Indoor Karting

One of the main differences between indoor and outdoor Go-karting is that you don’t have to battle against the weather. This generally makes Go-karting indoors less tricky than outdoors but it’s still a case of practice makes perfect!

Steering

Most people want to hold the steering wheel in the wrong fashion, which will affect the handling of your Go-kart. It’s more beneficial to have your hands on the steering wheel in a quarter to 3 position throughout, unless you’re turning into or going round a corner. It’s tempting to hold the steering wheel tightly, but you should hold it as loosely as possible, so that it doesn’t affect the handling.

Braking

Braking can be a problem for beginners. As you turn into a corner, press the brake down firmly. You need to get the balance right though - if you press too firmly, you’ll spin; if you press to lightly, you’ll run wide. It will take lots of practice to get the balance right.

Using The Lines

Most beginners don’t use enough of the track, but if you want to have faster lap times, you will need to use more of the track. Turn in from the outside of the corner and move through to the inside. When you emerge from the corner, you should automatically move towards the outside.

Moving away from this line will slow down your lap times. Ideally, you want to take a line that will let you be on the throttle as early as possible - sometimes, this will be before you reach the apex of the corner. This involves braking earlier, and turning in later.

Overtaking

If you are about to be overtaken, stick to the inside line without slowing down. This will make it more difficult for the driver behind to come up behind you.

When you approach a slower driver in front of you, you need to close in down the straight, so that you can outbrake him. Once you get alongside, you need to let the other driver commit to braking first, so that you can brake a little later and use your greater speed to move past them.

If the driver in front takes a defensive line, you need to look for a line that will let you go faster down the next straight.

All of these manoeuvres need to be practiced a lot, as they require experience to successfully execute them in a race situation.

Adjusting Your Driving Style

This is one of the most difficult aspects of indoor Go-karting. Leaning forward in your Go-kart adjusts your body weight so that your front tyres have more grip, but your rear tyres have less grip. This causes your Go-kart to oversteer. To combat this, you can lean backwards to redistribute your body weight, which rebalances the Go-kart.

Likewise, when your Go-kart is suffering from under steer, lean forwards to rebalance. It is a fine line between oversteer and under steer, so you will need to experiment to get the right balance.

All of these manoeuvres require you to practice to get them right during races, but once you’ve got the hang of them, you should have an advantage over your fellow drivers.