Driving in the wet is hard for some and easy for others. Sometimes fast guys in the dry just don’t cut it in the wet and vice versa. Why is that and how to switch your driving style from dry to wet? 

Wet surface provides significantly worse grip conditions than in dry. This means we must change something in our driving to adapt. Due to the fundamental differences in grip conditions, we must try to make the kart more responsive to get it around the corners. In addition to set up changes, it’s important to first adapt your driving style. 

Avoid Rubbery Racing Line

Wet weather driving requires different racing lines because tyres on wet rubber have absolutely no friction. Therefore, drivers brake and turn the kart off the dry racing lines. Braking often takes place on the inside line, like going defensive. Instead of trying to steer the kart towards apex, initially we cross the rubbery line to let the tyres grab on the edge of the track, like dropping out. The loose marbles, or even just clean wet asphalt, grab the kart a lot better and allow us to carry corner speed. Braking and turning on the rubbery line will generate understeer and locking of the brakes that may lead to going off the circuit. Detailed analysis of wet tyres and choosing pressures can be found from KartletiX PRO. 

Using Kerbs to Turn

Kerbs are used in dry to cut the distance when it doesn’t affect stability too badly. In the wet our main focus is planting the kart. We talked about avoiding rubbery lines, but sometimes wider racing lines are not the fastest way through a corner. Mounting the kerb can provide us with rotation at the sharpest point in the apex. The cornering speed will be slower but the distance could be that much shorter. I usually prefer to make the corners as short as possible, but often this requires more powerful gearing to get up to speed on the acceleration. Kerbs not only help rotation, but they also avoid the rubbery racing line with half of the kart. 

Just mounting and bouncing off the kerb is not beneficial. Drivers need to hit the kerb at the proper angle and speed. Often drivers even use the edge of the kerbs where it meets with grass. Letting your edge of the tyre lean against the edge of the kerb could plant the kart like on rails, carrying a lot of speed and staying on the racing line. This is best used in the slow corners.

Weight Transfer

Taller guys make chassis work better. They can shift balance of the kart more effectively. Taller generally equals heavier, allowing to move around more mass, thereby, helping to turn the kart easier. Correct turn in points and leaning to set the kart onto this path is everything in wet weather driving. Leaning to the outside in wet helps the outside tyres grab the surface and generate more grip. More about leaning in the wet can be found from our recent blog about leaning in karting.

When you look closely, heavier bigger class drivers, like KZ2, shift their bodies a lot less, because the kart’s mass is so big, it doesn’t have such an effect on driving.