Go karting tips & tricks: turning corners faster

Ready to take your go kart racing to the next level? Here at Ace Karts, we get how passionate you are about racing. We love seeing racers challenge themselves to achieving faster lap times—we see it all the time when drivers book themselves in for an exclusive race or even during our league cup races.

It's good to note that even the best drivers in the world reach a plateau when it comes to lap times. That's why we've put together a handy guide full of go karting tips and tricks to help you hit new milestones. It only takes a few small adjustments to your racing strategy before you start seeing results.

Book an exclusive race today and see how your times compare to the last session.

Get familiar with the track

Improving your lap times can be attributed to a few key factors. Familiarising yourself with the track is critical. Once you've memorised the track, you'll know what to expect during a race session.

Each racing track has its own unique set of turns, barriers, and signage. Try memorising each turn and the order they appear in. From there you can start creating your strategy for shaving off time. There may be more than one way to navigate a turn, and it's up to you to decide which way to do it.

In racing scenarios, it often comes down to a split-second decision. You might have to decide the best way to navigate a turn based on what drivers are doing around you.

Check out our easy-to-follow track guide for a few tips on navigating the turns at Ace Karts.

Ace Karts circuit

Navigating turns

Navigating turns as a race car driver requires superhuman levels of focus. Tiny adjustments can make massive improvements to your time. Once you're familiar with every turn, it's time to establish the best racing line for each one.

A racing line is essentially the fastest possible path around a corner. This line can be broken down into three parts: the outside of the turn you're approaching, the apex and inner most part of the track, and the outside of the track that you come into at the end of the turn.

Approaching a turn

As you approach a turn you must do so from the outside of the track. Try and get as close to the edge of the track for your approach to the corner. At this point, you should still be accelerating as much as you can to reach a top speed before your approach the corner.

Approaching the apex

As you approach the corner, try and do so in a straight line. As you approach the apex, it's time to ease off the accelerator and apply your breaks. When you approach the apex, start turning. As you pass the apex of the turn, you'll want to get off the breaks and accelerate.

Coming out of the turn

As you're coming out of the turn, it's important to continue accelerating in a straight line. Doing so will help prevent your back wheels from kicking out. Aim for the outside of the track as you're accelerating, as this will give you maximum distance for accelerating without having to lose speed from turning more.

Where you can improve the most

Your timing for the apex approach is the most important element of your turn. Breaking and accelerating during the approach will drastically influence your time around a corner.

Every time you approach a corner, experiment with the timing of your breaking and your acceleration. Pick a specific position of the turn for accelerating and experiment with it. Think about specific objects or markers on the track which you can use to indicate where you need to start breaking, accelerating, or turning.

More go karting tips and tricks

• Don't lean – Avoid leaning towards the apex when you're turning. This puts more weight over your inside wheels, which can make it harder to straighten up after a turn.
  
  
• One pedal at a time – Stick to using one pedal at a time when you're racing. Pressing both pedals at the same time can cause you to spin out and lose control.
  
  
• Look ahead – When you're driving so close to the ground, everything seems twice as fast. Looking ahead will help make everything appear slower and help you make decisions for navigating turns earlier on.
  
  
• Use every part of the track – The wider you approach each turn, the easier it is to get close to the apex. Getting right on the apex will minimise the length of your turn and the time it takes to navigate it.

Put our go karting tips and tricks to the test. Book a race session to start work on those racing lines.