New to Karting, was able to buy a Lo206 chassis and motor and get it all setup professionally for my first race this weekend.
Had 3 practice runs yesterday which was the first time I ever been in a racing kart, then full race day today.
Did 1 practice round to get the new tires scrubbed in, took it easy and continued to get better aquatinted with my kart. Qualifying I pushed too hard and spun and was done.
Race time we ran 2 heats and 1 main, I didn’t spin out or get lapped during any of the race which was my main goal
Overall was in no mans land so was figuring out race lines solo. Best laps had me at 49 seconds where lead group where pulling low 45’s.
In the end I’m happy, lots of work to do. Not sure how that measures up to others first time but I’m stoked and hooked.
Here is the video from the first heat, I ran better lines and laptime in the following heat and main,
I do not remember my first race. It was 21 years ago and after 3 or 4 days of practice. But I do not think that sound bad at all for first time out. The more laps you are pointed the right direction the more chance you have to get faster, and it sounds like you did just fine at that.
Not familiar with track but I’d offer that that was good, deliberate driving. You never exceeded the tire’s capability. Your engine never paused and only lugged a bit once.
I thought you were remarkably adult about the whole thing. It really appears to me that you were trying to drive carefully and get down to your apexes. I was particularly taken with, given your “newness” the patience you showed in the 2 big greater than 180 cutbacks. You late apexes these well, calmly etc.
Keep doing that and start pushing. There’s a bit more lateral loading that the kart can handle. I’d rather see you quiet through the turns than screeching, obviously. But, there’s more that you can get out of the kart as your comfort level increases.
Thanks, sim racing has definitely helped me figure out racing lines, now just need more laps in the kart to feel the limits and be able to make those lines. Fitness also played a role in the last main, i am in decent shape but after two days between practice and race day I was tired.
I personally found that I needed to get the fitness dialed in to be comfortable and competitive. The last thing you need lap 10 is wondering wether you have enough in you to make it to the end. It’s a big confidence boost knowing you can last.
Calm and measured. Not much to coach at that big of a deficit. You know what you need to work on, just going faster and finding the limits and familiarizing yourself with the kart. Looks smooth, but it’s pretty easy to be smooth at that pace. The real challenge comes when you’re on the traction limit.
Just keep pushing and don’t worry too much about the more technical aspects of driving for now. The pace gap is pretty good for your first time.
That was a bit faster, yes? Looking calm again. I like what I see. There are no big mistakes. Just pace that will come. It will be interesting to see you narrow that gap down as you get more laps under you.
Yes, def faster and was able to hold on a little longer. Is it normal for first timers to be half a lap down at the end when starting? Seeing the other guy win his first I know is probably rare and he had more experience with his kart it seems.
I know I have a lot of work to do and also know where to improve, I am happy with my result just curious what how people on average finish when starting out.
Being down half a lap or more on day 2 is perfectly normal. My only added suggestion would be to try and schedule some open practice time when there aren’t too many other karts out, maybe on a weekday or something if your local track is open then. Being in an environment where you can just get right back on the track after you spin will help with testing limits. That’s not to say that still signing up for races or busier/controlled practices isn’t helpful or that you shouldn’t do races - you absolutely still should - but track time is at a little more of a premium during those events which could make most new racers more risk-averse. Testing the limit and learning to control the kart when at the limit often involves going over the limit, so try to find some time at the track where the seat time you lose when you spin or go off track is at a minimum.
Looks better than mine! I have the 7 and for me, the audio was really garbled by wind noise. For 7 bucks I think, I got two foam wind head socks for the camera on amazon. They really work well.
Since you have a gopro with telemetry, take a look at race render. It allows you to put up things like laptimers and gauges that display the data collected by the gopro.
Here’s an example of what I mean from a video of mine. In the bottom right are laptimes being displayed. Gopro doesn’t have a widget for that, unfortunately, but racerender does.
You do have to line up the data a bit, which I can explain.
In any case, free demo version if you want to mess around with it.