Also might want to check to see how your kart is scaled, to see if it’s a weight balance problem.
But start with checking your initial tire pressures first. Go with the easy win. 
I should’ve clarified that I do it while sitting in my kart, makes for good photo opportunities
1 Like
“i didn’t have to poop three minutes ago. why now!?”
3 Likes
Closing in on 50 this year… how many times am I going to have to pee before my heat? Apparently not enough.
2 Likes
Pure panic pretty much for me. I race 206 Senior and the first lap of the Pre-Final and Final are absolute mayhem. I have yet to have a clean Pre-Final in my 4 of 5 races I have started dead last after having an accident in the Pre-Final. I usually qualify 8-9th out of 20-25 but then we go into turn 1 and everyone is a dumbass and bam.
It does get better. I think I got my first good start in my thirteenth race. But yah.
Here’s hoping man I am always within .3-.4 of pole and during the race I pick people off pretty easily but it gets tiring having to replace spindles, steering columns, tie rods, axles because of people that have no regard for anything because daddy has an open check book to buy them a brand new kart when they damage theirs… not everyone is so fortunate
I hear ya. I’d say you might need to look at that as part of the challenge. Can you learn to anticipate knucklehead behavior from certain participants and capitalize on the chaos they create?
Paging @tjkoyen
Thoughts?
That feeling goes away after a while. I used to suffer from massive anixiety before the races, until I started reminding myself three things.
-
I’m choosing to be here. If it’s making me feel that bad, I can always stop, and this feeling would go away.
-
I’ve been in hundreds of races before this one, and will be in hundreds after, so we can relax and just let things play out as they do.
-
Karting should be fun. If it’s not fun, see point one.
Then the aniexty went away. That doesn’t mean that I don’t get pre-race nerves, but I don’t dread it anymore.
1 Like
I knew some guys that got so nervous they’d throw up before every race. And they were front-runners too.
I used to get really nervous when I was younger but then I went the opposite away. When I started F100 back in 2010 and we had our first race I had no nerves, pretty much no emotion at all. I think the stress of actually organising the race, getting everybody to buy karts and enter kinda left me numb for the actual racing. My own actual racing was the furthest thing from my mind and I was practically falling asleep before and during the race and it’s kinda stayed with me. Now I just joke about and have a laugh on the grid, and maybe shout some completely nonsense to freak everyone around me out.
2 Likes
Alan, just out of curiousity, how many years in the saddle (in a I want to be fast mindset) have you been racing? Are you able to zone out and drive hard since you have been doing this a long time?
Just a thought: the mental, emotional and likely $ stresses of trying to get the 100 series running…
I wonder if going through all that, and the desire to get it right etc. kinda trivializes the driving itself effort wise. So much else to think and worry about as a race director? So much to do?
That actually must be very weird, all that stress and activity and then you are on the grid and everything changes.
I started racing when I was 8 so that’s 25 years in total, though the last decade or so has been very barren with regard to actual racing regularly ($$$). With regards to getting in the zone, the only pattern I’ve ever found is that unless the stakes are high generally I don’t really switch on. My brain needs stimulation to work. So usually it’s not until the final that I really switch on. It’s not uncommon for someone people to work like that.
The F100 thing was stressful. You go to a race meeting but everyone is coming to you asking about stuff that you never have had to deal with. Like you’re trying to race and people are asking you about stuff like end cans and carbs. Also, you’re having to shoulder the responsibility of their investment. Knowing people have invested in your idea and spent thousands. It does trivialize your own racing to an extent that’s true. ALso, it’s hard racing people and ruining their weekend with a mad lunge, especially when they are there mainly because of you ahah.
Also, like with the KF British champs in 2011 I wasn’t racing for purely myself (i was slow anyhow due to barely having any testing - 1 day). I wanted to get other people excited about something I thought was worth trying to keep - a British Karting Championship. Racing when you have different purposes than just your own personal goal changes things mentally. You kinda see a different picture of the purpose of racing.
But to me I kinda learnt that you have to take racing seriously but then laugh at yourself for how seriously you take it. Given the funds I’d have every fucking sensor under the sun and do things 100%. It wouldn’t stop me up doing something stupid on a the grid for a laugh 
2 Likes
I think there’s a time in every driver’s career where they switch from:
complete panic when the engine doesn’t start right away on the grid
to
having a laugh and making a joke to their tuner when the engine doesn’t start right away on the grid.
Once you’ve accepted yourself and your skill level fully, you gain humility and become a lot more at ease with the sport and the nerves go away a bit. Even if you’re trying to compete at the highest level, you still are there for the fun of it and for the love of the game.
2 Likes
Thank you both. Thoughtful stuff like that is why I love KP. I am hoping there a way to love this (competition) but not let it take over your life.
2 Likes
Hilariously for me, getting married is what helped to calm my nerves down. I found that:
-
I just wanted a partner that I could talk to about what I was going through with my racing to either help me rationalize or motivate me when I was stuck.
-
Having a non-racer’s point of view has helped me prioritize other life efforts, like better sleep, or moving to a nicer apartment, which when I was single I did more dumb things that would end up stressing me out by the time racing came around.
1 Like
Until you get skinnier than her from all that racing … 
Seriously, it’s fabulous that your spouse is supportive in this. Lucky man.
1 Like
Haha. Well it is only year 1, so we’re probably in a bit of a honeymoon period.
JK. She is really supportive about it. She’s really competitive, and she likes to support because it’s her way to contribute, without telling me how to drive.
(Although I do appreicate all of her feedback on my driving. She’s good at comparing things she sees, which keeps the descriptions simple enough for me to understand.)
thanks for the tip, we will weigh the kart asap.
we couldn’t find anything with tire pressures so we are going to look more to chassis setup
So just a follow up. Things apparently change. After watching a fellow old guy get clocked real good in his pre (as we were waiting on grid)… turns out I’m not so good at going mentally dark… dead last in my prefinal as I tried to process what happened to him. So, that mental state is more fragile than I thought.