What Is The Point Of Go-Kart Racing?

[@10milsocket]

IMO, karting taught me how to be more in tune with a vehicle, how to carry momentum, trained my reflexes and my mental sharpness. Karting is a good baseline to have going into cars to learn fundamental techniques. Only good drivers will adapt to a new vehicle and use what tools karting gave them in a productive manner.

[@Dakkyun]

Apart from motorsports, i think go-kart could have been a more economical mode of transportation than the cars of North America, it's like a lost future that america and canada should have had.

[@OakmanOnRacing]

Interesting idea.

[@thiswillprobhrt]

Fun. Pushing yourself physically and mentally. Help keep body and mind fresh. Make new friends. Create incredible memories with friends and/or your kids and family members.

[@OakmanOnRacing]

Yes to everything you said.

[@ghenckel]

Another great video, Rob! I feel you slightly 'undersell' the benefits of kart racing at a high level.... A couple of observations: kids clearly learn 1) race craft in karting, how and when to set up the next pass forward, and equally importantly 2) they learn to 'relax' and stay cool in the race! You can always (ha, you especially) pick out the newbies, from their erratic and impatient progress forward, and then often backward. Kart racers get used to the racing, after hundreds of races, and learn to stay cool in the heat of battle, and how to win by making 'low risk' chess moves, every lap, every opportunity, when it best makes sense. Lastly, don't sell karting short! Some kid named Max Verstappen beat some kid named Charles LeClerc (as you well know, but others may not recall) in the KZ shifter FIA World Championship at Genk in 2013 (video is elsewhere on youtube, go find it kids!) Keep the great work coming! Thanks again, cheers

[@OakmanOnRacing]

I certainly agree there is value in karting. But staying in karting when the opportunity to move into cars is there, I feel is a mistake. As I say in the video, karting is a great place learning the basics of racing, but if you want to race rally, open wheel, stock cars, sports cars, you need to transition to them early to get that seat time. And if you have to choose between another season of karting and that seat time. You have to take that seat time. Drivers can transition back to karting if it doest work out.

[@LiamConstantinracing]

This is an amazing video, but I can’t really agree on same that kart create bad habits if I’m going be honest I think a car/kart simulator would have a high impact on driver skill. I mostly think karting is were you learn your skills your fundamentals of racing, but at the end of day it’s the driver and what they can accomplish. Other than that loved the video

[@OakmanOnRacing]

Thank you. And as I say, you can certainly learn the fundamentals. And you can learn some advanced techniques, but the way a car works vs a kart is very different. I have seen and experienced the struggle of transitioning from one to the other. F4 teams are very vocal about the habits formed in karting that they have to train out of drivers coming into their series.

[@LiamConstantinracing]

@ I understand your point of view but as someone who races with a f4/karting team, they say otherwise. Speak with my coach/team owner he said they are a lot similarities to an f4 car and a kart, you’re actually learning more by taking your karting experience and adding to it. So I really don’t understand why you think that karts cant help a driver going into cars, many teams ask for drivers to have karting experience to drive a car especially when they racing in a big series like usf or even British f3 and f4. Many of the great Canadian drivers like Alex Tagliani, Alex berg, Anthony Martella, Frankie mossman, etc.

[@OakmanOnRacing]

I don’t think karting doesn’t help. I think staying in karting instead of moving on when you can in the problem. I think karting teams and series telling drivers they need more time in karting is a problem when the driver is able to move on. And I wonder if you ask your coach what he says about bad habits from karting, and how much time in karting they think a driver needs before they transition to F4.

[@pachakutimundi6813]

​@LiamConstantinracingimo shifter helps a lot for motorsports in general, it gives you a base for everything. I know a local rally driver who says shifter helped him a lot during his first time racing. Obviously at the end it will depend how fast you can learn new techniques

[@Preen59]

@@OakmanOnRacing A perfect example (or two) would be clearing the brake abrubtly or being too aggressive with your initial steering input. There are a lot more cases where that is an advantage in karts than there are in cars. I completely agree with you.

[@dougcorcoran5455]

Very good video!

[@OakmanOnRacing]

Thank you!

[@badgumby9544]

Fun.

[@OakmanOnRacing]

That is a great answer.