A Beginner’s Guide to Being Quick | How to Get Faster at Karting

How do you get faster at karting when you're just starting out?

In this episode of the Kart Class Podcast, 18x Australian Champion David Sera breaks down the fundamentals every beginner kart driver should focus on before making major setup changes or trying to drive harder.

Getting faster in a go-kart isn't about attacking every corner with maximum aggression. It starts with learning how to flow through corners, carry momentum, use minimal steering input and avoid unnecessary braking.

David explains why beginner drivers often lose speed by over-driving the kart, and how developing smooth and consistent driving techniques can make a significant difference to lap times.

We also look at kart setup and driver confidence. Instead of completely overhauling the chassis every time the kart doesn't feel perfect, small and calculated setup changes can help the driver gain confidence while maintaining a consistent platform to learn from.

Another important part of becoming a faster kart driver is learning by watching others. Experienced drivers provide valuable visual references for braking points, turn-in points, apexes, racing lines and throttle application. Understanding what a fast lap looks like can help a beginner driver develop their own reference points.

Finally, David explains why drivers shouldn't be afraid of making mistakes. Trying new techniques, pushing beyond your comfort zone and occasionally getting it wrong is an essential part of learning how to drive a kart faster.

In this episode, you'll learn:

• How to get faster at karting as a beginner
• The importance of flowing through corners
• Why minimal steering input can improve kart speed
• Why beginners often use the brakes too much
• How to carry more corner speed and momentum
• How small kart setup changes can build driver confidence
• How to learn from faster and more experienced kart drivers
• Using visual markers for braking, turn-in and apex points
• Why making mistakes is essential for driver development
• The fundamentals young kart drivers should master before chasing major setup changes

Whether you're a beginner kart driver, young racing driver or parent supporting a child in karting, this episode provides a simple approach to developing speed, confidence and better driving technique.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

G'day guys and welcome back to the 7 Hour Cart Class podcast. Today we're going to be looking at a beginner's guide to being quick. I've seen a recent influx of newcomer drivers, and that's a really positive sign for karting as a whole. We're getting some really big numbers when we're looking at our major races, but obviously we need to keep continuing to grow the sport from a club level. And just, you know, when I'm going to coaching days, I'm seeing a lot more people I've never seen before, people with you know pea plates that are just getting into the sport and it's it's really encouraging. But obviously, when you're starting out, things can be a little bit tough. So we want to try and give you a bit of a guide on how to get up to speed quickly if you're trying to do it yourself. So the first thing that you know parents slash drivers want to concentrate on is just try and do the fundamentals really well. So, what do we mean by fundamentals? This is flowing out of the corners, flowing into the corners as well. You want to try and use the full track width where possible. Now, not every corner is going to require you to be on the extreme outside of the circuit to start your corner, but where possible, and obviously looking for that racing line, you want to try and use as much track width as you can. This just allows you to flow a lot more speed through the corners, but it's also going to make you more gentle on the steering. If you're on a tighter line, you're going to have to turn the steering wheel a lot more. And that brings about slowing the cart down, but it also brings in a lot more instability with a cart when you're having to turn the steering wheel a lot more. So let's just get our corners nice and wide, flow as much speed as we can through. And when we're talking about minimal steering inputs, it comes back to that saying of smooth is fast. So this comes back to the first time you want to turn the wheel, be a little bit more gentle. And why I say this is because the first part of your steering, if it's too aggressive, that's when two or three inputs are going to have to be those little corrections, and that's when the cart gets more unstable and we get these oversteering moments where that you know equates to a spin, you can hear the tires screeching a lot more in the corners, which you know ultimately isn't that fast. So let's slow our hands down by using a minimal steering input. And if you need more steering, you can always start to apply more steering as you go through the corners, but don't go a sudden movement because then there's going to be a couple of corrections that will follow from there. The next thing is being comfortable with your brakes. Now, when we're starting out, we're going to go from not using them at all because we're too scared to spin out, then we're going to start hitting them too hard, and it's probably going to cause us to spin out. So we need to find that balance where the brakes are working sufficiently and they're got a little bit of a touchy feel to them because we want to try and use the brakes in a way where they slow us down pretty quickly, and then we can obviously release the brake from there and then get back on the throttle as quick as we can. So we need to find that brake pressure, that feel on the brake pedal, how long it's going to travel that suits your driver. Some kids like a really responsive brake. Some other drivers like to have a little bit of play in the pedal where it's moving back and forth, maybe you know, let's say three or four mil in the pedal before it starts to engage. So just see what your driver likes. You can try multiple different setup adjustments on the brake pedal to see what is is best suited to them. But we need to get comfortable with the brakes because we want to use them effectively, but also short. We want to get on them quickly and get off them quickly so we can again maintain that speed through the corners. When it comes now to you know tweaking the chassis, let's try and start with a very neutral setup. Now, if you're new to the sport, you don't know what a neutral setup is. But also if you've bought a secondhand go kart, this may have a setup in in it that you know you've got no idea because it could have a left field axle in it or different rims that you see a lot of drivers that are using. So when we say a neutral setup for your driver, it might be that let's go for a cadet, for example, you want to be using a a medium axle, so like the the yeah, the middle axle that you can use in your range for your chassis. We want to then have generally a low front ride height. Now, this is because we want to release the rear grip in the cart. Because the tyres have a sufficient amount of grip, we don't want to have too much stability in the cart where it's going to actually slow the engine down. It's going to be nice to drive. So for us, a very neutral setup in a cadet cart is a low front ride height, two mil negative camber, that's very, very common across a range of chassis. One mil toe out. If you can go two mil, that's fine. It's better suited for you know tighter technical circuits, but on the 90% of the tracks, one mil is is totally fine. Um, again, keep that neutral axle. 1100 mil is our rear track width. So again, fluctuating between 1095, so a couple of million per side if it's the track slippery, and 1100 is the maximum track width we can use. So you want to try and keep it as a neutral setup that you can just go from track to track or from day to day and not have to worry about the chassis too much. When we start throwing different rims at it, different camber and cast are at it, that's okay. And you can get, you know, one to three tenths out of those setup adjustments. But as a beginner, you need like a constant, you need the cart to be the you know, very similar feeling from day to day, so that you can build your confidence, you can start to push your limits. So, again, tweaking is okay. Let's talk in two mil increments, let's go with minimal cast adjustments, so like the smallest amounts that you can choose. If you want to change the the camber or the toe out, again, one mil increments, that's fine. Front track width, one little space in or out, again, that's that's okay. One sprocket up or down. They're all things that you want to tweak rather than going from a hard axle to an extreme soft axle, going from you know, magnesium to aluminum wheels. You can do that, but you don't need to do it too much, especially when you're just starting out. The next thing we want to look at is watching other drivers. So, again, you're starting out, you want to get up to speed as quick as you can. Let's focus our attention on watching what the fast drives are doing. So if you're out in the track and you've seen someone just zoom by you, hopefully you've been able to switch onto their lines. You know, speed will come with the right racing lines. But even if you can't keep up, how about we sit out a session or two and we just watch and we listen and we listen to when they're backing off or when they're accelerating or where they're clipping the apex, and then you start to visualize those things so that when you go and drive yourself, you can go to that same braking marker, you can clip the apex on that same colored box, you can turn in on that crack that you saw the fastest drivers do. Again, we don't need to match their speed yet. We need to match their lines, their apexes, their braking markers. Speed will come again at the end. And lastly, which is you know sometimes a little bit hard for drivers to grasp, even parents, is don't be afraid to make mistakes. You're not going to go from being a beginner to winning races without making mistakes. It's just not possible. I I've told drivers that I coach, you know, hundreds of times that you need to make mistakes. You need to find the limits of your capability for now. Now, in six months' time, your ability hopefully has grown and your markers have been pushed along by maybe one or two cart lengths, or maybe it's only half a cart if you're close to the speed already. But mistakes are good. Mistakes are okay. As long as you're learning from them and you're finding your boundaries, you need to find where that mistake's going to be made. You don't want to be pushing yourself out of your comfort zone on a race day. We need to be doing that in a testing or a practice environment so that when you come to race day, you're in that not so much comfort zone, but you know your limitations. And whether that's, you know, because your first club day, you might be, let's just say, one second off the pace. And then you've got a whole month to build up on practice days again to make those mistakes, to find your limits, to then get to seven or eight tenths off the pace. And then again, two club days' time, a couple of months' time. We've rehomed our skills. We've pushed our boundaries another half a cart on a few corners. We've carried one or two kilometers more speed, and now so we're only four or five tenths off. So you can see how that we're not trying to go from one second to the pace within one month. You just got to do these little building blocks and you get there over time by making mistakes and learning from them. So that's a pretty quick guide on you know, going from beginner to being quick. So just recapping that is just do the fundamentals really well. Flow the corners, don't overuse the brakes and use minimal steering input where possible. Tweak the chassis, don't go overhaul when it comes to the cart setup. Watch and learn from the faster and more experienced drivers. And lastly, don't be afraid to make your mistakes. I hope this guide has been, you know, a little bit of a valuable tool for you. Just something to sort of listen back on and go, you know what? Actually, I'm putting a little bit too much pressure on my son or daughter to get up to speed really quickly. And just try and get those little building blocks in and just take it month by month. If you've enjoyed this episode, probably the best way to repair the faith in the podcast is just to leave it a review or give it a good, you know, a good five star rating if you possibly can, just so that more people in the caring community can see this podcast. Until next time, guys, I'm your host, David Serra, and I'll keep in touch soon. Cheers.