Look where you're going - Opinion Piece

There's an interesting psychological event that can easily occur in any racers head, even F1 drivers. When you're following a similarly fast driver you can end up either just tailing them the whole race and not getting anywhere or even worse, slam straight into the back of them without meaning to.

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Why does this happen?

Well, as you come up behind them your probably looking at them in one way or another, whether it's their helmet, the embroidery on the back of their racesuit or the kart itself, rather than looking where you actually want to be.

It's a really simple concept but all too easy to ignore. Obviously you can't not look at them but you can look beyond them or to the side of them at where you want to go and keep them in your periphery vision. Whilst following them pick a point on the track where you think an overtaking opportunity is possible. Already you're using this technique by not looking at where they're going but where you could be different. So next time you reach your chosen overtaking area consciously look at where you want to be and keep your prey in sight, but not in focus if you like.

You can do this with any driving anywhere and you don't need to be overtaking someone to do it. On your way to the event try picking a spot on a corner (on your side of the road for safety's sake) and focus on it. Funnily enough that's where you'll end up, keep up the practice and you'll improve your lines and overtake more people.

Look ahead, not at someone else's head.