info
I think what is meant was, have you weighed it with individual scales under each tire with you in it. This would give you the Corner Weights and let you know how balanced the kart is. Should you have to add weight in the future, you will know where to put it to take best advantage in placement.
I’ve seen that Youtube video before…the problem is it’s a rock hard tire on a slippery surface and not apples to apples with what we’re doing in outdoor karting. They even elude to the fact that the weight is likely a benefit in that traction limited environment which doesn’t necessarily apply to the rest of us.
My personal theory is…if you’re chasing every last bit of time to try to run with the leaders, you have to eliminate all possible variables from the equation in order for it to be a valid comparison.
I’ve seen tracks where 10 lbs equals .1 second, I’ve seen tracks where 10 lbs equals .25 second. Always wondering and trying to evaluate how close you are without being equal weight will always leave you with questions on where to focus next.
My personal story was I jumped into karting in 2018 nearly 40 lbs over weight for masters, on a 10+ year old chassis and an motor that I wasn’t sure if it was competitive or not. I learned steadily that year how to adapt my driving to get quicker, how to tune on the kart to get quicker and I got within a reasonable distance of the leaders at our club, but I was constantly questioning where the time was going.
Was it still my driving?
Was it all weight?
Was it worn out chassis despite feeling like I was optimizing what I had?
Was my engine just not good enough (Yamaha’s can be hit or miss unlike some of the more current engine packages)?
The only way I was going to know was to eliminate the variables. I lost 40 lbs in the off season, bought a new(er) modern kart and showed up the next year and ran right at the front of the pack. I eliminated 2 variables at once (chassis and weight) and was able to focus the rest of my 2019 season on just the driver and engine tuning which turned out to both be pretty OK but as always require constant attention to be at their best.
So to accurately compare, make sure you eliminate as many variables as possible to really get to your focus point.
It’s really important, unfortunately, if you want to be front pack to get weight low enough that you aren’t way over.
I have a pal who has an extremely high level of skill. He is able to run with the light guys based on superb technique. That being said, he can’t win at current weight because no matter how he kills it in the technical bits, the 25lbs prevents him from turning that into a decisive run out of the corners.
That being said, losing weight is a pita so if you’ve got a good pack at current weight, who cares, really. Occasionally the skinnies will take themselves out.
i saved and bought myself an Ayrton Senna Dvd for my 10th birthday, 21 years ago but something thats stuck with me is his debrief, after looking at data they sit down and have two track maps, Ayrton has to name where he thinks he can improve his driving and guess by how much, so he thinks maybe he can drive 2 tenths faster here or there and add it up over the lap, so there is a theoretical gain of 6 tenths from the driver, then move on to the car, where can the car be faster? guess here of there and get a theoretical gain of say 4 tenths add the two and there is a gain of 1 second, Ayrton was so goo he would always match or beat the theoretical improvements, so with all the mychron 5s and fancy stuff in karting i think if it was good enough for Mclaren in the 90s its good enough for my club level go karting haha
