Karting Goals?

We are a pretty varied bunch here representing all sorts of experience, age etc.

I’m generally curious about other people’s karting goals. What are you working towards? And how do you plan on trying to get there?

I ask because I am serious about getting good but I haven’t figured out what I can shoot for, long term that isn’t as vague as “beat Mr. X”.

Obviously for those just starting, their goals are different, but just as interesting if not more.

My goal is to have fun.

For me, fun is knowing I’m in the hunt for wins or podiums at high-level events week in and week out. Other people have different definitions of fun, but for me, the competition and drive to keeping improving myself as a driver is what I chase.

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Dido on TJ’s comment. For us it always been about the competition, having fun and the camaraderie.

My #1 goal is to have fun! I am 38 years old and love karting! I only race at the club level because that’s what I can afford to do and I’m ok with that! I would like to win another championship but first and foremost I want to hang out with my “karting family” I love the people that I race with. When the helmets are on we’re trying to kick each other’s asses but when they come off we do whatever it takes to help each other out. I also want to keep helping newbies find their love of karting. I try to make it a point to help people at the track and race clean! I want to be the guy at the track that people know is quick but mostly I want to be the guy that everyone respects for doing it the right way! Good luck to all in 2019!

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I’d love to say that #1 is to have fun…but in order to have fun I have to be competitive first.

My primary goal last year was to get my nephew into racing. Since my wife and I chose not to have children we made the decision to give our nephew every opportunity that I wish I had as a child. We accomplished that without issue in our first year of racing last year.

My brother and I have extensive driving backgrounds but have never been able to afford wheel to wheel racing, Karting filled the void of not being able to race wheel to wheel otherwise which was a great thrill, but our first year was on 12+ year old chassis without the highest level of prep otherwise and while we learned a ton, learned how to tune karts and engines and everything else, we still ran around at the back of the pack without anyone to race with but ourselves. My wife would ask me if I had fun every week and the answer was always yes, but the follow up question was "Then why do you look so angry every time you get out of the kart? " The answer was simple, I was having a blast driving, I was not having a blast running around at the back of the pack.

End of year evaluation was pretty honest. We developed a ton during the year, we learned some race craft (mainly being on the receiving end of passing). but I felt like my weight was holding me back and the need for new(er) used equipment would get us to a competitive status at the club level.

So I showed up for the first weekend of 2019 having met my off-season goals. I lost 35 lbs, I got newer equipment, I got competitive motors and you know what, I was competitive right out of the box and had a blast on the first weekend. It was all the things that were missing last year. I stand by my statement that I don’t need to win races, I’ll lose them making dumb mistakes (which I did last weekend) but if I have competitive times and can fight in the front of the pack each and every week I will let whatever happens happen and be happy with the result.

So now I can genuinely say I’m having fun which I couldn’t say with commitment last year. I know the season will have hardship and likely have bad days,but I bet I walk away from them smiling this year.

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  1. Have fun at the track
  2. Be able to get the most out of myself and my equipment
  3. I’d like to compete at national races, and be competitive
  4. Race with solid teams that are well supported.
  5. Have competitive equipment

I had a couple of goals. One was to get more people to get into 100cc karting and experience what I felt was the finest experience you can get in a kart. I wanted to help break the Rotax monopoly in the UK. I also wanted to promote the British Karting Championship as a goal everyone should strive towards. Bring it back to its past meaningful glory.

I think goal one was achieved pretty well :slight_smile: Second was so-so, though my negative feelings towards the MAX have waned over time. Third was a complete failure :slight_smile:

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Alan, is the 100cc college series, BUKC your baby? That seems like a terrific thing. Wish we had had university racing.

Thanks for your thoughts/stories. It is interesting to see what it’s about for various peoples. The common thread, is of course, fun.

Still not sure where this racing road will take me, but even if this is as good as it gets, I think we’re onto something worthwhile.

I was just talking about goal setting with another father/daughter racer. I told them that with my daughter we have a long term goal (5 year), which is to still be racing and having fun, while hopefully being competitive. We have a one year goal about what we want to accomplish in the current year, which this year changed for us because we decided we needed to move up from Cadets to Juniors due to weight. The goal for this year is to get used to and comfortable with the larger and more powerful kart and be ready to compete next year with others that move up. And finally we will have a night/race goal, which changes each night depending on where and who we are racing against, but usually centers around getting faster and having fun. Each smaller goal helps lead to the success of the bigger goal.

And truthfully, the overall goal is to have fun while getting better.

First year now with a racing kart after one year spending at rentals 400cc karts.

Just trying to learn the sport and set up the kart back home with my own hands a friend a six pack of beers.

I want to see me get on the race pace one day.
But I’m happy just going for practice sessions on Sundays with the family In various race tracks.

Nope :slight_smile: The BUKC has now migrated to Rotax engines, and strictly speaking ‘100cc’ means more than engine capacity in the context I was referring to which is the CIK classes - Formula A / ICA / Formula Super A prior to the introduction of KF etc… :slight_smile: It can be confusing I know

Thanks for the clarification. I assumed those were 100cc engines.

So how did everyone’s 2019 Goals play out?

I was able to maintain a steady body weight after losing nearly 35 lbs and raced near minimum weight all year. I improved my fitness in some areas throughout the year but my weight didn’t really change.

I felt like half way through the year I really started to understand how to adjust the kart better and really found the sweet spot…which as many of you know isn’t far from baseline on an OTK but I went too far on a couple of adjustments and know where they weren’t any good. I want to continue to better understand tuning variables going into 2020 as staying ahead of the track is something I’m still not doing well.

My statement on May 9 was that I didn’t need to win races to be happy, I just needed to be competitive…well competitive I was as I won plenty of races and brought home a club championship in old fat guy Yamaha class. The two times I went to New Castle I qualified 1st and second and in both races I was a factor for the win.

Most importantly I had fun this year. I had moments that were great, moments that were bad but every week I couldn’t wait to get back to the track to see what happened next.

Looking at getting a KA100 for next year to allow me to jump around and explore even more venue’s.

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Well, as this is my first year in this sport my goal was to get into the final round of my one and only amateur competition that lasts for (almost) entire season. Meaning that during the course of 4 months in my first year driving, I need to compete with other more experienced people who don´t have money for racing karts and serious competitions but have skill and are dedicated to this sport, meaning they are here for quite some time. So me as a 16yo rookie vs bunch of people that I have no clue about who they are but are fast indeed! I managed to get into final stages and got a chance to compete against 24 top level drivers still considered amateurs. In the middle of the competition I bumped here, desperately seeking for some help about driving, as there is no way of education about it here. I met some very nice people who spent quite some time explaining basic stuff to me, criticizing me and helping me to somehow find a right path and to improve. Everything is going in the right direction so far and the main event is coming up in 3 days. Counting the hours!

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My goal right now is just to improve as much as possible. I started karting a couple years ago and I have my eyes set on possibly moving to cars in a couple years but I also have aspirations to try and work in motorsport.

I just recently moved up to a regional level and am looking now to get better at not only driving, but also tuning and understanding the kart better. I’ve got an amazing group of people that I race with and i’m having more fun than ever so it’s going pretty well at the moment.

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Since our goals changed this year, I can say that we did a very good job with our new goal (which is stated above). My daughter got much more comfortable in the larger kart. She even told me that she had gained more confidence this year than what she originally had. She out performed some of my expectations at some races, so I can say that is a win. At the beginning of the year, I would have only been considering regional races for her, but now we’re talking about possible doing a little traveling next year and doing a national level race or two.

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Very new to karting. Current goal is to improve and enter as many events as I’m able. Currently, my options for karting is limited to rental leagues at two local companies due to no local running kart club. This suits me just fine right now. Am currently focused on just one track, will be expanding to another track next year.

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Goals: I only got a few races in for 2019 F-series but I think I had a great race that allowed me to see some real consolidation in the stuff I had been working on. I think for this coming season it’ll be all about rentals and sim. NJMP seems to be having success with rental series so it’s likely they will keep cranking those out.

Secondary goal would be top 5 USA on all 3 tracks in KK in KZ. With an eye to 1, but that may prove to be a tall order, realistically.

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Actually, the year went ok.
I will say that I had more fun this year, than others, since I had competitive equipment and reliable equipment.

I’ve been focusing more on enjoying the process of driving my kart, and less on the results of the races. It ends up working itself out in the end anyway.

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