I’m a big fan of motorsports, petrol probably pumps through my veins and the smell and sound of burning rubber actually pleases me. I used to be a licensed motor racing driver for a few years (I’ll cover that in a future post) but where I started was in gokarts and I still love the fun of going go karting many years later.

A modern go kart has a very stiff chassis low to the ground, sticky rubber tyres (which will let go if pushed too hard) and usually a willing 4 stroke (or a scarily fast 2 stroke) engine strapped to the side directly powering the rear axle. All this combined with the fact the power to weight ratio is extremely high results in quite a fun, fast and manoeuvrable machine.

I recently went to the London based outdoor go karting circuit at Sandown Park to compete in one of their competitions where 30 drivers all go head to head to set a qualification time before a 40 minute race to really put the drivers to the test. I am fairly unfamiliar with the circuit having only been once before a long time ago and it was quite clear that some of the drivers who had arrived were not only more experienced at the circuit but had come equipped with a whole range of customised equipment (such as their own gloves / suit / helmet / hans device and more!). That said the rest of the field were mostly made up of people like myself who had just come down to have some fun and not take it too seriously.

Qualification went under way and to my surprise I had managed to put the kart on the pole position spot by setting the fastest lap of all of the 30 drivers! (see below my tips for how I managed this!). The race however didn’t quite go such in my favour. I got away at the start in first but was passed quite early on by clearly a more experienced driver at the track, I tried to hang on to this driver by following his lines but never managed to get past him again. My aim at this point was to maintain 2nd place until the end! However unfortunately after slogging hard for 40 minutes, on the last lap a back marker managed to block me while coming out of a yellow flag zone and let someone get past me – leaving me finishing 3rd out of the 30 drivers! Still a valiant effort and achievement!

The most important thing was I had a lot of fun! The track is a nice fast outdoor circuit, with long straights, fast corners and also tighter more complex areas of the circuit to contend with. The thing I enjoyed about this track was that (like most outdoor circuits) the width of the track is wide enough to let you battle with other karts in plenty of space and rarely get stuck behind a much slower driver. The final thing which was enjoyable was contending with the weather. This being an outdoor track we were open to the elements and in the earlier stages there was water running across the track on one of the corners causing the kart to either under steer or over steer depending on how you hit the water – a real test of driver skill! I definitely recommend checking the circuit out if you’re in the London area and enjoy go karting!

Top Tips:

1. One of the things I think makes a big difference (especially with qualifying in a short period of time) is how you approach the circuit the first time you go out. Some people make the mistake of going onto the circuit too cautiously and trying to learn the circuit slowly and increase their speed lap by lap as they become more comfortable. The problem with this is that due to the short amount of time they give you to set a qualifying time, you often don’t have long enough to get up to speed before the qualification is over. The second problem is that since the tyres grip more when hot, they often don’t get up to temperature when the driver is going slowly and so the kart can feel on the edge, but another driver will be able to just drive around the outside – at that point the slower driver may try to follow the faster driver, but with colder tyres the slower driver may spin out! The final reason for this is that in my opinion it’s easier to find the true limit by going too fast and backing off when you find the limit, than trying to slowly build up to the limit.

2. The second tip is related to general karting control and lines. The quickest way through the corner is to go from the outside edge, to the apex (inner edge) and back out again – using the whole width of the track, essentially straightening the corner as much as possible and carrying as much speed through as possible. A lot of slower drivers wrongly go in too shallow into the corner or hug the apex on exit (not letting the kart naturally push out wide of the corner). Since the fastest way is to carry as much speed through the corner, it actually can sometimes be faster to just smoothly drive through the corner, rather than have the car skidding sideways – It may feel faster, but while you’re skidding the car sideways you’re actually scrubbing speed off.

3. Learn the track and use it to your advantage. If there is a tight corner before a long straight, it is better to go in slowly into the corner to ensure you get a fast exit out of it and onto the straight, compared to what many will do which is to perhaps charge in fast into the corner and end up taking a tight shallow line and exiting slowly. By exiting a corner faster than another driver on a long straight, you will find the speed you end up doing down the straight adds to a lot faster lap time and often an overtaking opportunity!

4. The final tip is to learn what the other driver will do to allow easy overtakes. If the driver infront of you has been going too fast into corners on a shallow line and coming out very wide, then stay wide before the corner and try to cut back a shallow line underneathe them out of the corner. Similarly if a driver is taking a really wide line in, then get ready to shoot up the inside on the brakes – it won’t be the fastest line, but once you’ve got up the inside you can block their exit so they end up slowed down more than you and allowing you to exit the corner faster and ahead of them.

Do you enjoy karting? What is your favourite track? Do you have any tips for others? Let me know in the comments.

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