Go Privateer or Team, the Critical Factors
Not the obvious, i.e. whether sharing tyre pressures and data expertise are available. But the really life changing benefits of choosing one over the other.
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Now let’s get into teams vs privateer!
What are the critical benefits of running as a privateer vs. running within a team?
NOT the obvious ones I assure you!
Let’s start with privateer…
The obvious factors that I’d like to dismiss as fairly unimportant are the:
Low value benefits of running yourself as a privateer.
Cheaper.
Nobody can nick your data.
Nobody can pinch your set ups.
You can keep yourself to yourself, no hassle and nobody poking their nose in.
It’s comforting to be the under-dog.
Those are nice things, but not the critical factors that form the base of decision making.
The following however are great reasons to go privateer.
It’s f********* hard.
You have to become self-reliant.
You need to learn your own kart inside out.
You have to become proficient and fast with making changes.
You will feel isolated and only have yourself to blame for mistakes.
You only have your own data for comparison.
You feel at great disadvantage against the majority.
Those are all fantastic reasons to decide to run yourself as a privateer, because they force you to really increase your expertise, stretch your abilities and learn how survive on your own, up against the odds.
It’s the karting equivalent of going off into the wilderness and surviving by your own wits, Bear Grills style, or perhaps a more genuine badass of survival that I can’t think of!
Anyway, the point is that you can use the privateer experience to really hone yourself as a lone-wolf operator. And that is so cool that I can’t even tell you.
Now you may now protest ‘but I have no choice, I can only race privateer!’ which is even better. That’s another hardship to add to the list that works to your advantage… Find out more about that here:
Now let’s deal with what should go into deciding to run with a team…
What are the superficial and unimportant benefits of running in a team.
You get the benefits of sharing data.
You get the benefits of expert set ups.
You can test a range of tyre pressures in one session.
Camaraderie.
Team mates can stick together on track.
Its easier, you don’t have to lift a finger. Tent is set up etc.
Espresso machine.
Actually the espresso machine might be a real advantage, but you can put one in your van!
I believe that the list above is actually a list of downsides to running in a team, to me those points foster dependences that can weaken you as an individual who is determined to set the world alight.
Instead you need to ignore the easements a team provides, and consider how they can make you into a more formidable racing driver. Here’s my list:
The real benefits of running in a team.
You will need to learn how to:
Dominate your team mates.
Understand the importance of manipulating the staff.
Lead the staff, i.e become a commander of subordinates.
Elevate yourself from customer to the team’s most essential racing driver.
Share your data to advantage yourself, and limit your data sharing whilst maximising your access to the data of others.
Monopolise the best engines
Gain the priority of the data staff over all other drivers.
Gain the favour of the team boss.
Secure the best mechanics.
Do what Micheal Schumacher did to Ferrari - make them yours!
That’s how to get real value from running within a team. That is to learn the art of war and the Machiavellian tactics that really are valuable! It sounds a bit sinister I know, but you can do it all nobly as befits your style.
Getting a few set up tips and shelter aren’t worth a great deal, but learning how to lead an army who are hellbent on sacrificing themselves to your ends really is worth whatever investment you are asked for.
Can’t pay a team? - Even better! You now need to learn about bringing in the dosh:
So which is the best choice - Team or Privateer?
Both!
See those two lists of benefits: if you can combine both of those lists and use them to describe you as a racing driver then surely you are an unbeatable proposition, right?
So go privateer and then go into a team - then leave and go privateer again - keep cycling it until you develop yourself with the priorities I’ve given you, and you can’t lose.
Look, I’ll do it for you now, imagine yourself as having all these attributes.
You:
Thrive when something is f********* hard.
Are brutally self-reliant.
Know your own kart inside out.
Have become proficient and fast with making changes.
Take full responsibility for your mistakes.
Know how to use your own data to win.
Thrive against the majority team drivers.
And…
Dominate your team mates.
Understand the importance of manipulating the staff.
Lead the staff, i.e become a commander of subordinates.
Elevate yourself from customer to the team’s most essential racing driver.
Share your data to advantage yourself, and limit your data sharing whilst maximising your access to the data of others.
Monopolise the best engines
Gain the priority of the data staff over all other drivers.
Gain the favour of the team boss.
Secure the best mechanics.
Do what Micheal Schumacher did to Ferrari - make them yours!
Ooof, imagine that! What a driver!…
By the way, if you feel a bit short changed that I’ve given a lot of bullet points without explanations of how to accomplish them, each one does constitute another article. Let me know in the comments which ones you want to know about the most, and I’ll do my best to oblige you.
Thanks for reading
Terence
While I don't do a lot of karting -- I ran a couple of Margay Ignite events a few years ago, including the Indianapolis thing -- one benefit I immediately noted of running with a team was this: Karters get hurt a lot more often than car drivers. It's a big pain to fix a kart with a broken axle, but it's worse when you're already miserable from having been flipped onto your shoulders. Ironically, the same is true in BMX, from whence I came; the kids who had their bikes maintained FOR them were better able to show up for the next moto in good physical shape.