I went through something very similar in my racing journey as I moved up in levels. In the last year I have started boxing with the goal of taking a competitive fight in my late 30s.
Let me compared to boxing: I can fight. I have knocked people out in street fights and consider myself very capable. My coach is 66 years old and was a former Golden Gloves champion. He punches so hard and is so good with his foot movement it is demoralizing when we spar.
The first thing I had to do is be honest about what I want out of the sport. I will NEVER become a world champion at my age. However, I can become a very proficient amateur. Winning Golden Gloves is likely out of the question for me but I want to see how good I can get personally. So here is my tip which also helped me get better at racing when I experienced something similar to you:
HAVE FUN.
I don’t mean don’t take racing seriously. But understand the fun is in figuring out the puzzle, not winning. Don’t put so much pressure on you. People are catching up to you. So what? If your goal is to always win you will always be unhappy because you will not win every race or thing you compete in.
Try to think less about “I’m not as fast as them.” And switch that focus to “I want to figure out how to get as fast as I can personally be.” Once I switched this mentality in racing I started beating everyone at a club level because I wasn’t putting any pressure on myself.
I think what is happening is you might be maxing out these karts and you were just more talented / experienced than the others. Now they are catching up and the field is getting closer. This is very normal in anything competitive and you should be happy they are catching up. This is how we get better! Now you can focus on your race craft and passing them / not allowing them to pass you!
Pressure takes fun away from things. Once fun is removed from the equation we quite literally stop learning as easily.
When it comes to rental karting there is nothing that should be taken seriously. The machine is not a reflection of your ability as you have zero control over the setup, tire pressure, etc.
Have fun. Don’t beat yourself up. Switch karts with other guys. I guarantee you if you don’t put so much emphasis on winning you will start having fun and once you do that the wins are bound to come, though they might not be as easy.
Also, it never hurts to go back to basics when you feel you are struggling. If I have a bad sparing session or I don’t feel like I’m hitting the bag right my coach will stop me and we go back to day 1 / day 2 stuff.
Hope that helps!
