Tom's Race Log
Go Kart Racer Practice (2/9/2008)
Working on the bridge

According to all the how-to-race books, the most important corner on a track is the one leading onto the longest straight. On GoKartRacer's Monza track there is a slight variation to this rule, because there are actually two fairly long straights joined by a wide 90 degree turn that's taken at full speed, making this the most important part of the track.

The corner before this is a nasty enough set of hairpins. The problem is that just after the hairpins is the bridge. This means that if I follow the standard racing line, much of the the acceleration is up hill. This isn't ideal. So what I tried today was braking more than I had been, and accellerating through the last hairpin. That way I'm going faster when I hit the hill. It's a compromise, because with my weight, I usually have to sacrifice the ideal line to try to maintain momementum.

Anyway, it worked. I beat my best lap time for the track by three tenths of a second. In fact I did six laps quicker than my old record.

Date:	2/9/2008
Track:	Monza
Session:	Practice
Kart:	#11
Best Lap:	30.52
Avg Lap:	31.99
Conditions:	Warm
My Weight:	220
Highlight:	Improving my approach to the bridge