Finally caught up on this topic as things came up that drew me away. Like many have already stated and Warren so eloquently put, aggression is a state of being often fueled by the environment. Put yourself in a high testosterone group and you find yourself upping your natural aggression levels to stay afloat or rise. Land in a casual crowd and you find your gentleman characteristics come out. Personal goals within a situation may also influence your level of aggression.
Personally, I am in my mid forties, have a career and a family for provide for so I am not going to dive bomb the driver I am trying to pass at every corner. I am going to think it through, look for their weaknesses and make sure I am where I need to be to capitalize them. When an overly aggressive driver barrels through on me, I will generally yield the spot, but in a way I can stick with them. Then, when their overdriving gets the better of them, I gain my spot back and leave them to the fodder. I am at a place in my life that I know I will not become a professional driver, have my own money invested in the thing I enjoy doing and a body that is not as forgiving as it was twenty years ago. If that means I am not aggressive enough, so be it. I am still very competitive, hate loosing and reasonably intelligent enough to know if I break something, I canāt have more fun until I heal or can afford to fix it. Iām good with that! That said, try to stick to the inside on T1 opening lap as most wrecks wash to the outside. Watch out in T2 for those A-holes trying to send it from 4 spots back! Ask me how I knowā¦
another qestion i have is how to deal with a mixed first lap it always seems to be a lottery on whether you lose or gain spots
hereās a onboard of what im talking about from grands iame us grand nationals ka100jn opening lap - YouTube
The video looked good to me; seemed like you were a net positive in positions gained up until the video ended. The bottom line is you can only drive your kart, so you really only have control of maybe 1/20th of what could happen, or maybe more realistically 1/6th or so (row in front, row behind and your row).
Your strategy looked good taking the inside on the first few turn (especially important in the wet), and it paid off in the first few turns. One thing to consider about running a rain line (which it looked like you started doing after the first few turns), is you leave yourself wide open for attack, so maybe protect the inside a bit more after the first few turn, just for a lap or two (until the craziness drops down to the usual madness level). For example, on the warmup lap, maybe drive a line that leave only 1/2 to 3/4ths of a kart width to the inside, so your outside tires are on the edge of the dry/wet line interfaceā¦ see what traction is like there, and if itās ok, maybe use that line for the first couple of laps before jumping fully to the faster wet line. Anyway, just a thought, but nice drive!
For me, I miss the action of the Masters field and mixing it up with the āyoungā guys. Usually Iām upper mid pack but do ok for a 70 YO, spending relatively ālittleā on karting. The club supports the class, as they have added it to the summer sub-championship where cash prizes go to the top 3. Overall, Iāve won 3 of the races and finished 3rd in the other. There are 2 others that are as fast and the others are catching up.
For a new class, I think we are doing good. Last month we had 7 and the month before we had 9 entries. The starting grid almost looks legit.
The split grid is better for this age group because there are any aggressive fast guys starting last trying to make ground in the main and everyone is racing their contemporaries. Also, one can tell where you are position wise but doesnāt look good on Speedhive unless sorted by class. I believe that most or all of the group appreciate the split grid.
Iād like to ask others, should this class continue or not???
Iirc when I ran masters x30 we also had a small grid of 7-10 drivers. For some races, weād double up with senior which was always a fun challenge.
Personally I prefer bigger grids but I was happy with the small grid because I was still quite new to racing and frankly, it was less stressful. T1 was rarely a mess.
Maybe having one or two more multi class races a season would be interesting to mix it up.
I entered a race semi recently where we had a 30 kart field on .6 mile track. It was the biggest local Iāve ever been involved with, and I have to say (being semi new) there was a pucker factor entering the first couple of turns. Eventually there was a 20 kart pile up which I somehow was able to avoid and sqeek through untouched. They threw the red flag and we had to restart the race, which kinda sucked for me because I went from P-22 to P-4 because I missed all the carnage in turn 3. Talk about threading the needle.
