KartPulse KartKraft Throwdown Season 1

This is what Alan Dove from the UK says.

seems decently close, impressive

They have done a great job. Its not perfect but I don’t know that it can be. The interpretation is very realistic.

New track this AM. North Texas Karters.

https://www.ntkarters.com/track-info/track-map-photos.html

… The race track is a .5 mile track with nine turns and two long straights. Normally the track is run counter-clockwise.

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Is the track bumpy as all hell for you? Front straight seems especially bad.

Was able to rattle off a 35.9 and just missed global #1. I’m sure people will be doing 34’s before too long…

Yes. It is bumpy as heck and there are areas in the edge of the track that are wavy and stuff. I think it’s because we are driving on what would be kerbing?

After a bit I started to get the hang of it. There is a smooth way around, the rubber is just less clear.

I am totally thrilled about the banking and flow of the place. The tight chicane is my problem, currently. NIce lap. Best I have done so far is a dirty 36.1. I am enjoying this track quite a bit.

Here’s a lap of the new track. What makes this place very interesting are the banked turns. The opening act involves a straight into a big banked turn which throws you into another tighter radius banked turn, and, then, into another one. Whee!

The track isn’t done. This is a mod and the fella who made it intends to add kerbs, functional lighting, etc. the wierd bumpiness is apparently due to the fact that it is made using drone footage instead of laser scanned. They have to manually smooth some areas where height data gets messy.

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Nice lap! Did you get a vid?

No video, unfortunately. I’m using the brakes to rotate the kart into the banked corners, and that seems to get me through sector one quite well. The chicane is quite difficult to be consistent through. I hit a bit of curb on the first apex, and as much curb as possible on the second, drifting into the grass slightly on exit. I again rotate the kart under braking, though not as dramatically, at the end of the back straight, and get back to power pretty early. Last sector is tricky due to the bumps. I late apex the first bit, but with about half of the kart in the grass, and make sure not to turn in too early to the last corner. Shorter gearing seems to help here as well.

So, I feel really solid pretty much everywhere except that insane chicane. I am forever dirtying the entrance by taking too much grass (early?).
What does seem to work is a slight reduction in speed a bit earlier, and then squeezing throttle all the way through from turn in.
I get it sometimes but I am not ready for 35.x until I get this wired. Optimal is there, turn isnt.

The big round turn at the end of the back straight is hilarious. You can late, late brake there and pull so darn hard on folks being cautious. The final turn exit is tricky without kerbing. I keep dropping back right wheel onto the angled part of the edge of track and then shooting off into a lightpole! :grinning: They need to remove that impediment to my progress.

I’m running 10-74 currently which feels pretty standard.

Thanks for sharing your experience.

36.091 North Texas Karters

First “fast” lap on the new track. That’s about as close to the tire wall I’d like to go to. Yeesh.

35.843 NTK US 1 GLB 2


S1: 9.88
S2: 10.29
S3: 15.68

The chicane is an amazing feeling when you nail it. Its so dicey, right, left, right. When it is done right, its like you are shock rotating the kart; bam, bam, bam. But somehow it’s efficient, and feels absolutely right.

I have also been paying attention the the final turn exit sequence. The speed down the straight is an absolute must with the short gearing (10-74). A slightly less good launch turns a great lap into a 36.3. I’m really trying to get as much flow as I can, using as much track as I can, to take it such that I can really get all of the exit. I brake early and gently on the first turn to get far right before turning out. I was slightly off here. Somehow I pulled off a screamer, though. I have done 1/10th faster, however.

This place is the land of “How early can I get back on gas?”. Moderating how “hard” you get back on gas seems to be key in terms of maximizing grip in the banked sections.

Had been lapping at a better pace in the last couple of days, working into better and better times within each sector. Improved my overall lap by a tick, but was still in the 35.9 range. Just this evening I was hitting best sector times that would add up to 35.501 (S1 9.710, S2 10.167, S3 15.624), and FINALLY strung together a strong lap that landed me P1 Global (at least for now)!

35.601 Boom!

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Nice. Congrats! That’s quite an accomplishment. I am not sure why, but it’s a very hard track to string all 3 sectors together.
I was in a desert for laptimes after hitting the .84. Past couple of days, it’s all been coming together and I started to land a bunch of laps in the ballpark of my best. Now the final challenge is figuring out what exactly makes some s3 sub 16s.
I just have to be patient and it will happen. Also, Eric Chin posted a nice time so the game is afoot.

This is where I’m at. I am now capable of, on occasion, nailing chicane. I can now be neck and neck everywhere. It, however, is a matter of finding the exit and clocking a 15.6-8, to land solid sub 35. So hard. Dirty as heck but the bones of the lap are solid.

I am curious to know what the aliens will do here. Is it possible to see a sub 35? I am having trouble seeing that, but maybe I can convince Tanguy to show us how it’s done.

Oh, hey… Did you guys find the little jump? If you cut off the chicane, you can get some air time (just a little bit) but its fun.

Here’s where I’m talking about. I have gotten air over another ghost, believe it or not. This one is lame, however. Not much height but it feels like I was all 4 off for about 5-8 feet.

There’s quite a bit of jump potential if we can just figure out how to use the back of the banks. Tear down fencing!

Now its all coming together… If you look at just one, this is the most best!

@Muskabeatz Wowie. Also Eric nailed a great lap too. You guys are close!

I have been trying 73,74, and 75 teeth. I cant make up my mind. Thoughts?

Damn, he sure did! Looks like he did it all in the first sector. I recall doing laps in the 9.6xx range for sector 1 once, MAYBE twice. It seems to take the just right amount of rotation in order for the kart to hook up mid corner, allowing you to carry max rolling speed while also holding a tight line mid-corner (this is critical). At this point I think I’d only be able to lay down a 35.5xx if I literally did a perfect lap.

I seem to perform best in short spurts, rather than extended sessions of pounding laps. Typically my first few laps of the session are best, and then I just get sloppy from there…opposite of real life for me lol

I’m running a 9-66. Haven’t gone much shorter than that on gearing, though I expect a shorter ratio would make it a bit more forgiving in the tight stuff.

I occasionally get those 15.6x. Not sure what makes them happen. Mostly I am trying to be free and smooth now. Hell of a lap, I doubt I can catch you.
Thanks for the gearing. I will give it a shot. I’ll let you know if I see any 9.6x. I think I am down there once or twice as well. More likely .7-.8.

…This concept makes a massive difference in turn 3, the last banked turn of S1. Thank you for the observation.

Tanguy poked at me about my unorthodox braking approach in sim so I figured I’d give the old late, hard a go.

My optimal dropped into your neighborhood on my first session. 35.559. While I was not able to seal the deal tonight, I did find speed.

It looks to me like I can do the 9.6 S1 that Eric did. I think I dropped into the .6 once and landed many low .7.

I landed a 10.124 S2 on a lap that didn’t count but followed it up with a 10.20 that did, and its the fastest on the board!

It’s conceivable I can catch you guys, which surprises me. Last night, I would have said different.

Thanks for the gearing. That’s what I used tonight.

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First off, happy holidays to you and everyone here. Managed to find some time finnaly :slightly_smiling_face:

I reviewed all the footage you have here. It was very interesting watching you improve each time. I don´t know how close this is to RL, I guess not quite, but you certainly implement a lot of things you learnt from RL karting. It is fascinating to me how much effort you put in these laps, how patient you are. Every lap looks better. Looking at first attempt and the last one, you really nailed it. Although I have seen you struggling in the hairpins at the start, you improved there as well! I am not sure are you still doing PFI but I think you can get somewhere around 55.2-3s. Not kidding, there is still places I feel you can improve but I have never driven KK so I might be wrong. I think, what is the key about this track, that you find the smooth line. You had sharp inputs and aggressive approach start but I feel you are more careful on the wheel now. Keep doing that.

Also, I have a question. Did you consider turning off the ghost? Personally, I find it more difficult to drive time trial in RR with a ghost in front of me, I feel like it messes my braking points and I am not as focused as I could/should be. It´s probably just a matter of choice or adaptation to it, just curious.

By the way, I am very happy to be back here, talking about something interesting for a change. A lot of school again and the weather is pretty annoying here as well. Hopefully it gets warmer in a month or two, I need some seat time, it has been too long already :zipper_mouth_face: