That’s the issue 
@speedcraft any insights compared to my races last year ?
Race 2; nice work pushing black suit along to go get the traffic ahead. Unhappily, red suit uses the opportunity to come complicate things. However, nice battle with Red and nice decisive driving to send him packing.
I thought race 1 looked good! Every time you got some free track, you methodically closed onto the next pack ahead. Early in the race, when it was slick, you did a great job managing the kind-of floating into, and through, the turn drift in the quick turns (like #2, the quick left-hander). You also looked very fast through the 2nd to last turn, and you totally had the last hairpin turn dialed in… rotating off the brakes and back to power before the apex… nice and smooth!
For race 2, are you sure you didn’t get some help off the track in T2? The two guys in front of you didn’t seem to have any big rear-end grip problems, your steering inputs don’t seem to indicate massive understeer (at least not so much that it would result in snap oversteer) and just where, and the way, your kart got loose, and the proximity of the kart that drives by as you are heading off the track gives me the ‘helped off the track vibe’ rather than a rookie mistake vibe. I wonder if the damp track might have turned what could have been a pretty benign bump or push into a big oversteer moment, a trip off track, and a decent into mid-pack purgatory.
After that it was a lap 1 s**t show, so I guess that’s just rental racing. Also, it looked like your kart had a pretty significant understeer; especially in high-speed turns. It looked like almost every lap you would zing it into T1, but it would scrub wide and kill your speed down the next short straight, and likewise for some of the other fast turns.
But anyway, I agree, it looks like you have the pace and consistency to be fixture at the pointy end of the field.
Good Luck this season!
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I thought so but I don’t remember feeling any kind of push. I think I messed up by braking when I felt the kart sliding. I didn’t the track would have been dryer on the outside.
Pretty much yeah, it wasn’t too bad in the slow turns, but I would lose quite a few tenths in T1-T2, especially T1 because you can’t transfer load enough.
Thanks !
Round 2 !
Here we go for round 2 of the Kart Fun Trophy hosted at Mariembourg. Small change to the formula, we are now having a 15 minutes Qualification instead of 10 minutes, but we are still running two 30 minutes races.
Q and R1 were on dry conditions, but it rained 10 minutes in R2 which made things interesting !
Qualifications
So, 15 minutes. My kart was average I think, a bit on the slow side out of the turns but really good top speed so it was manageable. Apparently for the first 10 minutes I was hovering in the top 5, but other drivers did improve by a lot in the last 5 minutes and I ended up P13.
I am clearly missing something with those tires or chassis or track or my driving style but I am unable to improve as much as the others when the tires heat up. I had the same issue last round and it is starting to bother me. I feel like I am not as good on a cold track.
Race 1
Quite disappointing. My start was decent (and so was my pace) and I was faster than the group in front. But after 10 laps the guy behind me decided that I didn’t deserve to race and pushed me off the track, leading me to spin and lose 20 spots. I would climb back to #23 but I miss a good result in race 1 and probably race 2 also.
It is quite frustrating when people are obviously slower but then they pick up the pace as soon as they can copy your lines. Again a lack of luck, it will be better next time.
Race 2
We switch karts between the two races and I got a worse kart, basically no engine on the fastest configuration we are running … I was going to settle for a P25 or something but Mother Nature decided to help me and we got some rain on the track ! This shuffled the standings and a lot of people were struggling to adapt to the changing conditions. I had a few code brown moments, but I had a lot of fun and I was able to climb back to #10 !
Conclusion
Clearly not a good performance for me on the dry. I am feeling a bit lost and it is starting to make me frustrated. I clearly have the technical ability but I still struggle to push more. I wonder if my relative lack of running (only 1 day/month) could be the reason I struggle to step up my game.
Well, the racing and driving up until you got pushed off looked strong. It seemed to me that you were indeed faster and gaining nicely.
The owner of the track and organiser gave me some valuable feedback, amongst other things :
- Too passive, not defensive enough when I am following someone, which leads me to be overtaken
- I am too agressive/too resistant in the technical part which leads to lost time
- I miss the apex far too often (especially in the hairpin on the small configuration of the track)
Good thing though :
- I am really strong in that technical section, which I kinda knew but it is good to have confirmation
Maybe I am overthinking this and it is just down to some bad luck 
Probably overthinking. I enjoyed both races and thought you drove well. You were not kidding about the rain changing things. All of a sudden it got wild. I enjoyed watching how you did the rain line, very instructive. Some nice driftu, wet passes, too.
It looks to me like you have great pace and generally don’t make many mistakes. The tippy-taps costs you sometimes, but in all fairness, it cost others as well.
Small update to this topic (can we merge Mariembourg Rental Championship round 6 report here @KartingIsLife ?)
@Bimodal_Rocket @tjkoyen @speedcraft
Last round in August really depressed me and I lost all excitement about this championship. Despite this feeling I decided to give the series one last chance and assess if I want to participate next year.
Conditions : Full wet, rain stopped on the second race but it remained wet.
Q : P13
R1 : P25 (#4 best lap time, .6 slower than #1 out of 1’37" lap)
R2 : P17 (#3 best lap time, .1 slower than #1 out of 1’35" lap)
Qualification :
I was pretty slow, I clocked a 1’42"6 when the pole was a 1’41"0. This is due to a lack of feeling because I spent 2 months not driving and I haven’t driven on the wet for 8 months or so. I was still trying to find the limit of the grip and I was improving consistently until I pushed a bit to0 hard on my last attempt, went off track and miss on a top 5 qualification.
Race 1 :
As usual, I got pushed off track during the first lap, as I was on the outside and two other drivers decided to make it 3 wide. On the wet. By taking the usual dry line. Obviously they understeered and pushed me offtrack. I spun on the grass and I was stuck. I had to wait for a marshall to put me back on the track. That meant I was last and my race was done, so I decided to try and push hard everywhere. That meant I went offtrack 3 times and got lap by the leader. I was able to see and replicate his lines and it helped me tremendously to go even faster.
Race 2 :
So this race was promising, I started P25 and was P15 by the end of the lap, until someone decided to pit maneuvre me ON A STRAIGHT LINE, putting me back at the back of the field, P32. Fortunately my feeling was back and my pace was really really good. I was able to climb back to P16, 1-2 tenths only slower than the leader
In conclusion, even if the results were bad, I am really satisfied because my pace was really, really strong. And I know I could have gone faster, if I didn’t decide to be safe in a few corners. It gave my mojo back, I want to drive, drive and drive again, become stronger and more confident. I can’t wait for next year.
I am glad to hear this. The ebb and flow of all this can be maddening but I am glad for you. I’ll be trying to improve in the SC league so we can compare notes.
Awesome; congratulations!
Can you point to anything (attitude, techniqus, etc.) that changed (or maybe that’s changed back) in your driving that got you back on your true pace?
I dumbed down my approach to driving, not trying to analyze anymore and just relying on my feel
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Me too actually. This year I tried to just trust my instincts for lack of a better term and have confidence that my “programming” will find the time.
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That is what I am trying to do. Stop over-analyzing and just trust the process
I see from your wet practice that you have decided to just send it. That footage looked good, super aggressive.
I like the new gloves. I think you need cat themed livery. Maybe an homage to Oscar.
Well I am going to share the footage then
Life is too short to spend time asking how I should drive. I’ve driven for 4 sessions and spent 2 of them coaching my girlfriend and showing her the lines. She made tremendous progress, I am very proud of her !
She even beat me ???
Bring it! The rivalry will be epic. If it’s anything like my home, my mom beat my father mercilessly in tennis and never let up.
You should watch the movie about the lady that swims to Cuba, at 64 after failing 5 times prior. Total badass.
I’m on the opposite end of this. For me, life is too short to fully understand how I drive, and I’ve been working on it for 40+ years.
I’m happy that you’ve remembered you’re Tanguy Fing Pedrazzoli, and have gotten out of you own way so you could be reunited with your first love. 
Ha, talk about a double edged sward. The first time my teenage son beat my time at the indoor kart track I was simultaneously happy for, and proud of, him, but still deep down pissed because well RACER!
BTW, internally I went with the ‘weight advantage’ explanation; highly recommended! 
It is funny though because it makes me wonder if people riding with good drivers get a kind of passive education regarding not just how it ‘looks’ (line selection, etc.), but also a deeper education, like how it feels (energy build/release, etc.) when done right and/or when done at or near the (reasonable for the road) limit. Or maybe they just have a natural aptitude for it… or both?
Wow. You need to go play golf. Now. When I was deep into that rabbit hole, it was scary how well you would play when out with much better golfers. Talk about Stig stuff.
It may be an unfair comparison because I think you tap into the fluidity of the scratch golfers swing. It’s a bit like dancing with a good dancer, I guess. So, maybe not dissimilar at all.
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My last race and this training really reignited my fire, I just want to race again and again
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