Indoor Karting Secrets from the Indoor Expert.

Advanced Indoor Karting

Well done for making it this far! We receive a lot of emails from drivers who have the pace, but never seem to get the results! So we will be covering indoor karting race craft (overtaking and starts) and more advanced racing lines.

Indoor Karting Lines

By following these advanced lines, you will find that your mates/competitors will pull away from you into the corner, and then you will blast past on the straights. You really will be smiling like a Persian cat when you get out of the kart, see your lap times, and see just how much of a massive difference this makes!!

Ever wondered how the guy with the lap record at your local indoor Karting track went SO fast? Well, he was thinking about speed along the straights rather than speed round the corners. By reading this guide, you are now at a level where you are looking for the final tenths, and spectators are wondering how you got to be so fast! The way to become a god at indoor Karting is to take a line which allows you to be on the throttle the earliest, often before the apex. This means braking earlier, and taking a later turn in. These karts have so little power, you must try to keep your speed up around corners, and maximize your speed along every straight.

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Race Craft

Let’s start at the start, the starts! If you are starting at the back, you can take whatever line you want without having to worry about being overtaken, so just look ahead and try to spot any accidents waiting to happen and take avoiding action. You might wonder how to tell, but that’s the reason why we all aren’t Fernando Alonso’s, it’s just something you learn with experience! As a basic rule, just look for the largest pack of karts, and avoid going near it!

If you start at the front, you don’t have to worry about overtaking drivers, but you are in big danger of being overtaken, so just stick to the inside line, but don’t go too slow, or you will get swamped on the outside!

So, you are a few laps in, driving quick (as usual) and come up behind a slower driver. Your main focus should be to get as close as you can along a straight, and outbrake them. A big mistake a lot of drivers make is getting alongside and braking at the same point. Overtaking is the co-operation of you and the guy in front, and to allow this co-operation to happen, first he must see you! So, once you are along side, when he brakes, delay you’re braking so you are alongside, and he can’t come back at you.

If the guy in front takes a defensive line on the entry, hang back and take a line that will allow you the fastest speed along the next straight, give him a wave as you take the lead!

Once again, this takes a lot of experience to get it right, so GET PRACTISING at local race events! Maybe we can come along to help! There are so many secrets to indoor racing, but I don’t want to share them with everyone here, I plan on winning regularly!

Advanced Indoor Karting Techniques

Now the most important part of driving at an indoor karting track is being able to adjust your driving style quickly, and drive round any handling problems. In common events like a ‘grand prix’ where you have 5 heats, a semi final and (hopefully) a final, you will often be using 7 completely different karts throughout the day. You don’t get any practise laps before each heat, so the first time you get to drive them is in the heat of competition! There really is a big difference in each and every kart at most indoor karting tracks, because the customers have crashed, the tyres are all worn differently and some engines are better than others. So you must quickly asses the handling problems on the first lap (whilst racing!) and try to remember the following advanced driving techniques.

Remember I told you not to lean forward like a fool? There’s a reason for this (apart from the fact that you look like a loser) when you lean forward, you put more weight over the front tyres, giving the front more grip and the rear less grip, which will cause oversteer. You might be asking what difference moving your body a few inches can make, but when you think that your body is almost half of the total weight of the indoor kart, you can see how this technique can be used to your benefit.

When the kart is oversteering, which is unlikely for indoor karts, just lean back as FAR as you can, and stiffen your outside arm. By doing this it gives the front tyres less grip, balancing the kart up. When the kart is understeering lean forwards to give the front tyres more grip. Be careful not to go too far, it has a drastic effect, as you will find out!

Will Dendy is available for private tuition to indoor drivers, for drivers who want to learn how to blitz their opposition, drop him an email at will@evenflow.co.uk