I can feel it, surprisingly. Not too bad but it does
make me wonder about 12 or 24hr endurance races.
Anyone here done a long one? How long do you drive before you take a break etc?
2 Likes
How do they do the 24 hours of Le man in Senior OKs on grippy tyres? That’s the big question 
I know a few guys who’ve done 24 hours races, and one guy did like a 3 hour stint. Said he felt pretty rough ha
@Bimodal_Rocket it depends on the event and type of kart, but in a 24hr race, we’ll typically run a full fuel stint between stops. In a 2 stroke, that means about an hour and 15 minutes. In a rental kart, 2.5-3 hours. Normal breaks for solo runs were about 10-15 minutes long. It took me until my 7th 24 hour solo run to be able to do a full sprint without breaks. Once the fuel was in, I got back in, so around 27 minutes out of the kart for the whole 24. That one hurt, a lot.
The real moral of the story though is that our bodies are capable of continuing when our brains think we’re done. We can be in pain and still keep driving. It’s just a matter of whether or not it means enough to you to do that. Don’t want to bore everybody with all of my personal experiences, but I’m happy to share if you have any questions.
2 Likes
Thanks Trey. I’ll no doubt ping you if I get my act together and find myself plonking down for a 12-24 hr one.
When do you start training for the event? How far in advance? What are you trying to do, exactly?
My plan (lol) is basically… treadmill. I am guessing the cardio is the primary thing?
For my first one I started training about a year out. After that I kept myself semi-prepped, so specific training would be about a 4 month cycle.
Cardio is important, but I wouldn’t consider it the primary thing. It all depends on what your starting point is as well. For me muscular endurance was by far the most important factor. And most cardio I did was on a rower as opposed to a treadmill.
Thanks for that. Time to build some muscle. Is the 4 months out prep appropriate for a team race as opposed to solo?
1 Like
On muscle ive found that high reps at lower weights was the most helpful.
Stretching/flexibility would probably do no harm either.
Thanks James 
Again, it all depends on what your starting point is. I also was unable to get much seat time leading into these events. So, if you can get a ton of seat time, that’s always better than gym time, especially if you can work on longer, full fuel stint runs.
1 Like
Ok. Thank you for the insights.
1 Like
Having done 6 24hr races at Teesside you run for a full tank which is between 1hr 30m and 1hr 50m depending on conditions. None were done solo, all in teams of 4 so I got some break out of the kart.
For those who go to the gym the best exercise machine is the arm cycle. I did 10 minutes in each direction. I could never get along with a rowing machine.
1 Like
Thanks Graham. That makes sense, a full tank seems like a good time to change.
How would you describe your general fitness at the time and was a 2hr stint brutal or manageable?
Keep in mind the track layout. A tight technical track will challenge you in different ways than a track with longer straights. I’ve done ~1.5-2hr shenanigans drives with friends at a long track and wasn’t fatigued at all. And I’ve also done 1-1.5hr stints in an indoor enduro races and felt like I was put in a rock tumbler.
A couple little tricks to cut down on fatigue while driving rental karts that I’ve found are fairly fundamental; stay relaxed (don’t death grip the wheel), keep your shoulders back and push the steering wheel (don’t pull yourself into corners), don’t over drive (find your groove and hit your marks), if the seat is adjustable then play around with balance while on straights or during yellow flags (slide the seat forward a little to help understeer, slide the seat rearward to help oversteer).
1 Like
My general level of fitness was pretty good. The last race I was out of shape having not been to the gym for a year due to work and putting my back out doing DIY.
A full tank is fairly easy. Doing 4 of them close together isn’t too bad though you do feel it across the shoulders the following day.
If you enjoy going to a gym I suggest the arm cycle machine.
Thanks Graham. Appreciate the insight.
So I’ve actually been planning on making a 24 hour attempt in September this year, I was wondering if anyone had any thoughts or tips on the run. I have no serious expectations going in, but I do want to see what it’s actually like to try one of these events.
1 Like
i did the 12 hour race at atlanta motersports park and we had a team of 3 and we each did 2 driving shifts witch were 2 hours each
How was driving for two hours straight?
1 Like
first hour and a half it was good but the last 30 minuts were horible your arms are tired your thirsty