There was only one other kart on the track so I had a bunch of nice clean laps. This was my first time on the Yokohama track since reading the latest two racing instruction books. They payed off. My times were much more consistent than any previous time on this track. I beat my previous best time by over two tenths of a second. In fact my average time for the last ten laps was faster than my previous best.

Of course, right after the session, I replayed my laps in my head. There are several place where I think I can improve. It's funny how easy it is to visualize a better line for corners after I've finished driving. I wish I could do this during the session. I guess I'm just too caught up in the moment.

The corner that I did work on was the double hairpin before the 2nd longest straight. The line and method for perfecting the corner is actually pretty easy. The problem I have is forcing my self to brake way more than I'd like to at the entry to the first hairpin. You have to sacrifice all your speed in order to get the kart in the right position to accelerate onto the straight. The length of the switchback makes it impossible to go wide to maintain your momentum. I got better and better as the session went on, even to the point where next time I can try getting on the gas earlier in the second hairpin.

The corner at the end of that straight gave me some trouble. In previous times on this track I wasn't going nearly as fast as I was today, so my previous line didn't work. I tried a few things but nothing made much a difference. The problem is that the corner is shaped kind of like a question mark. If you slow down enough you can take this corner in a nice smooth arc, which is what I've done previously. I tried that today but it felt slow, and the lap times proved me right. What I realized only later, though this is just a theory, that I should hold the momentum and go wider for the first half of the corner, then brake and treat the end of the arc as the apex. This should get me through the squiggly end of the question mark much faster.

The other trouble spot was the end of the longest straight. This is a simple enough double apex corner and I feel realy silly because it's obvious, after the fact, that I was turning in too soon. That should be easy enough to fix.

Date:	3/1/2008
Track:	Yokohama
Session:	Practice
Kart:	#5
Best Lap:	26.53
Avg Lap:	27.23
Conditions:	Warm, grippy track
My Weight:	221
Highlight:	Average for my last ten laps was better than my previous best.