One of the most critical elements for an aspiring racecar driver or karter to know is how every input we do affects the weight transfer of our kart. The way and timing of how we transfer weight in our kart can drastically affect the level of grip our kart has.
The two biggest moments of weight transfer is the braking zone and when we pick up our initial throttle application. This makes these two zones the two most important areas to focus on.
If you want to learn a little bit more about weight transfer we recommend checking out this video from Blayze pro-racecar coach Dion von Moltke. Click here to view.
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Timing Our Initial Throttle Application
Where we pick up our initial throttle application does heavily depend on the type of corner we are in and what happens after that corner.
But, there is one general rule that we can apply to almost all corners: We do not want to pick up initial throttle before the apex or before we can start to unwind the steering wheel.
Are you picking up the throttle before the apex? That is typically a big sign that we are over slowing the entry of the corner and we need to work on our brake zone to roll in more entry speed and not let our throttle be the fix to over slowing corner entry.
But the exact moment of where to pick up throttle is something we have to be adaptable with. If we are in a corner that is leading onto a long straight away then we will want a slightly earlier throttle application because we can use all of the road at corner exit.
But, let's say we are on a section of a race track where we have to sacrifice some speed in one corner to position our kart to setup for the next corner, that is typically an area where we want to delay our throttle application far beyond the apex.
The reason for this is that if we can extend our trail braking beyond the apex, we will have more weight on the front end. This will give us more rotation which will allow us to keep it closer to the inside of the track to setup for the next corner while at a higher speed.
Now that you're a faster karting driver, let's upgrade your mindset to a champions mindset here!
