I got this question from a driver today, below is my response, please add further comments if you wish!
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Although very fit, I do carry a bit of excess weight over my fellow
karting competitirs (from a few years of lifting weights) and find this a hinderence
trying to get quickly out of corners. Can you suggest some tips on how I can
carry the maximum amount of speed through and out of the slower corners. I
have seen more experienced kart racers flick the rear of the kart around the
corner and shoot through the corner with limited amount of lock on the wheel
maximising acceleration on the exit of the corner....how do you do this
karting technique??
Many thanks
~~~
And my response...
Thanks for your email, obviously excess weight will always hinder your corner exits....but all is not lost, I just spent a weekend training with a chap giving away 30kg and we got him to within a second a lap of the quickest times from the summer.
Now, the way we did that was to use leaning techniques, shifting body weight around the kart to literally make it behave better. For example, exiting hairpins, my driver would lean to the outside of the kart to help the kart release. When you do this you dont have to turn the wheel so much and you can actually feel the difference in speed.
Flicking the kart in....i know what you mean, but if you consciously fick the wheel to get the effect you will run into problems. Try instead to take a wider entry into the corner, and to brake with a sharpness so that you work the rear end harder. take a look at my karting braking article If you do follow those braking techniques, you will start to drive like the guys flicking the kart in. it comes quite naturally.
So in summary, next time you practice concentrate on a hairpin....try to brake hard and sharp, turn in later, hit a late apex and try to lean your body slightly outward during the turn. This is a bit tricky and of course you can always drop me an email to arrange a coaching session to guarantee that you master it.
Thanks
Terence
