Funnily enough, I am 47, have been karting almost 5 years, and have almost exactly the same problem. Whilst it might seem from an outside view that he's not planning ahead, and that he's repeating the same mistake, he's probably in the same boat as me - learning racecraft the hard way.
Things that it sounds like he is doing right includes driving very close to the kart he wants to overtake. It has surprised me that you really do need to be on their back bumper to stand a chance of getting round them. But if you do touch the kart in front on the way out of a corner you need to touch them rather than hit them, even if it means lifting a little, or better still try to find a line that gets you alongside them. For me this means watching their driving style very carefully to see what is making them slow out of a corner (usually going in too fast and late on the brakes), and finding an alternative line that gets me out of a corner alongside them.
For me, repeating the same error over and over, and letting people past because of it, is generally down to trying too hard. If I'm a bit more relaxed I tend not to overshoot the braking points and apexes, and even if I'm not quite on the pace I'm much harder to overtake than when I am over-driving.
Things that are helping me include as you say more races against different opponents. Tough comes in a number of guises - the quicker drivers tend to be pretty clean in my experience, and a messy driver a little off the pace can be a real challenge to get around. I also think it's important that you give him some leeway with making mistakes - I have to do this for myself, and even if I am annoyed about it, I have to accept it as part of the learning experience. If 1 in 5 of my overtaking attempts comes off I am having a pretty good day, especially if the 4 "fails" don't result in the kart behind getting round me.
The most useful things in my slow improvement have been:
Watching lots of races - see how the best drivers are dealing with slower drivers and then try it myself on track. I might be 47, but I have learnt a lot from watching Cadets and Juniors racing.
Trying to gain confidence driving close to other karts. He'll find a few drivers that are very trustworthy for learning to do this with, and a lot that just aren't. Once he has recognised the former, make races with them an opportunity to improve racecraft (preferably without taking them off...)
Finding a setup that lets me drive "relaxed", and finding alternative lines that don't lose me too much time. If you can get to the point that the lap at pace is kind of second nature, you have more head-space left to deal with traffic, and to plan an overtake 2 or 3 corners ahead.
Finally, I think the most help I have had is from talking to other drivers. Those on track with you can very quickly tell you where you are fast and where you are slow, why the overtake you tried on them worked or didn't, that you gave them too much or too little space, and even what looks right or wrong about the way you have set the kart up. As time goes on I'm getting better at working this stuff out for myself, but I've been really fortunate to race against some helpful people.
Karting has turned out to be a much more difficult (and consequently more interesting) sport than I had anticipated when I first took it up. I occasionally get frustrated that the learning curve seems slow at times. But if your son enjoys the racing anything like as much as I do, I reckon it's just a question of time to get the judgement and skills of racecraft in place.
Liam
|
|
