Thank you for posting this. I’m having a hard time seeing where you get off the brakes in this video. I can easily notice the big movement of your toes and your thigh when you start applying heavy brake pressure, but as you trail off, I can’t tell if you’re completely off the brakes or still applying 20% pressure.
Use the YouTube speed control to drop the playback speed to 25% speed (0.25), then, if you are still having trouble telling what’s happening with the brakes based on TJ’s foot, watch the brake master cylinder arm instead.
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That helps, thanks! It seems like he brakes about 70% of the way from the beginning of the braking zone to the apex. @tjkoyen and others, what is the most efficient way to improve braking technique during practice days?
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Pick one heavy braking zone, set up a cone, practice braking later and later and keep moving the cone forwards until I lock up/miss the apex?
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Same as above but don’t move the cone and focus instead on consistency and faster corner exit (completing rotation and getting on throttle earlier) instead of braking later?
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Follow someone faster and try to brake where he brakes?
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Just drive hot laps as fast as I can?
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Another method that you recommend?
This is the exact drill I use when coaching. It’s how I learned where the limit was and how to get comfortable being at the limit.
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Follow TJ’s advice above, but I would recommend doing that with just straight-line braking at first.
Once you are really comfortable/confident braking at the limit, then you could try introducing some trail-braking into your practice routine. However, remember that trail braking extends the braking zone, so you probably will have to move the start of your braking zone just a little closer to the turn in order to arrive at the apex with the same speed/energy.
Also, as you are getting comfortable with trail braking, consider that when you turn into a corner with the brakes on, in addition to continuing to reduce the kart’s speed, the brakes also almost take on the function of a rudder on a plane; that is, it can have a small to a huge influence on how the kart rotates into the apex depending on speed, brake pressure/release, turn-in technique, etc.
There are no separate events or adjustments; everything is interconnected through cause / effect and/or influencer / influenced by relationships.
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I can’t wait to try this again. My coach made me do it once. I was way harder than I expected and definitely showed me how much more I can improve.
@speedcraft thank you. I am now skimming this thread and I’ve downloaded the free chapter on braking from Terrence’s book that was linked in the thread:
The pedal cam video of the IAME driver in that thread makes it very easy to see trail braking inputs.
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I did a video on braking that might also be worth a watch.
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Yep, def gonna watch that as well.
I blue my rotors at Whiteland. 
From the way back memory machine, on a single speed kart you don’t use trail braking to brake later - you will almost always outbreak yourself and mess up the corner. What you gain in distance you’ll lose on speed, and the lower powered the kart the more it hurts you. Trail braking is used more to help “rotate” the kart on corner entry, get yourself aimed more where you want to go. It would let you setup your kart for a little more “push” turning in to get a better run exiting. The trail brake can counter act the turn in push if done correctly.
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I trail brake, alot… but I also have my chassis setup to do so. There are corners I normally wont though and usually its corners I am really backing up for exit speed. However, I will also use this as a place people think they are safe and I will slide job them and steal the exit speed when they hit my rear bumper because I had to sacrafice corner exit speed by trail braking it in.
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By what mechanism does trail braking increase rotation? Is it because of weight transfer to front tires giving more front end grip?
Also, how do you set up a kart for understeer/push that you will then counteract by trail braking? What chassis adjustments do you make?
A little bit of a few things. Weight transfer to the front increases front grip and implies weight transfer off of the rear for less rear grip. You also have to look at the limited ability of a tire to do two things at once - you are asking the rears to both slow the kart longitudinally and stabilize the kart laterally. This will mean there is less grip for lateral (sideways) stability on the rears, so it can step out easier. At a very simplified level, a tire that can exert 2G when asked to do only one thing will only be able to exert 1.4G when asked to do two simultaneous things (brake and steer). This is why you are lifting off the brake as you get more into the turn so the rears are available for handling lateral Gs of the turn better as you ask less of them for braking.
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I always trail brake in higher performance classes (X30, TAG), KA on tighter corners.
I can’t imagine it necessary in LO206 class though with limited HP and entry speed.
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I find it sad the people that keep saying they race 206s on tracks “that don’t use much brakes”. Given the size and width of modern kart tracks, I understand. However, find an older, tighter, more technical track and you guys will have even more fun! Like Burpo mentioned, my home track you can blue a rotor (even in a 206) because we slow down and brake so much.
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It would have to be a pretty tight and twisty track. Even at Dousman in 206 I barely am braking. I think there’s two total braking zones on the track. The rest of the corners (including hairpins) it’s just a light graze of the brake or a short stab.
Something like Springfield or smaller club tracks would require more braking.
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When trail braking, is the IR still lifting?
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Curiously, in our electric karts on the swoopy plywood, we don’t brake at all. Since the karts don’t coast, lifting is braking, and it feels directly proportional. Reverse trail, but throttle.
Thats also a function of not having enough speed to warrant it as well, imho. Things would change with more speed, you’d need to decelerate more and quicker than the throttle modulation provides. But, the way the karts work, the tires do chirp when you lift to reduce speed, sometimes.
Yes! Springfield, Whiteland, Wilmington. Some speed and narrowness.
Fremont is the same but with only one really hard braking point.