What is the weight limit for TaG Masters?

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Where are you located?

What age bracket are you in? Junior (<16), Senior (16+) or Masters (30+)

On a scale of 1-10, how would you rate your mechanical ability, or willingness to wrench on things?

Talk a little about your racing experience so far.

What’s the main thing you need help with to get you started.

Was 390 x30 and 385 rotax I believe. Your series may be different.

We run 390 for Rotax Evo and Rok GP. 385 for Rotax non evo and Iame X30

The club I race most, North Texas Karters, follows Tag USA Rules. See tagraging.net for details.

Master ranges from 390 up to 430 depending on engine package.

I currently live in Dallas Texas. There are two tracks near me, North Texas Karts is about an hour North of me and Dallas Karting Complex about a half hour East of me. DKC offers rentals, a rental league and in the past some club racing. NTK offers club racing and a test drive program. Their websites have more details.

I generally run Tag Masters, but sometimes in Senior if no other masters. I have a 2014 Tony Kart EVK with a IAME MY09 Leopard that I purchased second hand. On a side note: By searching many of the Karting clubs’ website forums, I was able to find what I was looking for that met my budget and in acceptable condition for my needs.

I was fortunate to grow up in a house with automobile racers, so as part of the crew wrenching on things came with the territory. I helped pay for college as a mechanic at a local garage for a few years, before transitioning to selling service repairs. I am still learning kart setup and the dynamics of the changes I make.

My first outing was a bust. Old tires, wrong seat position, bad setup and worn components. Ended up throwing a chain in heat 1. Hopped through all the fast left handers and killed my ribs. Had a blast!!! My body disagreed, lol. Over the first season, picked up a rib vest, got my seat where I think it should be based on measures and weight distribution I found online for Tony Karts and I was off to the races. Two seasons in, I am still chasing set up.

My biggest issue is my size. I am 6’9 and weigh 225. Had a front porch custom made for the newer Tony front end so I could fit in the kart before I even hit the track for the first time. I have scoured the inter-webs for set up info only to find near misses and great base lines if I were 5’10 and under 180. As it stands the kart and I cross the scales around 410 at the end of the race. That’s about 20 lbs over minimum for my package. Needless to say I usually get lapped near the end of a 20 lap final. My setup is generally neutral, caster, ride height, front track. I do run slight positive camber which flattens under my weight, low seat (bottom under rails and leaned back), usually max rear track (55.25in), 2 additional left seat struts and 1 additional right. Front blade verticle. Third bearing held by zipties. Short rear hubs. Weight distribution is 47% front 53% rear. A friend let me use his race scales to verify after last seat reposition. I have a 10 tooth front and 80 tooth rear sprocket installed with a couple up and down rears to play with. MG Reds are spec tire. Seat is a Tillet T11t.

From what others have observed, I have massive inside lift and the kart ends up hopping dramatically from apex out, making it hard to get back on throttle. If I slow down more at corner entry, rpms drop too low and engine bogs for slower exit. Currently hitting Rev limiter before end of longest straight and still quick through long banked left at the end of it (NTK). Kart has good turn in.

My driving has improved some and I take video from the front fairing as a tool to help. Thinking of moving the camera to radiator or seat post to see what my hands are doing too. Try to keep my hands slow to avoid unloading inside rear to quickly and inducing hop. I often find myself shifting my upper body around to keep kart stable under braking and degrees of turning. It helps some, but I feel like it is only compensating for poor setup. Our local Tony guru suggested lowering rear ride height and moving extra seat braces to rear holes on bearing cassettes. Possible go to h or hh axle. Idea is to stiffen rear up and control chassis twist as I understand it.

I am certainly open to any ideas or suggestions. I race for the fun of it, buts it’s a lot more fun when I can dice it up with others and not just be a rolling roadblock. :slight_smile:

P.S. Sorry for the long winded post.

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Have you considered calling the kart manufacturer and asking if they have thoughts? Your height does present an unusual situation from a setup perspective. I wonder if they might have come across this with customers before.

That has crossed my mind. Tony stopped making front porches for their karts when they switched to the new style front pedals and hoops. I guess they figured there was no longer a market for them and discontinued setup suggestions for extremely tall drivers.

I have reached out to the head of a Tony Kart based team at my local track. DJ Ortiz at Kart Racing Solutions has been racing Tonys for many years. His suggestions were noted above.

Straying a bit from the original topic, maybe James can break this thread up a bit.

It sounds like you are going in the right direction with most of your adjustments. Going stiffer on the rear axle will help your situation by limiting the rear flex. I agree with that. I would consider softening that front bar back to horizontal to eliminate some of the aggressive weight-jacking. 47% front weight is also very high. Is it possible to move the seat back at all? Typically we shoot for 41-43 front percentage and even our taller/heavier drivers are able to get around that percentage fairly easily. I would also lower the rear ride height if the hopping is that bad. Third bearing can be tightened as well to increase rear stiffness slightly. Don’t be afraid to go negative caster as well if the problem persists with all these adjustments.

WOW! Thanks for the replies…Greg yours was OUTSTANDING! I think you and I would get along just fine. I race Motorcross with a 125 and 250 two stroke so I know that aspect of it. I am 62 and just want to compete. This is an awesome site…thanks for all replies keep them coming.
Chris Dostal

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