Karting 101

TreeSemdyZee

Awesome thread. You'll have to post a schedule of your races. I'd love to bop up one weekend to watch and take pics. One of my college roommates is from New Castle.

scottIN

I thought it might be fun to have a meet there this spring summer for the Indiana (guess we could let Ohio & Ky in) guys. The rental karts they have are pretty nice. They're actual racing chassis with a 5 hp Honda. They'll run about 50 mph down the straight. And anyone who wanted to - after proving their proficiency in a rental kart - is welcome to jump in my kart. I had one friend - who considered himself a good driver - try to go straight to driving my kart. After about 2 laps of not being able to keep it on the track, he pulled in and we put him in a rental for 10 minutes. After that, he was fine in a real kart. As someone once said 'Trying to learn to drive a kart in a TaG is like taking driver's training in an IndyCar.'

One interesting thing about karts that most people don't know is that to turn them, you have to be on 3 wheels. Because it's a live axle set up, you have to lift the inside rear going through a turn to keep from scrubbing your tires. The chassis has a lot of flex and the front geometry a lot of Ackerman so it twists when you turn.

One day I asked Dismore about speed perception in a kart vs. an Indycar: He said that a kart at 75 mph feels about like an IndyCar at 220. Things happen so fast it's incredible. You're so close to the ground everything feels sped up.

The whole speed thing is cool, but the best part of karting are the people. Everyone is so nice and helpful - which you need when you first start out. And if you're an ***, you won't be around next year becasue nobody will help you. It's a pretty cool system becasue it keeps all the problem people away. And it's not unusual to have your competitors help you between races if you've got a problem. Sometimes you just don't have time to do it all yourself and the guys in your class are always the first to offer a hand. It definitely attracts a certain type of person (and drives away others).

Here's a few more pics...

Me & Milka Duno - I crewed for her at a race a couple years ago.


This is the start of a big endurance race held here every year. #4 in the middle is Dan Wheldon and there are about a dozen other IndyCar & Nascar drivers in the field.


My kart after the wreck


The wife & I and Eddie Cheever on a race day. Few years ago, I had Tomas Scheckter in the garage to my right, and Eddie Cheever in the garage to my left. Kind of funny since Tomas used to drive for Eddie.

gomer_110

Sounds like fun. I'd definitely be interested just wondering what kind of $$$ were talking about here.

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ChrisSlicks

Great pics Scott. How long do those sticky tires last before you have to swap them out?

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scottIN

Depends on how fast you want to go. They'll start to go off after about 15-20 miles. If you're racing a the national level, you change every race-although some sanctioning bodies limit the number of tires per weekend to keep the cost down. Since I just race club races, I usually get 200+ miles out of them and run them down to the cords before I get new ones. Times do drop off, but the .1 or .2 I lose from old tires is nothing compared to what I lose in driving mistakes. If you're racing at the national level and don't make driving mistakes, that .1 or .2 is worth it.

It's not been as fruitful in the last few years since the sanctioning bodies started limiting tires, but we used to go dumpster diving for tires after the national races. You could find tires that had 12 laps on them that the big teams just tossed out. Perfect (and free) for club racing or practice.

Tires run about $190 / set.

It does feel sooooo good to run the first time on a new set of tires though. There's so much grip that if you're set up a little tight, they'll turn so hard it's actually painful.

shaun66

What spec tires do you run? We run MG yellows and only get race out of a set.

scottIN

Bridgesotne YKCs. They tried Bs last year & they were only good for a day & so they went back to Cs. Dismore is pretty good about trying to keep costs down for everyone. He'd rather have 250 racers on Cs than 150 on Bs.

Oh yeah. You're on a shifter. I think they can still run Bs, but most don't. Most go with Cs. First time I ever ran Bs I thought it was a crazy stupid amount of grip.

scottIN

Rentals are $20 for the first 10 minutes and a dollar a minute afterwards. I always laugh when I see people go up and buy an hour and then say they want to do it with no breaks. After about 10 minutes they come back in and ask if they can break it up into sessions. If you can last more than an hour in a kart in one day, you're either a) young or b) Chuck Norris.

So about the most you're going to spend is $50 or $60. They also have a bar though, so, y'know, double that.

ChrisSlicks

I did an endurance race at the indoor place here in Boston. The longest I could go was 30 minutes, after that my arms/shoulders were on fire (and my back was too with the heat of the engine radiating through the seat). In these bigger, faster carts it has to be even worse.

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