How to Find the Impossible Final 2 Tenths

You can’t reach the front unless you stop guessing and start driving with intent. And for intent, you need targets. Here's how to get them

Listen to the audio version, I do it after I write the article and think of extra tips every time!

I Just Need Two Or Three Tenths...

You Know It Is There, If You Ever Had A Sim You Know That For Sure

The final 2 or 3 tenths to the quick lot feels like an impossible mystery. Some drivers want to resign themselves to the idea they’ll never find it. But damn – simulators, even Gran Turismo 2 on the PlayStation, proved to me there's always another tenth... forever.

It might take 5 or 6 hours of solid driving on a computer, in perfect and unchanging conditions, but the time is there. If you keep going – especially if you're locked in a sibling death-match against your annoying af brother – those impossible tenths eventually come.

It’s true that a sim is nothing like reality. You can hammer one endlessly, and the conditions, tyres, everything, stay constant. But it still proves the point.

It's proof of concept.

We’ve all done this. So we know the time is there in the real world – even if we can’t always recreate the same intensity of focus the sim allows.

That thought drives me up the wall – the time IS there, if the focus is right.

Then you go online, look at world records for the exact same vehicle, setup and conditions... and there’s even more time out there!

On The Real Kart Track, Can You Find The 2 Or 3 Tenths That You Know Must Be There

Can you catch people when they put on new tyres, good motor. But you are staying on the old tyre, the motor is tired... You can't catch them.

It may be true that they are faster because of the extra budget on tyres etc. But almost always they are allowing themselves off the hook of the intensity of focus that can produce a few tenths. So, you may have a perfectly valid reason for them being quicker, it's possibly their kit, it may also be their kit plus commitment. Either way we want to go after the improvement – I will maintain the time is there.

Here's a way to look at it:

You have to be quicker than you would have been if you didn't get it more correct. That means focus on yourself. In the back of your mind you can have the performance of the other drivers pushing you to dig deeper. That kind of emotional driver is good, we use everything we can whether it be jealousy, ego, delusion or whatever. Use it.

If you have reasonable kit you could win this way, if not, you are beating yourself. Both are faster than failing to improve on yourself.

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