Hey gang. Last Saturday had one of the toughest racing days of my career. I was black flagged, crashed into, broken throtle and else. I clocked the fastest time during warm up and qualified 3rd on used tires out of 12.
During the race I couldn’t find the best way to over take. On straights I could get a bit close but didnt feel very confident on stretching breaking.
I’d love to hear ideas about this without fearing on hitting anybody
Sounds like it was a chaotic race!
If you’re equally matched with other competitors, then sometimes making a pass is either about forcing the issue, or about capitalizing on their mistakes. Even at the top level, drivers make mistakes. If you’re close enough to go for a pass when they do, that may be your best shot.
Sometimes I see drivers lay back a little as they approach another driver, then really really dive into a braking zone behind a competitor, testing to see just how deep they can go into a corner before they go for a pass. That’s a ‘safe’ way to test your confidence in that corner, maybe something to try.
If you’re nervous about late braking passes, another thing to do is to simply practice with someone you trust on a test day. They could probably use the practice too.
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Like Eric said sometimes it’s better to not try and pass at all. But rather just try to break them psychologically by keeping pressure on them, observing where they might make an error and be ready to pounce when the opportunity presents.
Presenting your nose, braking later and just generally positioning yourself so that they see you. Again though, you’re doing this (especially the late braking) not necessarily with the intent of passing them, but making your presence known and hoping they make a mistake at some point.
Patience is the biggest thing. When you’re overtaking, you’re looking for an opportunity where you can take advantage of a change in speed. Many times, when your opponent is the same speed as you, it’s easier to stay close to them to apply pressure and force them to make a mistake (either by falling off a rhythm, or by waiting for them to catch up to another kart in front of them, so that they fall off the rhythm when they try to overtake.)
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One thing to keep in mind is that you don’t need to actually get past the other driver under braking. All you need to do is to get along side far enough to own the corner and finish the job at apex. I think a big mental block many drivers have is that they envision the pass but in their head it seems much harder because they aren’t considering they only need to actually brake about 4 feet later than usual, so in their mind the distance and difficulty seems much bigger because they are thinking they need to dive in really hard and late and get past the other driver before the corner.
I always pick a spot for each particular overtake, so I’m constantly studying the karts in front to see where they are weakest. To be more mentally comfortable, you want the overtake to be as straight forward as possible, so a higher percentage of success.
Once you’ve done all the mental prep-work, it’s just a matter of mustering up the courage, putting your trust in the other driver to not cause an accident, and driving in deep. If there’s one positive that my consistently poor qualifying form has given me, it’s how much practice I’ve gotten at effectively overtaking!
Here’s a few videos:
Passing 25 karts - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSVy608x2zg&t
Passing 10 karts (pay attention to my footwork to see braking points) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBg9Tbgz3LM
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Good stuff. I’ve tried this: during practices, find a breaking point on the oposite side(where the turn is). Also when overtaking, I try not looking at the car at all but further ahead maybe the apex
I’ve tries that too. However, waiting too long gives the chance to the followers too catch up rapidly
All good tips so far in this thread…
I reckon having total confidence in your braking will help. Are you happy to brake later than your regular point, and know you can still make the turn with no drama at all, just a time loss on the stopwatch? Are you happy to control it if the kart jumps sideways?
If not, overtaking is quite a big jump into the unknown. So working on braking until you feel invincible might help.
One more thing, it can help if you first work on getting past a driver without worrying about making the move stick at first. So if you make a pass, and then run wide and let the other driver get you back then that’s fine - you can work on making moves stick later.
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Sometimes that’s racing though. Sometimes, there aren’t opportunities to overtake, and the race is about holding the position you have. Other times, it’s a sprint to the front.
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I found this really cool video on Youtube. It might help
I liked this. The audio quality could use a little work, (but who am I to judge if you hear my podcasts :P). I like that he did a thing, and had a good detail for what someone would need. 
I would advise against the “extreme lunge” in most cases… Jeeeeez that was late haha. 
I’ve found the only times extreme passes like that work is if the overtaking driver has a high-level of track knowledge or home-track advantage. I know that I’ve made some reeeeally deep passes at Dousman in a few corners (sometimes with the inside wheels in the grass) but I’m only able to do that because I have 15 years of laps at that track, so I know exactly where the very last inch of grip is in each corner. Or at least I did until they re-paved it all now.
That was a brave move with lots of skill, but I wouldn’t advise an extreme lunge in a tutorial where you learn people how to overtake. It would not be my choice to use that example because it kind of contradicts with the rest of his (strong) message: the key to a clean overtake is to get alongside the other driver so that he cannot turn into the corner.
True story. You also have to remember that it’s a kid doing the video, so of course not everything is going to be fully thought through 
Granted, it does show why just divebombing the corner isn’t always a good idea. 