Neck to neck..

4 May

In the coming race less than 2 week away , it will be a race of
2 heats of 18 laps each on track configuration B :
The tricky and 'torturous' bit of this configuration is the spoon
curve, I think.
Of course, there're the fast entry for the downhill (aka 180R),
and the braking, entry and exit for the initial uphill bits of the
spoon. Yes, these are the tricky sections of the track too, but
over the race distance I really believed the spoon is where
one will be set apart from the rest of the field.

This spoon section is one which if you go too slow you will
be slow for the remaining sector leading to the pits area.
And needless to mention, with the wide track anyone not
at race speed will be very suspectible of being overtaken
quite very easily.

On the other hand, if one try to throttle too much on the spoon
the rear end will start to 'fish-tail'. When this happen counter
steer is needed, which in turn means time will be lost. Perhaps
a tenth or more.

At a decent race speed, another challenge will arise. A physical
challenge... of the neck and rib. As we go around this parabolic,
the rib will be firmly pressed on the seat thus without a good seat
fit or a good rib protector one will be struggling for breath in the
latter stages in the race. This is much further aggravated by the
bouncy nature of this section! The rib is literally hitting the seat.


Then there's the neck 'strain' from the G Force through this section.
Fine, we are not driving a F1 machine you may say.
However I do assure you that the persistent centrifugal force on
neck is quite significant over race distance at speed.
It does not help when our first few races did not include the Spoon.
I had some ache (read hurts for 2 days...) on my neck after go through
my pace in this configuration after the previous race in April.

Hence I realised it will be very beneficial to get the neck up to scratch,
else it will be a painful Monday after the race on...
And this is what I discover on the internet:

A combination of high speeds and tight corners means that go karting tends to put your neck muscles under a lot of pressure. Because of the G-forces that affect your body when you take corners, you will often find that your neck muscles ache after even a fairly short go karting session. Fortunately, doing exercises to strengthen your neck muscles can help with this. As a word of caution, it is best to seek advice from a qualified trainer before embarking on strengthening your neck muscles, as it is easy to do significant damage to your body if you are not really sure what you are doing.

Why Spend Time Strengthening Your Neck Muscles?

There are several benefits to strengthening your neck muscles as part of your fitness work for go karting. Firstly, it will go a long way towards reducing the discomfort that most novice go karters experience when first getting involved in the sport. This discomfort is mostly the result of G-forces.

If you intend to move into the higher echelons of motor sport, you will need to be able to withstand high G-forces. For example, the average Formula One driver contends with around 5g under braking, 2 g under acceleration and 4-6 g during overtaking manoeuvres.

What Type of Exercises Will Strengthen Your Neck Muscles?

Isometric neck exercises are a good way to work your neck muscles without injuring yourself. These neck exercises are best done every other day so that you do not strain your neck muscles. This is particularly important if your neck muscles are not used to be exercised regularly. To do simple isometric neck exercises, you can follow these steps:

• Stand with your feet shoulder-width apart.
• Gently push your head backwards and use your neck muscles to keep your head still. After around ten seconds, relax your neck muscles.
• Put your hands on the back or side of your head, and gently push your head forwards. As before, use your neck muscles to keep your head still. Relax after ten seconds.
• Repeat the steps several times.
• For side isometric neck exercises, stand with your feet shoulder-width apart and put your right palm against the right side of your face so that it is just above your right ear.
• Gently push your head to the left as if you are trying to connect your ear and shoulder. While doing this, contract your neck muscles to keep both your head and neck in the right position.
• Do the same with your left side, and repeat the steps several times.

Strengthening your neck muscles is recommended for helping your body to cope with the G-forces that can cause a lot of discomfort later on. While the G-forces that affect you in go karting are nowhere near as big as the G-forces that affect Formula One drivers, you can still end up with a very sore neck in the hours following your go karting session. Before you start any neck strengthening exercises, it is best to consult a trainer to make sure that you are not going to cause any damage to your neck or spinal cord as a result of your intended fitness work.

from: http://www.goingkarting.co.uk