Nick and I hoofed it down to gopro to spend a couple days chasing our tails. Couldn’t have picked a better track. We came down to ride their rentals which are rather nice CRG jobbies:
The karts that we drove appears to have pretty good parity and the brakes were excellent. Really good brakes is a rarity on rentals. You could ride in draft with brakes like this, which was good fun.
The track itself is fascinating. It’s a very clever design that fits a long lap into relatively limited space as it wraps in on itself. You begin by having a high speed first sector that then feeds you into 2 concentric circles of technical turns.
1: One
2. Chicane
3. Whee!
4. Big Happy
5: Other Chicane
6-7: Look Ahead
8: SlowPoke
9: Misery Loves Company
10: Um, Ok.
11: Macaroni
The track has subtle angle/elevation changes that matter. Turn 8, for example, has a downhill braking zone but a slightly uphill exit. In the technical part of the track, managing your entry is really important. Too much and you are wide and on the “gators teeth” (rumble strips) that slow you down and make the kart want to rotate inconveniently.
I was fortunate to have a faster guy there around my age who was approx my pace. His line was very good and I learned much from following him. Thank you kind sir!
That is a good question. I appear to be fairly right hand dominant. I frequently move left hands up and down wheel. I think it’s nervous energy. Also, I can drive these one handed mostly, and do frequently on warm ups.
I think it just helps me concentrate on what’s going on. Prepare.
There’s also some “bracing”. The wheel weighs heavier in some harder turns. Hand goes to higher wheel position to get more leverage.
There is some of that too. I pretty much skip about when karting, I get pretty amped up. I have zero chill. Maybe the left hand going low between turns is me trying to chill.
You’ll see I move it back up pre corner, to brace.
Yep, reminds me of the good old Georgia Red Clay. Its pretty common in Southern Appalachia. Great for a stable foundation to buildings (found Texas soil expands and contracts a lot), but nearly as slick as ice when it comes to wet off track excursions. Most of the tracks we ran in BMX as kids were made of the stuff and if it was even a little bit wet, you could forget about making a turn. Your front wheel would wash out on you in a heartbeat.
Nick and I were debating the merits of going wide lines in some spots here. It seems to me that I’m the dry, you really want to avoid the rumble strips. However, in the wet, Nick was getting the kart under control on the concrete/rumble strips (catching his lateral momentum).
T1 in the wet, I took a very late apex, just past end of red and white kerbs because there was a dry spot you could start right turn from.
I think you are correct and will try later t1 apex next time.
T4 is the big, happy 270 uphill? Yes. I seem to have not gotten all of it here but it was something I was playing with. Entry can be pretty fast, might have gotten it right a few times. I did play with going in deeper and taking more time to get down to inside kerbing. It’s an amazing turn that feels so darn good.
ya about t1 it really does mater about the conditions cuz if its rain on the exit theres a big puddle and i always end up aquaplaning. also use all the t2 kerb as you can beacus it can relly bosst your lap time.also for t3 idk if it helps going on the blue and red stuff in the rentals.
also take everything i say with a pinch of salt beacus iv never driven the rentals at gopro so im using the lines i use in the briggs beacus it closes compares to the rentals
i could have been a contender wasn’t for that damn wandering hand! This is a terrific excuse.
