One of the things not really mentioned here is the need not to overtake!
By that I mean that it is important to accept that one can sit behind another driver and wait / create the opportunity to overtake.
Waiting is simply being there, and letting the other driver get worried. Many drivers will respond by trying to go faster and making errors, other drivers will try to defend by driving more carefully and thus slowing down.
Creating the opportunity is a natural progression from waiting. If you know that the driver in front is going to carefully occupy 'that' line into the corner, then set him up three corners previously. Instead of following the kart so closely that you are forced to do whatever he does, open a bit of a gap on one corner, then be quick through the next corner, not having to worry if about the karts touching, then altering the line into the third corner so that you have a different line out, where the extra speed you have carried into the corner (the kart in front is being careful / slower) allows you to get past.
The other thing to remember is that you don't need to be faster than the other kart at all times. So provided you can get in front it doesn't matter if you are then 'slower'. The other kart then has the same problem your son had. He should not make contact, so he either has to drive around your son or slow down to avoid contact. Then your son settles down to driving at the speed that allowed him to catch up. Remember that having a kart in front will cut the aerodynamic drag by as much as one third, sitting reasonably close behind another kart means that you have power in hand. If the other driver is closing up to a driver in front, let your son sit in the train. This is why your son can stay behind quicker drivers but not necessarily overtake them, as soon as he swings out, he is losing that advantage.
There is also track position. Going in to a corner you only have to be alongside, inside, the other kart. The driver on the outside has to drive three kart widths further on a 180 corner than the kart on the inside just to stay along side and an additional kart length further to get back in front. In a corner, most karts / drivers simply don't have that speed advantage.
Really good drivers will use the time covering the distance between the two karts to see where an overtake can be effected and arranging it so that they don't catch up so much that they are sat behind the other kart waiting or creating the opportunity. For example, as above, they take two laps to close the gap, but arrive at the third corner before the overtake with the right gap, to allow the speed through the second corner and the overtake to be done on the third corner, instead of driving up to the back of the kart in front and trying from there.
It looks seamless, as if they just drive up to and past the other driver, but it has actually been planned out on the approach. And you will often see them pulling the train, once a kart is being overtaken, two or more karts follow the leader through without trying to overtake the leader even though it might look as if there is an opportunity.
|
|
