Let's Talk karting etiquette and Driving Standards

The hands follow the eyes, man. :wink:

you go where your eyes go, good point Rick

Hand up signal when exiting or entering track AND if there is a problem in front of you or if you are slowing.

If you are slower than another driver don’t hold them up. Try to let all drivers lapping you by fairly and evenly. Be realistic in your ability to race with another driver. If you know they are faster you might learn more by letting them by and doing your best to follow them.

If your track has a requirement to run a rookie plate, do it.

If you are faster driver give the slow rookies a bit of room, especially at a TnT ([practice). More so the younger the kid.

Be constructive in your criticism - it will go a long way to helping retain newcomers.

Adhere to safety rules for attaching kart weights - in terms of fastener size, safety wire, double-nutting etc.
Ditto on catch cans.

Our track had a rule that rookies run an orange rear plate. Rookies were to start in the back for the first 3 races unless cleared by race officials. Realistically you should be where you belong on the grid. If not that is first a failing of the race officials. Secondly don’t fail yourself, you should be able to speak up if you feel if you are in over your head. No one except me wanted to run a rookie plate, but it just made sense to me.

Even now If I know a guy is faster than me I prefer to just ask the grid guy if I can move back on the grid. It could be something as simple as the faster driver missed qualifying but I know he is historically faster than me.

Starts to me were not as bad as the form up laps. That is where I felt the most uneasy at first. Driving a KT100 with no way to idle or restart, not used to being in a kart and side by side and being the new guy didn’t add to my serenity. Once we started on the last turn or two before the start I felt good. I had 20 minutes in a kart before my first race day - I would have done it differently If I had a do-over - so you sound smarter than me
already!!

On the start if you are near the back I would advise to just plan to stay in line as you probably aren’t likely to gain much on any risky move. But you are the one in the kart and you have go by what you see in front of you and how much you trust who is behind you. Depends a bit on whether you are on the inside or out side and what the turn looks like, how well your kart is handling. So many variables. Main thing is looking ahead and not getting too focused on one thing too early.

Just keep on your line, don’t do anything sudden, and keep your eyes ahead. The faster drivers will get around you, don’t get out of the way for them. If you’re battling for position just stay predictable.

The worst is when drivers try and turn around to see who’s coming up behind them and inevitably swerve while doing so. Seasoned drivers are guilty of it too except they’re usually fiddling with brake bias or ripping off radiator tape and end up swerving all over. I was always told to stay predictable and under control. When I hear someone faster approaching I avoid locking brakes up, needing to countersteer, etc and stay exactly where I’m supposed to be.

I’ve never understood racing that frowns upon going two wide into a corner. Karting seems to take the F1 approach which is that the corner belongs to one person or another. I get it for sprint tracks but it seems to carry over to road racing too. It’s something I’d like to see relaxed for at least road racing.

My biggest etiquette issue isn’t on the track…it’s in the pits and off the track. Be nice to the people you’re racing with and help them. The dissemination of information in karting is abysmal and the people in the pits aren’t always friendly nor helpful.

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10 posts were split to a new topic: Making Info About Karting Available to newbies

EKN are publishing a series on changing the culture of racing. Here’s the first installment from @tjkoyen

https://ekartingnews.com/2018/04/03/the-art-of-racecraft-tj-koyen/

One thing that stuck out for me:

One thing that has really bothered me in recent years is the egregious swerving I see from defending drivers. Apparently, it’s become acceptable in some of these drivers’ minds to just jerk the wheel into other drivers as they are trying to overtake. This is something that really upsets me when I watch it, because I’ve never seen a penalty called for it and it’s seems just as dangerous and aggressive as hitting someone in the rear bumper. This is an extreme form of defense. I have absolutely no problem with the ‘one-move rule’, allowing drivers to defend and crowd another driver on the straight, compromising them in an effort to hold the spot, but when a driver looks over at another driver and swerves into him, that’s a line crossed. This is racing, it’s offense and defense, but we aren’t driving rental karts. There are limits to adhere to.

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I really liked TJ’s article.
More rationale, and less ego in the content. Karting needs more of that.

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Nice article. I was watching some big-time racing on YouTube and I saw folks doing this (big defensive swerve with the intent to push the other guy) and it bugged me. Didn’t understand how that wasn’t penalized.

Also, I have been having some anxiety around racing in general in that part of racing requires (some) risk taking and I have to make my peace with that. As newcomers this year to racing, I don’t know what to expect for me and Nick. I hope racing will be fun and relatively safe, but if it isn’t and people are super aggressive, I might have to pull the plug on it and become a lifetime lapper.

Thanks guys.

@Bimodal_Rocket I know, I’ve seen drivers literally just look over at each other and smash pods all down the straight, and I’ve looked at the race director, mouth agape, and yelled “any call for that?!” with no result. I’ve never seen a penalty called for it, and I’ve seen it happen (and had it happen to me) more and more the past few years.

Fortunately, the stupid driving mostly occurs once you move up from club level, so most of the time the local guys are pretty gentlemanly… There are exceptions though!

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This is the thing that I find most shocking/ disappointing. They want to promote that their racing is better at a higher level, but then play argy-bargey.

I’ve been lucky with my home track, and some of the other tracks in my area, with regards to the helpfulness of others. I’ve always had people more than willing to help me, even though I did have people with conflicting information. However, by receiving that help, I always make sure I help the new people when they are first starting. I had a racer help me out in one of my first races, I think it might have been Rod Clinard, and I remember me thanking him and telling him he didn’t need to put so much effort into helping me. His response to me was that if he didn’t help me, and get me on the track, that he wouldn’t have anyone to race. People that don’t want to help are afraid to be beat, those that help are willing to use the competition to get better.

With regards to @tjkoyen article, great article and I am glad that EKN has put this effort forward to have respected people write these articles. One thing that TJ said in his article made me think about another possible reason for the driving behaviors that we see nowadays. He talked about a lack of respect to your equipment because some racers have spare/back-up equipment, so there really is no consequence to damaging your equipment. What I also thought about from that was the prevalence today of video game simulators, like Forza and Grand Tourisimo. Could the lack of consequences when driving these games bleed over into real life? You think about it, your battling for the lead in the video game, and make the dive bomb move to “punt” the other driver off the track, and take the win. No damage to your car, or damage that costs to repair, no penalty. I know that all the other reasons lead into as well, but this is just something I think could be a factor.

Re driving games: I doubt it. That’s sort of like saying COD makes you more likely to shoot people. 48 year old lifetime gamer here and I have yet to shoot anyone or deliberately abuse my kart.

Not necessarily talking about adults. I might do it a game, but would never do it in real life. Just thinking more about the lack of consequences in both situations. However, I do think that by driving the video games properly, can make you a better driver.

Personally, I disagree with that. As a sim-league racer myself, we get just as pissed by crappy driving standards as any other racer. Racing is racing, man.

Second installment from the EKN series in driving standards by Jamie Sieracki

https://ekartingnews.com/2018/04/10/the-art-of-racecraft-jamie-sieracki/

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Yet another call for harder tyres at club and beginner levels.
It seems to me that a large percentage of Karters want this and not just in the US of A, will promoters, clubs and national bodies listen?

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My initial learning experiences have been on Hard tires at jim Hall. I really like them in that they seem “right” when you are using them on 100cc or 4 stroke. As I am discovering this year in TAG, your stickier tires are only good for 80 laps or so and you end up spending a lot of money tires. Also, better tires are hard on the body and require a commitment to fitness. That’s fine and I welcome it, but for club level stuff, it’s a big ask for the regular joe or Jane.

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I liked hard tires because of how long they last.
That was pretty much the extent of my thought process at the time. Sooner of later one wants to move up (or not) and go to stickier tires. In the beginning harder tires give a bit more consistency in terms of tire condition. It is nice to have less variables @ first. It is also nice to not be constantly putting out money!!

Sounds an awful lot like the post above.

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Latest from EKN’s series about the art of racecraft. This time from none other than Jim Russell Jr.

https://ekartingnews.com/2018/04/25/the-art-of-racecraft-jim-russell-jr/