In the end, they are fun. Just a bit frustrating when the lottery doesn’t go in your favour
Time for an update ! @Bimodal_Rocket @Alan_Dove @KartingIsLife @speedcraft
But no videos this time 
Last Sunday was the 2nd round of the Kart Fun Trophy Endurance. 8 Hours of non-stop racing, with a working pitlane (so we were able to strategize), still with my friend Ludwig Ghidi !
This time we were ready with some home-made signs :
And an excel sheet to calculate the stint times that compensate directly depending on how much time you drove !
As always, there are 3 classes racing (65kg min, 75kg min, 85kg min), 46 teams total. We have a 15 minutes qualification session, then we have to do 11 pitstops, of 2 minutes each, with a kart change everytime. Base strategy would be to do 38 minutes stints, but you can do from 15 minutes to 60 minutes stints, in case your kart is slow, or it is raining and it is going to dry up.
Qualification :
POOOOOOOLE POSITION !
The track was damp, very slippery, especially because the day before they hosted a IAME training day, so the track was massively gripped up.
I don’t know what happened to be fair, I was just flying. And I lost time on my best lap … I really didn’t expect that, but I take it !
Race :
Unfortunately, I brain-farted my start. It was a Le Mans start, and I wanted to climb on the right side of the kart, press first on the throttle then seating in it. But I panicked, took too much time and lost roughly 20 spots before the first turn.
But it doesn’t stop there ! Obviously my pace was a lot better of the people in front so I got impatient and a bit feisty. Some other driver didn’t like that and pushed me offtrack. I lost 30 seconds, he got a 30 seconds penalty, it was useless but that is racing I guess. After 38 minutes I decided to leave the wheel to Ludwig. We were almost last in class/
He was doing great but we decided to shorten his stints, as the track was not drying fast enough. He suffered from a very bad kart (4 seconds slower than usual) but we were able to change earlier that 15 minutes without any penalties.
On his last stint, he couldn’t avoid another driver that was facing the wrong way. He injured his back and I had to drive for almost 3 hours straight. He did a fantastic job on climbing back the order.
At least the track was dry and would remain dry. All 3 karts I got were on the slower end of the spectrum (1’14"0, 1’13"3, 1’13"8), roughly 1.5 second slower per lap than the best karts on the track, on the same weight. But I couldn’t care less, as I was focusing on putting down consistent laptimes and on preserving my body. I knew I would be driving for a long time, so I need to chill and be clean. We knew that our strategy would help at the end, as we would have longer stints, gaining time on the others because they would have to pit more than us.
This led us to the third spot of the podium in class in our penultimate stint. Ludwig got a very strong kart, achieving 1’12"2 and being below 1’12"5 consistently. With 26 minutes remaining, we decided to do the last pitstop. And we got a bad kart 
Ludwig went from low 12s to 15’0, and couldn’t stay in front of P4 in class, who was lapping 12s. In the last lap, we lost the podium spot, and finished P4.
Conclusion :
We had a very hard race overall. I messed up the start, got crashed, Ludwig got injured, we only got 2 good karts over 12 we used. So P4 was great, despite doing the pole. We were disappointed, but I feel we have a real chance at the championship. We are P2, at 190 points against 192 points for P1. We are a great team on track, and our respective girlfriends are really helpful as race engineers, handling pitstops and strategies. I decided to code some script to help the strategy, calculating stints and maybe analyzing laptimes ?
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Woo! Congrats. Sounds like some battle karting!
It was great ! I really like the endurance championship
@Bimodal_Rocket @speedcraft @Alan_Dove @KartingIsLife
Here we go again ! Round 3 of the Sprint Championship !
TL;DR :
I weighted at 92kg/200lbs
I raced in both Class 1 Heavy (90kg/195.5lbs min weight) and Class 2 (75kg/165lbs min weight).
Class 1 :
- Q (Reversed track) : Pole
- R1 (Reversed track) : P4 (Started full wet, dried out towards the end)
- R2 (Normal Layout) : P20 (Full wet)
Class 2 :
- Q (Reversed track) : Pole (Full wet)
- R1 (Reversed track) : P3 (Full wet)
- R2 (Normal Layout) : P8 (Full wet)
Results Screenshots :
Qualifications C1 :
Race 1 :
Race 2 :
Debriefing :
Oof that was hard. Obviously the first kart is great, and I am able to qualify in Pole in front of the usual front runners. Truth is, I really feel I am almost back at my top level, at least on the rain. This is thanks partly to iRacing and especially driving in the rain with the Porsche Cup. I was able to translate the driving style and the way I analyze the track, which allowed me to pick the correct lines during the race. At least pace wise, I was clearly above the pack. Unfortunately, I am still very poor at race starts from the front and I still do dumb mistakes by experimenting too much on new lines (albeit, maybe less than before). I still struggle to to find the correct pace at the start, having to deal with the pressure from behind. It is frustrating to see that I made such a difference in Q, but the opposition would improve by seeing the lines.
Race 1, I lost P1 at the start by choosing the wrong side of the track and not wanting to crash, then I would do a mistake at the hardest turn of the track 
I still finishing P4, and lost on a potential P2 as the track was drying out and I couldn’t compensate for my extra weight anymore (+18lbs or so).
Race 2, I am starting 4th and I am able to get into 3rd after the first turn. Then P1/P2 are quite patient, nobody is fighting but I get punted quite a lot and the pressure is building. I do a mistake, going a bit wide and spinning out in the grass. From there my race is done, but that’s not all ! The kart starts to act up, bogging down every time I get back on throttle, just to shut down definitively. I had to pit and get a new one, which was pretty slow anyway. I finish at a distant P20, 2sec/lap slower than the top guys.
Results Screenshots :
Qualifications C2 :
Race 1 :
Race 2 :
Debriefing :
I was frustrated so I decided to register for the Class 2 race, despite the significant weight difference. I was 18kg/40lbs heavier than the competition, but still I was able to do the second pole of the day !
Unfortunately, I lost many spots at the start. With those engine, standing starts are very slow and if you are heavier you are going to lose many spots off the line. But my pace was strong, so I was able to be patient and pickup places one by one, until I got to P4 behind my teammate Ludwig. Thing is, I dont usually run Class 2 so I was not in for the championship but he was. So despite being a lot faster this race (I did the best lap, the only one doing 11s), I decided to stay behind him and protect him from P5/P6 that were faster than him. We ended up finishing P2 and P3 !
For the second race, I got a somewhat weaker kart. Chassis was great but I was severely lacking in engine, low and high band likewise. So I was out of contention for the race win. Despite that I was chilling in P4, not able to race the guys in front but pretty safe from P5/P6/P7/P8. That is when I decided to make a mistake in the dreaded turn 3. It is a very complicated turn because of the lack of visual braking points and the sheer amount of rubber there is on the braking zone. It was like braking on ice. I braked slightly too late and got punished for that. I finished P8 and missed out on a podium for the category.
Conclusion :
I feel like the pace is finally there, to confirm on the dry. During 2023 and the start of 2024, I struggled a lot with personal matters and now that I see the light at the end of the tunnel, my pace is getting better.
Now, I really need to find the right balance between patience and aggression. I still do mistakes, albeit less than before, so I guess there is progress. I really want to piece everything together now.
2 Likes
Exciting stuff! It seems like you guys get a lot of rain!
Yup this year it has been rainy almost all races. I am not unhappy but I also like driving on the dry y’know 
You Andre and Marc are hilarious. If it were up to you guys, every race would be wet.
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We should have a masterclass vault of rain driving video for general purposes. This is good stuff😎
Fire ze missiles
Also have you any experience with this?
https://www.racebox.pro/products/racebox
I have the mini. Pretty neat unit. I used it with race chrono in my phone to log G data and sync with GoPro video.
I was wondering whether this would be good for us rental guys. I’d like to have data on kart of sorts for video purposes. Think this would work?
It would work the problem is finding somewhere to secure it in the kart. I Velcro’d mine to the floor tray, but in a rental you won’t be able to do that of course.
Getting the phone, GoPro and the RaceBox to work all at the same time can be a bit of a pain.
Might be easiest to just find a used Mychron 5 
I do have a mychron actually! I just was hoping for something more turnkey
I guess you could use it as a GPS lap timer by attaching it to your suit in some way. Or go full nuclear and put it on top of your helmet.
Obv the G data would be garbage, but the GPS in it is very good. You could use the free software it comes with which has a cloud/web analysis component to it. Or use it with something like race chrono pro.
I’m not sure if I shared it here…. I made this video using a GoPro, race chrono pro and the RaceBox. Zoomed in on the tire for fun
Question: the unit wouldn’t work indoors because no gps? Can’t satellite lock? No GPS = no laptimes correct?
Well, it depends on the building. If I can get a fix, then I should be able to get lap times as I can track 3D positions (for now 2D because no need for 3D yet)
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