Karting 90 min 3 drivers

[liamsp]

Two friends & I have started karting recently & have been pretty good at it not going to be repacing no F1 drivers but against joe public we seem to be winning.

SO we have entered a 90 min 3 driver endurance race at the Crawley indoor karting on tuesday on there small qualifing track my friend posted a (1) 24.2 I posted a (2) 25.0 & my other friend posted a (3) 25.2 although in reality theres nothing between us two my fast friend is our main guy.

On half hour stints how would anyone else play it I reckon use numbers as before 2, 3, 1 so our fastest is out last anyone with experience in this got any advice. Although we race for fun we still take it quite seriously so would like to win but as we have little experience we just have to do our best.

[anonymous-user]

you are taking this far too seriously. its indoor karting for goodness sake, the rest of the competitors will be office groups, friends, stag parties and little more than keen enthusiasts. you all seem to be of a reasonable speed so i would toss coins for it or base it on qualifying. as you are most likely to be in contention come the finish, surely the fastest guy in qualifying gets the honour of crissing the line first should you win??!?

[pitflaps]

You're crazy! You're talking tactics when you haven't even mentioned your fitness regime or diet.

You have to do all of it seriously to beat Tracy from Office Direct on her company outing you know, never mind Julie from PC World.

[liamsp]

Its not open to `office groups' or tracy from pc world its run by the centre who asked us to come along as we have entered the NKA championship (look it up if you dont know what it is) staff are entering as well so should be a good crack as for the usual keyboard warriors of the internet it is indoor karting but ffs you want to win dont you

[lewis1]

you have two options,
Send the quickest out first, and build a lead and then put the second quickest out and then the slowest

or you could put the middle speed driver out first, in theory he should be able to keep pace with the pack and maybe pull a little lead if your lucky, then send your slow or fast guy out when you know whats happened in the first stint, Dont plan too far ahead.

[Lemoncurd]

Consider running your slower guy for a shorter distance, say stints of 25/30/35 to skew yourselves out of line with the other pit stops.

[liamsp]

Lemon & lewis thanks for the tips I like the idea of middle pace guy then decide fast or slow depending on how we are doing. As for the different stints 25/30/35 im not sure how its run as this is our first endurance type event if I had my way id keep my fast mate out for the whole stint! but I had a guess it will be 30 min stints each. As before we are doing it for fun but its better if we get a good result we are newbies but still would like to win!

[Lemoncurd]

the endurance karting that I have done before (nothing too serious - a yearly thing for charity) is a 2hr one and they normally mandate a set number of pit stops for the team. So as long as you do your (6 in our case) pit stops, you are free to run with whatever strategy you want.

[lewis1]

i raced in 4 and a half hour rotax max endurances.
To be honest we didnt set a plan on pace because we had a weight limit to stick to.
Imo the way i would do a rental kart thing would be the middle paced then the slow or fast.
The trick being to look at the other people, if everyone is sending there slow guy out first then consider it too etc.
Just make the desicion as and when the complete picture is there.

[petergb]

It really depends a lot one what sort of kart you get. My son raced there recently in a quite experienced team in a charity event. They were coming nowhere then the kart went wrong at about threequarter distance and they were given a replacement. They were immediately 1.5 seconds a lap quicker and came up to third. Luck of the draw.

[liamsp]

Thanks for all your advice il let you know how we get on the karts at crawley seem pretty good I have not had a bad kart but as usual there are some better than others Wish us luck!

[Rude-boy]

petergb said:

It really depends a lot one what sort of kart you get. My son raced there recently in a quite experienced team in a charity event. They were coming nowhere then the kart went wrong at about threequarter distance and they were given a replacement. They were immediately 1.5 seconds a lap quicker and came up to third. Luck of the draw.

Being the sort of chap that isn't great at many sports when I find one that I appear to be reasonably good at it do tend to take it a little more seriously, even if I probably shouldn't.

The above is not bad advice at all, the kart you have on the day can make or break your race.

When it comes to this sort of thing if you are going to do a few you should split it equally the first time round for certain, but try to stager your pit stops away from the pack, or if you are going for full anality for position.

You may find that your slowest friend might turnout to be the most consistent in turning in the best laps that is the key.

[petergb]

Quite right - the key to endurance racing is not the occasional fast lap at the start of your stint but consistantly fast laps over the whole stint and the ability to get past slower ie lapped karts quickly and cleanly.

[pitflaps]

Be afraid if anyone turns up wearing sparco suits and boots. I thought I was pretty good until I came up against that type of competitor and then I realised I wasn't really.

If you have got that clobber then maybe you are those sorts of competitors so good luck to you.

If you're not the fastest, work out who is and get your best bloke in the kart to try and follow them and work out why they're faster - you might learn something you didn't in the heat of qualifying.

On the other hand if you manage to qualify at the front you could try sending your slowest bloke out and blocking everyone in the first stint, then opening a lead with the other ones.

And you still need to be afraid of Tracy...

[lewis1]

pitflaps said:

Be afraid if anyone turns up wearing sparco suits and boots. I thought I was pretty good until I came up against that type of competitor and then I realised I wasn't really.

If you have got that clobber then maybe you are those sorts of competitors so good luck to you.

If you're not the fastest, work out who is and get your best bloke in the kart to try and follow them and work out why they're faster - you might learn something you didn't in the heat of qualifying.

On the other hand if you manage to qualify at the front you could try sending your slowest bloke out and blocking everyone in the first stint, then opening a lead with the other ones.

And you still need to be afraid of Tracy...

dont send your worst driver out to start, chances are someone will just punt him off on the first lap if he cant keep up.

[Sir Bagalot]

Surprised no one has mentioned the lap length. At a shade over 24 secs it isn't a big track, so whilst you might catch up with people it's another story actually overtaking them.

[Satsuma]

Quickest first. Always.

[M-J-B]

liamsp said:

Two friends & I have started karting recently & have been pretty good at it not going to be repacing no F1 drivers but against joe public we seem to be winning.

SO we have entered a 90 min 3 driver endurance race at the Crawley indoor karting on tuesday on there small qualifing track my friend posted a (1) 24.2 I posted a (2) 25.0 & my other friend posted a (3) 25.2 although in reality theres nothing between us two my fast friend is our main guy.

On half hour stints how would anyone else play it I reckon use numbers as before 2, 3, 1 so our fastest is out last anyone with experience in this got any advice. Although we race for fun we still take it quite seriously so would like to win but as we have little experience we just have to do our best.

I'll tell you how to win those endurance races at Crawley...........................






























Only have two people in your team, not three.....works for me every time

I've raced a fair few times (on the old track) and as has been said, not quite as competitive as you might think - generally made up of office teams and giggling girls out for a bit of a laugh.

If you want to see just how slow you are go along to Buckmore Park on an endurance and you'll realise that you are simply an amateur who can steer around a track

[schmalex]

Sir Bagalot said:

Surprised no one has mentioned the lap length. At a shade over 24 secs it isn't a big track, so whilst you might catch up with people it's another story actually overtaking them.

Crawley is a bh of a track to overtake on. I found that I was way quicker than many of the guys I was racing against at the end of the main straight & through the hair pin to the top of the bridge, but would then have to sit behind them through the next 2 corners until the left second to last turn of the lap, when I could get enough of a run to drift it up their inside on the brakes (if they weren't paying attention or out braked themselves a bit.)

[sperminator]

M-J-B said:

If you want to see just how slow you are go along to Buckmore Park on an endurance and you'll realise that you are simply an amateur who can steer around a track

Yes do one of Buckmores' man of steel enduro races. It's always nice to have newbies along.