What feels good, is slow?

[LikeStig]

I've got a feeling I'm not going to get a chance to get some practice in before saturday, so I need some help. I've been fiddling with my chassis a bit, and really liked the way the kart felt with the front and rear out as far as I could get them; so 55ish inches in the back and one large spacer added up front to the spindles from the standard settings. Thats the maximum I can move the wheels out. I never had to move the wheel more than 2 or 3 inches and had next to no hop. I was doing this with tires that had ALOT of wear on them (some of the dimples were missing) and I'm worried that when I get out there on new tires its going to be a mess with all the extra grip. Is this true? My brother had some really good help from some people Saturday and they told my Dad and brother that the track out that far is just scrubbing my tires and making me undesteer. Are they right? Am i going to have a handfull when I have grip? Thanks Guys.

[Rick]

What kind of laptimes are you running?

[LikeStig]

With those tires, about 50.3

[Rick]

You should tune for new tires. With no dimples, the tires are gone. And you will basically be adding a ton of grip as you already know. Tune it for the tires you will use in the race. I have a ton of used tires that have only been used for 2 heats and a race. They are probably better than the ones you have right now. I'll sell them to you cheap. Let me know if you want to buy some. Or just buy a new set.

[LikeStig]

I might look into that. I have 5 full sets of MG's, but there all new and I dont have any scrapers to practice with.

[JET Karting - Andy Finke]

The trick is to put on new rubber, and drive faster until you use up all the extra grip.

GO FASTER!!

If you let the tires go too long, or don't keep them in 'sets' with the same heat cycles, they may change the balance of the kart. That isn't good. Then when you put on the new tires, the kart is tuned all wrong. That's why I didn't adjust the kart anymore than I did during the Acadamy we did.

If the kart stays in balance, new tires should always be faster. A driver has to learn how to use that extra grip without causing any negatives though. It takes some time, but I've yet to see someone that wanted to figure it out that couldn't.


Andy

[Rick]

Also, lots of rubber on the track (like at a regional event) will also add to the grip. It's very difficult and expensive to get opportunities to practice in those conditions with new tires. Basically, you have to race at those types of events to get the experience.

[LikeStig]

LOL. Yea, its definatly different. I nearly flipped my kart twice last Sunday in the hairpin. No idea why, because I dont hit the curbs much there; but both times were over 33 degrees. I just straightened the wheel and let the kart settle. It was very hard to figure out my chassis last week. It may only be my 5th race, but I thought I could do better even though I was running faster than I ever had before. I ran a 48.9 the thursday before the race weekend, and a 48.8 consistantly during the races sunday; which was possibly the sloppiest race I've done. I'm not going to complain though because I am happy with my progress. After my spin I caught up to the field, several just let me by. After the race I went to go thank them, and they asked me how long I've been racing and how many hours were on my engine. You should've seen their faces when I said it was my fifth race and I had 10 hours on my engine. :)

[Rick]

Great job man! You'll probably give some of the guys in HPV Heavy at Norway a run for their money. What is the weight for HPV Senior vs HPV Heavy? Are you going to New Castle?

[LikeStig]

Its a 10 lbs difference, but I still ran at heavy weight (360lbs) until the feature and ran the same time. I am going to be gone the weekend of the race at NCMP, so I wont be able to go. I might go tomorrow (Thursday) to Norway to find the couple tenths I need; because the best lap for the Pro Races is usually 48.8 to high 48.6's. Some guy (381 in a Birel) ran an EXTREMELY hot 48.2 at RT66, but I dont think he hit within three tenths of that again. I've got a feeling that lap was a fluke.

UPDATE-
Race Studio is telling me (When I string the corners together in sets to compensate going slow into one corner to go faster in the next) that if I combine my best sectors, I could do a 48.5-48.6. Hmmm... Annoying for some reason...