My goal was always to go faster! I was really slowly getting there! Get a stopwatch, time every lap, sit with your son, being as patient as you can, and go over every practice session with him. If you know the lap times of the fast kids, show him the difference between them and him. Suggest that the goal is to go as fast as a fast kids. Each time he goes out, record his lap times, compare those lap times to his previous lap times. Show him where he is, or isn’t, improving.
Be aware that it isn’t all driving! Work on handling, tire preparation, engine performance and a host of other things.
Also be aware that he’s 6 and has only 6 months experience, you’re not going to get much information from him, you’re going to have to ask around, make friends, be a part of a group.
Most important; your new at this too, there’s a lot you need to learn.
You didn’t hear this from me but back in the day forget if it was cadets, juniors or kidkarts i overheard talk in the padock that they used to wd-40 the brake rotors to get them to gain courage going faster through corners. lol
We had problems back in 2018 with Kid Kart parents disabling the brakes on a kids kart because he was on them too much. I do not recommend this. It caused a major crash during a raceday and the parents were very much in trouble.
In terms of building confidence, I’ve taken cones and said that a kid has to be on the gas until the cone, and slowly moved the cone back towards the apex of the corner. At my home track in Yamaha, turn one could be taken flat out, so once put the cone at the exit of the corner after a while and got the kid to finally go flat through there.
what did I just read? Disabling brakes… on a race day???
I have also seen an adult lead a kid kart through the course to learn the lines and speed. That seems to work well.
Yup! Huge crash, kid’s helmet flew off, they checked the brakes of every kart every session for the rest of the year. They still do it periodically but not as often anymore.
I just got my son a kart a few weeks back. Our primary goal is for Autocross which starts a 8. He is currently 7 so I am trying to get him plenty of seat time at the local track to get him comfortable.
I try to be as encouraging as possible during the track day and make it as fun for him as possible. When I’m not driving my kart or working on it I will time hime and let him know how he is doing. We both have GoPro’s and I usually get to go on track with him and do lead follow to teach him the line and speed and observe his driving.
When we get home we watch the videos and talk about good and bad points. I then pick one thing I want him to work on next time we go. I pick the thing that i think will help him improve the most. He has had 5 sessions so far.
The improvement list has been.
- Go flat out on 3 specific sections of the course (the straight sections)
- Look ahead when driving
- Drive the racing line (even if you not going fast enough to need to)
- Drive a better line through 2 specific corners.
There was another one but I can remember.
He seems to have shown a huge improvement I think the Kart is capable of 52-54 seconds. He started around 2:30, then about 1:30, 1:20, 1:10, 1:03. Currently trying to get under the 1 minute mark. He is about the same time as the rental karts no and last time he was the 2nd fastest of 4 kids (first time he wasn’t slowest).
The biggest thing is that he loves doing it and will do as many sessions as they will let him. He did 8 ten minute session a couple of days ago.