Karting 101 : Lesson 2 - Braking 

Thanks! More coming... when I find some spare time! Next video will cover basic chassis dynamics and serve as an intro into tuning a kart.

Interesting points. Yes, it's probably true that if the inside rear wheel is unloaded, leaving the outside rear wheel to brake while you are trying to turn-in, that braking force is probably working against the turn-in somewhat, however the mechanical jacking of the kart far exceeds this loss and isn't really noticeable when trail-braking.

@@KorsasportKartingDevelopment Thanks.

There are instances where light braking can be beneficial for faster corners with almost no braking zone. But for hard braking zones, you want to slow down as quickly as possible and spend less time braking. If a corner has an apex speed of 30 mph, you need to get down to that speed no matter what, so if you are just lightly braking, you are spending more time slowing down, which of course means less time accelerating. There’s no difference in momentum if you are reaching the same apex speed. A good general rule is to make all the braking zones as small as possible and all the acceleration zones as long as possible (while maintaining the proper racing line).

Hey Bob, braking earlier can be useful if you're trying to optimize your run off the corner and get on the gas even earlier in a battle or something, where you're setting up the other kart. In general though there will be a point where you can't get on throttle earlier, or you'll be too quick at apex, so in most cases braking early will be slower overall. Straight-line braking would probably be the example of "early" braking that can still be quick.