"Pushing is just two or more drivers working together to gain a tenth or two."
Pushing is illegal. Pushing means contact and karting is a NO-contact sport.
Pushing, as you have described it is also cheating, using an illegal method to gain advantage.
I have no problem to driving close behind another driver, it saves up to 30% of the aerodynamic drag and thus makes you go faster.
It also has been shown to cut the drag of the kart in front, it makes then go faster as well. This is why two or more karts in line astern ( a nautical term meaning one behind the other rather than line abreast, one beside another) go faster than a single kart on its own.
The problem is that it requires skill to drive that close without making contact and if there are gaps, then the impact when / if the gap gets closed is what sends karts off line. Unfortunately too many drivers are taught that the impact is useful in causing the kart ahead to get out of the way.
Even this website advocates loading into the first corner. Its advice on starting tells you to place your nose on the kart ahead's rear bumper and push so that the kart ahead cannot crate a gap on accelerating and then when you get to the corner, go into the gap whether it exists or not and hope tht you survive and the CoC doesn't notice. Perhaps we should change that sort of advice. (yes, I know that you can read the advice in several ways, but that's the interpretation most young drivers seem to put on it).
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