Karting Traction. Show Me the Exit Speed!
Exits are where you see time bleed away
The beautiful bit of driving for me is corner entry.
The limit-braking and sliding, creating angles. Synchronising brakes, steering, kart rotation - watching a driver end a slight slide gently, overlapping that with initiating a turn in, orchestrated by hand and feet compensating and balancing.
All mixed with aggression, determination, yet intelligence and fine sensitivity.
Wonderful!
I love all that, it’s a lot to admire and be entertained by. The artfulness, skill, bravery of a driver all happening in one moment.
BUT
Then things get serious. I can watch a corner entry with all ‘oooo’ and ‘ahhh lovely’, then the exit becomes:
Because the exit phase is the business end of the corner.
If that isn’t right the displays of skill and prowess on entry become a distant and bitter memory!
Corner exits. The critical eye. No more admiration, it’s spreadsheet time.
When we watch drivers, (by we I mean coaches, teams, anyone who cares about you winning) we watch your exits like a hawk. It gets serious, this is the profit side of the business of driving. Whatever you did on the way in has to pay off via an inch perfect exit.
We are looking for an exit that bags all the profit, has no cost, no mistakes, no drag.
Show me the exit speed!
When I watch a driver exit, it’s all business. Like show me the money… I don’t see sublime skills any longer - I see potential to steer too much and drop the profit from the corner. The exit is about bagging your gains, and not dropping what you’ve worked for.
