Gearing Question for Junior Driver

The greatest racing magic, and racing realization you will ever experience is when you take gear off and maintain your top RPM.
And there are a lot of racers that don't understand this and are running gear bound, I've had guy's pull 4 to 6 teeth and maintain or even better GAIN RPMs.
 
That track appears to be almost double the size of anything around our area. From reading all the backs and forths of you guys over the past couple years i see a trend that big tracks tend to lean toward bigger front driver being better, i guess you found up to a point it was true.
In todays world of kart racing, thats not necessarily correct. With the availability and use of gears below 53 now, the 40s, at even the biggest tracks we can use the mini gear systems and run the same lap times as we did with the larger gear systems, with the clones. Now the ratios arent the same, and it takes a bit to figure out, but sure helps in qualifying, and lots are loving it in the actual races.
 
In todays world of kart racing, thats not necessarily correct. With the availability and use of gears below 53 now, the 40s, at even the biggest tracks we can use the mini gear systems and run the same lap times as we did with the larger gear systems, with the clones. Now the ratios arent the same, and it takes a bit to figure out, but sure helps in qualifying, and lots are loving it in the actual races.
The funny thing is, these small gears have been around for 30 years or so. We ran them when I was still racing karts full time. Rocket Sprocket Accelerator gears - we still have a couple sets of them here.


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🏁Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
Carlson Motorsports on Facebook
32 years of service to the karting industry ~ 1Cor 9:24
Linden, IN
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
 
I have a first-year 9-year-old driver that is running an LO206/blue slide class. I believe most drivers are on 14/60-64 front tooth and we are as well. I am considering dropping to a 13/56-60 to help with torque and drive off the corner as we are .4 to .5 off the top 2 and .3 off 3rd and 4th. We are normally turning 5600-5700 so we have about 200-300 before the rev limiter. Would dropping the front hurt him greatly down the straightaway or be very minimal? One turn is fairly sweeping and you can carry some speed but the other is pretty sharp and looks like he is getting beat out of that turn down the front straight.

Thanks in advance for the responses.

11/47 = 4.27
12/52 = 4.33
13/56 = 4.31
14/60= 4.29
 
The funny thing is, these small gears have been around for 30 years or so. We ran them when I was still racing karts full time. Rocket Sprocket Accelerator gears - we still have a couple sets of them here.


-----
🏁Thanks and God bless,
Brian Carlson
Carlson Racing Engines
Vector Cutz
www.CarlsonMotorsports.com
Carlson Motorsports on Facebook
32 years of service to the karting industry ~ 1Cor 9:24
Linden, IN
765-339-4407
bcarlson@CarlsonMotorsports.com
Yes they have been, but WKA rules were always no lower than a 53, until fairly recently, and now all the rules allow.
We have been using the Rocket Sprocket set up from way back :)
The Nitro mini gears, i talked with Dick for quite a while this past weekend at PK, should be starting to get back on the shelves again soon as well as the standard gears.
 
There, that looks a little better. :) Damn, it ticks me off when folks start deleting and editing their posts just to screw things up. Not that it was any great loss, I guess.
I just feel sorry for kirby66567, who made the original post.

Kirby66567, personally, I would add a couple of teeth to the rear gear to get him closer to the edge of the limiter.
If the other guys are running a 14/60-64, there's probably a reason.
You didn't say what gear you were running.

 
This is what I tell all of my Newbies . Have your driver wear brightly colored gloves , so you can watch their hand movements . Watching the hands closely can tell you alot about what the driver is doing , that they may not be telling you . You may not be off by much on gearing , but your driver may be doing something that your not catching . May even go as far as putting a GoPro in the kart , aimed at their feet to see if they are braking or riding the brake , without them even realizing that they are . Being slower than the others your racing against , by such a close margin tells me your close , just need to work on a couple of things , and not a bunch of things . Also watch thier line into and out of the corners , is your driver running the same line as the faster karts ? Could your driver use a different line setup going into or out of the corners , say going longer before turning in , or turning in sooner , or maybe letting the kart drift out further towards the wall when exiting the corner . Speed can be made up in many different ways . JMO Good Luck !
 
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There, that looks a little better. :) Damn, it ticks me off when folks start deleting and editing their posts just to screw things up. Not that it was any great loss, I guess.
I just feel sorry for kirby66567, who made the original post.

Kirby66567, personally, I would add a couple of teeth to the rear gear to get him closer to the edge of the limiter.
If the other guys are running a 14/60-64, there's probably a reason.
You didn't say what gear you were running.

We have ran everything between a 14/58-64 and we have been on the rev limiter in 1 main event. But last race we consistently stayed about 3-400 below the limiter. Yes, some of it is his lines into the corner, as with most beginner drivers I constantly have to remind him to not turn in too early, but also I feel like he is rolling the corner to much, probably lack of confidence that the kart will stick, which I know will come with seat time. So, I was just looking to help on the recovery of this until that confidence comes. We are going to try a 13/56-62 next race and see what happens if it doesn't help or it hurts we will just go back to the 14, we shall see. Thanks for all the responses.
 
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