KartPulse KartKraft Throwdown Season 1

You and @tjkoyen inspired me to get on and run some laps at NTK. Did so with the higher driver position (60%), but all else equal to my previous setup. Rattled off a 35.1xx on lap 3, and then was kind of floundering until about lap 15 or 20. I’m really glad you had the screenshot of my old sector times, otherwise I wouldn’t have remembered. I knew I was leaving a lot of time on the table in S2 with my previous best lap, so I was able to tidy that up, and also improve both of the other sectors. My lucky day I guess!

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Well all right all right all right! US Leaderboard gets serious now. Top 4 all should be sub 35, all are capable of it. I do not know Ethan Lampe yet, however.

Congrats @Muskabeatz Evan. You are my new favorite controller player.

BTW: I was talking with Nick about the progression of skateboarding and I was telling him about Zero and Muska and Jamie Thomas’s antics in the day. Never got to meet them since I was a NorCal guy, but Jake was great friends with Cardiel.
That guy was fearless, literally. Fun fact: He sleeps with his eyes open. The photo Jake wanted for Cardiel’s SOTY cover was John on the ground, basically in a pool of his own blood, lol. There was this crazy triple kink in Hunter’s point he was trying to get him or the Gonz to do, I think, and slammed pretty hard. Luke Ogden was shooting the session and got the photo of John in pain on the ground.

Unfortunately, Fausto killed the idea. If I recall correctly, he pointed out that our distributor might have an issue with John’s bloody face disturbing customers at the newstands.

Ding!


No video, Aaargh!
@tjkoyen Come close the loop when that airbrush of yours isn’t blowin!

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Interesting background! I’ve actually been getting back into skateboarding a bit here and there. Now that quarantine restrictions are starting to ease up, I’m really tempted to hit the skate park and cruise around. Been watching a ton of more recent skate videos on YouTube, and my god, some of these guys in the scene now are just insane. Milton Martinez’s Demolicion part instantly vaulted him to my favorite “modern era” skater. Thrasher also has a pretty cool series of videos called My War, where they go behind the scenes of a lot of the big tricks guys are doing. The one on Milton’s ender for that part is pretty cool, and gives some great context into how hard this stuff actually is that they’re doing.

I used to use the controller as an excuse, but I’m obviously past that point now. I feel like the new physics work well, and a bit of practice has certainly helped too. Still wish I had a full wheel/pedal setup :sob:

I wish you did too. There’s a whole world of stuff you feel with a wheel thats missing from the controller. The controller was still excellent when I used it, just a totally different thing.

I haven’t watched any modern skate stuff, got sucked into the Gopro channel and redbull type stuff as I got older. I will check those out. I have always been amazed by progression, and how exponential it is, particularly in these boardsports.

Oh, cool story. I was skating Palo Alto skate park with Chris Senn and Phil Shao and broke my ankle. :sunglasses: That counts as cool, right? But on a serious note, Phil Shao at Palo Alto was a lifetime memory. He was so graceful and so lofty. Chris Senn was a monster at Sacto, however. Impressive skaters, for sure.

the hands down most impressive skater I have ever seen has to be a guy named Pete Colpitts aka “The Ox”. He was know for his pool skating. Pools have EXTREMELY tight transitions, particularly in the shallow end. Let me put Pete’s genius into perspective: One footed roll ins into shallow end, straight on. And no, the other foot did not come down as he transitioned. One foot roll out.
I witnessed him do this and so many other mindblowing, impossible feats at the old pool out in Palm Springs desert.

With my son getting into graphics design, I should go up to the attic and get my stuff. I have cool photos and art. So many talented artists too: The Gonz, Ed Templeton (Toy Machine) and many others. Many great non-skater artists working in the industry too, doing the graphic design. I recall really liking Giant’s work. He did a lot of boards for Think and it’s associated brands. Love the art, always have.

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Muskabeatz kicking my butt mostly. But I give him Hell at GVKC. Apologies for the bugged sections.

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Decided to give up on the CRG and go back to a trusty IPK chassis. Once I dialed that in after many laps, felt more comfortable for me. Optimal is 34.5.

10-70 gearing. Gotta be ultra smooth to make that work, but with the chassis dialed in better to my driving style, I was able to roll better through the final sector.

Your move dudes. :beers:

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Kickass! That S2 time tho…

Do you feel a difference between the chassis? Does the IPK seem to require a different setup in order to optimize? I’ve been running the CRG ever since I started chasing Dom, but might give another chassis a go.

Nice work. Kartpulse Podium!

The low gear vrs high questions linger. I went back up to 65 for that lap. What did you run?

Yeah every chassis feels noticeably different. Or at least the different manufacturers do. All the IPK karts feel similar, all the DPE karts feel similar. The CRG has always felt weird to me.

Going from the CRG to the Praga I changed caster and front width basically. The Praga feels softer, so it doesn’t snap into the corner as hard, but it has almost none of the rear steer I get with the CRG.

10-70, which is a 9-63. I feel like the high gear has no advantages anywhere at NTK.

I see a leaderboard in need of a KP podium.:grinning:


I took the liberty of jumping ahead of @tjkoyen and @Muskabeatz to see if I could entice them to another battle. :thinking: I set this with 9-65. Same setup as always.

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Awesome lap Dom! I was coming back here around the same time to follow up on the chassis discussion. I ran a few laps with the Formula K at PFI, and it definitely felt different. Had to break for dinner after only 10-15 laps, so only managed a 56.2xx, which was basically equivalent to my previous time trial best. Popped back in the CRG, and after 5 laps rattled off a personal best. No clue how to catch the guy in P1 for the National leader board.

Nice lap! Excellent S3. Do you find that the final complex @ PFI is a bit easier with the new grip? Also, I cut the heck out of that final corner they put the cone on. It’s worth a tenth. You can take pretty much all of it without being dirty and it makes the exit so much better.

PFI is another track I haven’t really made a big effort at lately, It’s so darn long. The new “Classic” version is surprisingly fun. I always assumed PFI must have been boring without the bridge. Absolutely not. It turns into a high-speed slingshot with that first turn. It’s amazingly fun trying to hook that turn up and roar into the first braking zone. I used to hate the two cutbacks after the bridge. Somehow they make more sense when you approach them from the classic layout.

I’d say I find the last complex slightly more difficult, especially when running 60% vertical seat position. The trade off is that through most corners I find it much more predictable and consistent, making it easier to run laps around my optimal. Ran a few 55.8’s when we were online the other day, so I think getting quicker was only a matter of time. I do hammer the last curb, though if you don’t take enough of it then the front of the kart snags, and sends you flipping into oblivion, which happens to me all the time.

I agree with you on the Classic layout…great fun!

To the point of being able to run quick laps easier, I busted out a quick 5-lap run at GKCV and had good results :grin:

Congrats!
Now that’s a tightly packed leaderboard. Just a few hundredths across the top 5 US. Imagine what a fun race that would be.

Yohoo!

@Muskabeatz Can you unseat the mighty, but also mightily unmotivated Tanguy from US 1? There are easier foes for us to hunt. Perhaps our energies are best spent culling the weak, before gunning for the Aliens :alien:. Here’s the 55.3 he set on the way to that 55.1:


It was a great pleasure chasing @tjkoyen. He drives a calm and sensible line which is pleasant to tuck in behind and follow along. Much was learned. :100:

Off to GVKC because I am a bothered by how few hundredths seperate the top 5. Clearly I must act.

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GVKC Revisited


Et voila! Now all we need is TJ to complete the podium. This was done with 9-65 gearing.

I’m close on GKCV. I’ve gotten to the point there were I’m able to run clean 39.8s for lots of consecutive laps. Just need to piece together one 110% lap. My optimal was a .5 so it’s close.

I do get a little rear-steer there in the final hairpin pretty often so I might try to tune that out.

I don’t really feel like I made any significant screw ups other than being a bit spastic in the beginning of the uphill part, where you turn after the fast sweeper. It wasn’t bad, but it was pretty reactive. Definitely not one angle held through the turn. More like 4.

I am curious as to how #1 broke 39. That is quite the accomplishment.

Also, I am confused about something. Maybe one of our Australian pilots can help. The track is called Greater Victoria Karting Club. Why is it GKCV instead of GVKC?

The rear steering is something I have had to embrace. It seems to be important to navigating the rubber well. I don’t know if it’s related but I often feel like good turns I am being “pulled” through rather than pushed from the rear. Illogical, I know. That being said, it feels like the rear of the kart isn’t sliding.

Hey all. Just wanted to introduce myself. I just downloaded KartKraft and have two nights of experience with it and am having a blast. I’ve only run geel and ended up 28th in the US after night two, although I’m still way off the times I see you all running. My son runs X30 and 206 at NCMP and we also run Yamaha and 206 at Whiteland and do a variety of other regional / national races. I raced Yamaha pipe in the 90s and 206 in 2017 & 2018 but keeping up tuning for CT running so many classes and races has gotten me out of the seat… plus I’m way too fat and out of shape… maybe I’ll get back in if I can get this kid better at turning wrenches. Anyway, if you see me on KartKraft (when multiplayer is enabled for me) say hey.

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