Fun was had, kart was eh, track was awesome though.
Indeed but despite the crappy kart we rallied back to finish 6th. What a challenging and fun race. It was all about the draft.
More pics and thoughts to come.
Andre Squeezed
Looking around. I found @jfeder in 2021 taking the lead. Here’s the start and Jake working his way up to first. This is an old race but first time I’m seeing this footage.
So, the race…
We finished 6th, which was a good result considering our challenges.
Andre qualified successfully for us, landing p2 by a few hundredths.
However, he got ran off in the first couple lap scrum and lost draft, shuffling us far back, down to like 12th or something.
We soldiered and kept driving, ultimately making up a bunch of spots. We were hampered by kart #2 and it’s vanishing top-end (which got progressively louder). Due to a shortage of karts, we were stuck with crap kart for 2/3 of race as there was nothing to swap into available. I would like to make it very clear that the kart sucked and that’s our reason for being not first. It’s important to establish that we Scum, normally, are unbeatable.
This race was ultimately about the draft. It was worth at least .5 per lap. I spent most of my time simply chasing down slower drivers, never getting to spend much time in draft.
I did have one battle which was instructive: the driver had a better kart so had more speed between corners, but was slower into corners.
What I should have done is kept pushing the guy down the straights and not passed him into any corners. Since he had more top end, every time I’d pass, he’d be able to catch back up. So, maybe next time, don’t pass him, knowing that he’s gonna catch, and instead just use him as a windshield. At least that way, I’d get better laptimes from the towing bit and maybe in time he’d have started braking deeper. But, I eventually got away.
Since we lost the draft in the first two laps, it seems like we spent the rest of the race just passing folks, trying to catch up to draft train. It was a fun race though.
Driving wise the primary challenge seemed to be getting the kart down to apex of final corner. That seemed to be a consistent complaint for all our drivers.
What made this really fun is Chris abolished track limits t2-5, allowing us to use ALL of the track and get as much revs up the hill as possible. Good fun!
Here’s a timestamp of what not apexing and using the width does to speed up over crest:
The new schedule will be up soon and I will undoubtedly assemble the Scum again, shortly! Thanks to Elias, Andre and Marc for hoofing the kart and coming down to Georgia!
Oh and if there are any locals here… we were sort of baffled by the rubber build up on the inside edge of t4 exit. Karts don’t travel here. Yet there’s rubber that looks like folks have been cutting the corner and laying rubber down. Have they been drag racing kart stands there or something?
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Nice write up I enjoyed reading it.
I’m a member at AMP, and my “guess” is there are some shenanigans going on with some of the public karts in turn 4.
I never see anyone in that part of the track, but that rubber is coming from something lol.
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Thanks Brandt… our best guess… RC car racing when no one is looking.
I believe we actually had the same kart for the entire race. It seems like as the day got hotter the top end got exponentially worse. I set a 1:10.4 in my second stint, but could only manage a 1:10.9 in my last stint, and that lap felt very quick.
The draft was wild. It was so drastic. I formed a little draft pack with the two leaders in my second stint. The speed gains were so drastic that some previously flat out turns had to be taken with a lift
It was remarkable how the draft would suck you in by corner of back straight. Part of that was some folks braking early but in general, draft was super important.
Something to remember for our next race there. What’s odd is the draft wasn’t as significant last time.
Did your 10,000+ sim laps around the couple corners help out? Same racing line you worked on transfer IRL?
Oh yeah, this is not my first time at amp, btw. But, yeah. It’s exactly the same in game. The rental karts don’t have x30 grip though. I was struggling to get the kart down to apex in final turn as in the shade, rental brakes, and hard tires respond more laconically.
That being said, it’s exactly the same, when accounting for that. The cambers, everything, spot on.
The kerbs are much less friendly irl. The washboards are deep and really upset the kart more than in the game. I didn’t really try to use the kerbs in final turn like I do in game. I half-assed a couple attempts and it does appear to be doable, though. I just was struggling with getting down to apex enough that I didn’t feel like trying to send it sideways across the apex. But, I did get the front end over a couple times and yeah, it will work.
I don’t take the straight line across the chicane kerbs in 5 either, irl. The normal kerbs are higher irl.
Unsurprisingly the line is the line in game and irl. The grip irl is more variable and there’s lots of shade/sun.
Here’s me missing the braking and not getting the kart to bite in 12. I then plow/bounce off (missed) apex and almost into wall. Good fun. Shade changes things but it’s kinda slippery down there in general. I think it’s the camber.
I’d say that the texture of the surface irl is glassier. There’s a sort of lower grip quality to real amp as compared to fake amp.
Amp is “easier” irl, somehow. Not sure if that’s SOS at work in rentals as compared to blasting around in KZ and x30. Probably that.
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Holy understeer batman. I was wincing watching that turn. That’s surprisingly faster than I was expecting for a four stroke rental kart.
I’ll have to try and make it back out to AMP next year for a race.
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I bought a few goodies for my Hero 8 (512GB SD card, foam cover, 3rd party larger batteries and new lateral cover to allow for USB passthrough) but damn the quality on those GP12 is great …
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Clayton is right. That was sketchy!! I knew you didnt hit the wall, but still puckered in my seat thinking you were going to.
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10 bit color, baby 
The chin view is awesome.
It wasn’t that sketchy irl. There’s a ton of apron so unless you really overdo it, you are ok. In sim, you’d usually crash more up top sorta imagine line from apex to wall diagonally.
If you get really greedy in x30 and try to run the wide line out, bad things can happen on exit, (but not at 9hp). The track ends and you can zing mightily as the traction shifts under rear right.
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I used a GoPro on the chin for as long as it was allowed. Great POV for observing inputs, lines and on-track action.
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There was a guy who posted amp footage with a chin mount a couple years back.
He also threw on a neutral density filter and filmed 24fps to get less “perfect” footage and it looked fabulous.
The ND filter forces slower shutter speeds.
Fun stuff:
The 12 does not have telemetry, btw. They dropped the GPS to get better battery life. I guess almost none of us were using the data. I guess no more race render for me.