My First Karting Experience

[f6fhellcat13]

As a present, my parents are sending me karting some time in January.
Do you guys have any advice for me about how to drive, what to bring etc?
I beleive the karts will be single speed and two-stroke.
I am going to CalSpeed Karting in Fontana. For those who live close by, has anyone been there?

BTW, mods, I wasn't sure if this should go in racing or miscellaneous, so feel free to move it.

EDIT: Track layout is attached, for anyone who cares.

[johnnynumfiv]

Usually if there is required equipment they rent/supply it there. I'd call them just to make sure.
Hit the apexes of the turns, try to learn the track, and find the limits of the karts.

Its hard to know the details about the track by a 2d map, but here's what I think would be a good starting point for the turns.

[f6fhellcat13]

Thanks for the map.
The track is providing the helmet, jumpsuit, gloves, kart etc...
Does karting work up an apetite? I think I'll be there for about 6 hours, will I be drained afterwards?

[cmcpokey]

i looked at their site, looks very nice. much nicer than the indoor karting i have done. its in the parking lot for california speedway in fontana, so it should be very flat. i would try and learn the apexes, and how to handle the kart on the edge of its handling. they can be tricky, especially under trail braking. dont know what they provide, but if its an all day thing, you really will need to bring some bottled water. it gets miserable out there on the tarmac, even in winter. a hat is also a good thing to bring.

are you doing an endurance event, or just a straight race? either way you will probably have some sore ribs in the morning. karts corner very violently, and they almost always have hard plastic seats. if they have rib pads, dont feel like youre being a pussy for using them, you will appreciate them.

do you have your own helmet? sometimes they give out pretty crappy ones, but its better than none. if you have a friend that rides motorcycles then see if you can use him. guarantee its nicer than what they have.

just my 2c. im jealous, sounds like a blast. (stand by for my Laguna Seca post later tonight probably.) and the racing forum seems fine to me.

[whiteballz]

A few lines I'd take differently.

But thats a starting point for sure.

Trust the kart, you'll find your limits before you finds its' im sure.

[johnnynumfiv]

I'm sure that depends on the weather, you, etc. I'd bring some stuff to eat/drink. All I've done is indoor karting at night for a few hours. :P

[f6fhellcat13]

i looked at their site, looks very nice. much nicer than the indoor karting i have done. its in the parking lot for california speedway in fontana, so it should be very flat. i would try and learn the apexes, and how to handle the kart on the edge of its handling. they can be tricky, especially under trail braking. dont know what they provide, but if its an all day thing, you really will need to bring some bottled water. it gets miserable out there on the tarmac, even in winter. a hat is also a good thing to bring. It should be good, a teacher of mine who is a keen autoXer and amatuer racer reccommended it to me. I've never driven at 10/10ths before so I will probably be pretty ginger at first, but I think IT should be fun.
are you doing an endurance event, or just a straight race? either way you will probably have some sore ribs in the morning. karts corner very violently, and they almost always have hard plastic seats. if they have rib pads, dont feel like youre being a pussy for using them, you will appreciate them. I think we will do 2-3 short heats, and then a 1hr enduro. When my mom was in college she knew a kid who paralyzed himself in a kart, so I will be wearing all the safety equipment I can.
do you have your own helmet? sometimes they give out pretty crappy ones, but its better than none. if you have a friend that rides motorcycles then see if you can use him. guarantee its nicer than what they have. Unfortunately don't know any local bikers. I'll make do with the helmets provided, I guess...

just my 2c. im jealous, sounds like a blast. (stand by for my Laguna Seca post later tonight probably.) and the racing forum seems fine to me.Should be awesome.

[pimento]

Last time I went karting (in Thailand) they were super fast and super fun.. and a bit exhausting, so definately take some food along. They also cornered about as fast as as they went in a straight line, so push those limits hard.. you might fly off the track a couple of times, but it's all good fun. Also, if there's an option between close helmets and open ones, go with closed ones.. at top speed, it's easier to breathe. If the karts are that fast anyway...

[clutch-monkey]

A few lines I'd take differently.

But thats a starting point for sure.

Trust the kart, you'll find your limits before you finds its' im sure.
definately. we must try willowbank next time ;)

[Suka]

One bit of advice i always follow is to go in hard in corners and aim to hit the inside of it. The Kart should slide round, miss the inside of the corner and give you a good line out.

[Wouter Melissen]

Don't brake.

[LeonOfTheDead]

Don't brake.

this.
I found brakes quite pointless in my only experience.
I used them a couple of times, but the power they were able to deliver was definitely overkill compared to the speed and the acceleration.

[Dino Scuderia]

Make sure your upper body is in shape...it's very physical doing lap after lap.

[Ferrer]

I agree with the dutch and the italian.

Never brake. Ever.

[Matra et Alpine]

Agree on most indoor tracks, but on a full size outdoor kart track you're gonna need those brakes ..... or just use the guy in front to slow down for the corners :)

[LeonOfTheDead]

Agree on most indoor tracks, but on a full size outdoor kart track you're gonna need those brakes ..... or just use the guy in front to slow down for the corners :)

the secret. now it's out.

[clutch-monkey]

i think my first gokarting experience was on a closed off street circuit in Indonesia


insane! :eek: took me awhile to get back into it.. :D

[forager]

Eye protection! nothing is worse than a Bug in Your Eyeball:) Try following somebody for a few Laps, that will help You to find the racing line. After that, try dividing the track into sections, attack 1 section at a time 100%, be smooth elsewhere eventually string all sections together. Have Fun:)

[Soloracer]

What kind of speed do these Karts run at? Are they TAG, Rotax, Shifter, Sprint, any details you can fill me in on and I'll try my best to give you advice. I'm no expert but I've karted for one season in Chicagoland/Northwest Indiana and might be able to share with you some tips I've learned.

EDIT: I just realized that you mentioned they were one speed, two strokers meaning that they are sprint karts.

[magracer]

You are heading for great fun, "speed crack pipe" sort of fun, and you will be hooked, for life.

Now as Matra already mentioned it seems like a pretty large track and the karts will have 11 hp and centrigual clutches. Momentum is the name of the game:

1. Be gentle, use technique not brute force. The "less" you use the controls the faster you will be going. Meaning, the wider the arc you trace the higher the speed you will carry. Braking and turning too late will just give you understeer, turning too early will make you have to lift at the exit. I usually prefer late apexes in slow and medium speed corners.
2. Use every inch of the road, kerbs included if they allow it. Grass is no good, mainly because you will lose traction or scratch the kart floor; both mean you lost speed.
3. Drifting is fun but is also slow. But its fun!
4. Use the brakes if you have to, just don't lift the accelerator if you don't have to. The centrifugal clutch is a b*itch.
5. Lean your upper body towards outside the turn. Seems anti-natural at first but the weight transfer helps the outside tires get traction.
6. Watch the cold tires. Heat them by turning side to side hard for the first lap or so. As you probably have seen during F1 formation laps.
7. Watch the fast experienced guys, their lines, braking points, turning points, where they place their apexes. They will be very consistent on all of those so it's not that hard. If you can follow one, it will be best, but if they are seasoned racers your joyride won´t last for long.
8. Second place is the first loser! But think with your head at all times. Getting turned over or crashing into something with not much to protect you won't be fun.

By the end of the day and particularly after the one hour enduro your arms will be as strong as spaghetti, they will burn as if they are in fire, your back and hands will be blistered, but your grin will not fit inside your helmet.

Have fun!

[LeonOfTheDead]

centrifugal clutch?
like that on small scooters like this?
http://www.scooterclub-nolimits.it/images/clip_image002.jpg

in that case, after like 24.000 km on that thing, 5 hp and about 90 kg of weight (plus from 60 to 70 kg of LotD), I have to say you can even lift the accelerator, but what you have to know that the reaction to the throttle is not what you could call fast. for this reason, it would be a good idea to just reduce slightly the throttle while breaking.
but considering I already told you to avoid breaking (tons of grip and large track, but you will learn it by yourself), you could just lift completely th throttle and avoid breaking, and start accelerating again just a little before you would do, so to solve the lack of response issue.

[csl177]

Read Magracer's post, follow his advice.
Karting is about finesse and smoothness, although it doesn't feel or seem like it until you achieve it. :cool:
The best part is: everything you learn in a kart is applicable to a racing car... but not vice-versa.
Great way to get seat time for low dough, relatively speaking... the adjustable Horstman clutch on this kart
cost more than the one in my CSL. :eek:

It is definately the crack pipe of motorsports. Even though it's been years since I've tracked it, and I sold the trailer
long ago it still is a blast to fire this thing up and rip down the road near my shop. The aero nose isn't shown here. 120+ MPH.
When it comes on the pipe it's twisting close to 12,000 RPM. Enduro karts rule. :D

[fpv_gtho]

Ive been to Eastern Creek karts a few times and its a blast. AFAIK they dont do any endurance type things though, just 15m heats for if you just show up. Maybe they organise something different if you book but you'd likely have to reserve the whole place to yourself which would be pricey unless youve got a large group.

My biggest issue has always been braking too much in the slower corners, ive never really gotten my head around using the accelerator to keep the nose pointed in. The faster corners i dont think i had too many problems with, they were mainly down to steering inputs rather than balancing throttle and brake. ECK are real nannies though when it comes to treatment of the karts. They'll throw you out if you repeatedly ride the kerbs or push the brake and accelerator simultaneously.

[f6fhellcat13]

So, today, after going to bed at an insanely reasonable hour last night, I finally was going to go karting. I already talked about the circuit a little before, so I won’t bore you by repeating it. I do have a small correction; the karts have 4-stroke Honda Rotax engines, not the two-strokes I said in the first post.
They way the program was setup was that we(all novices) would transition between on and off-track insruction and finish with a one hour enduro.
The day started out with a lap of the track. The tires and track were cold so there was no grip, and I was approaching all controls gingerly because it was the first time I had raced.
My fastest time during warmup: 1:15.43

Then, we headed into a small prefab with a whiteboard and some folding chairs and were given an introduction to the track and the correct line. The main instructor, Rob Niles, used to race sportscars and was an awesome teacher. He handled most of the off-track instruction.
Rob drove a lap around the track in a golf cart following the optimum line while we followed. One of the kids in the group, who could only be described as oblivious tried to pass the golf cart into a turn and ended up hitting it. Rob was livid because we were not supposed to be passing and the kid could have broken lots of bones.
After Rob cooled down his assistant, Brad Packard, who is in the Top 40 Indoor karters in the world and a year ago started racing outdoor karts took over. He set up cones that channeled us into the perfect line into each corner. After everybody knocked down the cones in and around the hairpin, we focused on the hairpin for the on-track session following some off-track analysis of the turn.
The hairpin session proved quite valuable because it involved braking. W was not entirely wrong when he said not to brake, usually you could just lift off, but at the hairpin and at one other turn braking was mandatory.
Then we did one short session of free lapping and went off to lunch.
My fastest time of the morning: 1:05.59

After gorging myself on In ‘N Out, I returned to the track and we had a discussion about passing and how to do it safely. Then we did an exercise where we had to pick either the inside or outside line (we couldn’t take the racing line) and we tried to pass each other.

We headed into the prefab for a drivers meeting and were assigned teams based on what the instructors had observed throughout the day. Our enduro would be teams of 5 doing eight laps per driver for 40 laps per team. My team managed to hold 3rd out of 5 for most of the race. I was the last driver so when I got in, with the team in third, I knew we couldn’t really win, so I didn’t have anything to lose so I flogged it. I was able to pass one car for position, netting us a respectable second place.
My fastest race lap: 1:03.72
This was the second fastest lap of the day (the fastest was a 1:03.68). I was quite happy with shaving about 12 seconds off my original fastest time and even more happy because the instructors fastest times were about 1:01-1:02.

This was a truly epic experience, I’d recommend it to anyone, it was damn tiring but more than worth it. I think they have an internship during the summer, and if I can get that, that is what I will be doing.:)

[LeonOfTheDead]

sounds like a very good experience indeed.
can I ask how much it was for that, if you don't mind?

[fpv_gtho]

Sounds pretty awesome. Makes me want to check if Eastern Creek do any tutoring sessions like that

[Ferrer]

Yep it sounds like a lot if fun indeed. :)

[f6fhellcat13]

sounds like a very good experience indeed.
can I ask how much it was for that, if you don't mind?

A rather steep $250/€190. It's considerably less if you bring your own kart.
It was either this or an iPod. :)

[Kitdy]

A rather steep $250/€190. It's considerably less if you bring your own kart.
It was either this or an iPod. :)

You can steal an iPod but not a day at the track.

[f6fhellcat13]

I shoulda stolen a kart. Those things are too much fun.
They were on harder tires so I'm sure they could have survived the 30-odd miles home.

[fpv_gtho]

A rather steep $250/€190. It's considerably less if you bring your own kart.
It was either this or an iPod. :)

Thats actually pretty cheap considering all the tutoring and the time spent on track. For instance, the last time i went to Eastern Creek it was $85 for 2x15m sessions in a 13hp cart.

[f6fhellcat13]

No doubt.
I was talking to Rob (the owner) and he was telling me that some businesses take their employees out to the track for "teambuilding" exercises. With a group bigger than 15 he says it works out to about $300/person for 5 days of karting and instruction.
Do want.