Drag Racing 101

**ss_caramo** · 08-26-2007, 06:40 PM

Some basic guidelines to follow for some of you first timers to the track:

1. Its considered common courtesy to go AROUND the water box and then back into it if you are running treaded tires. The reason for this is that your treaded tires will carry water to the starting line, and thats no good for the guy behind you that may be running a 1000+hp drag car.

2. As part of suggestion 1, dont take your burnout past the starting line. It is frowned upon unless you are running a true drag car. Reason being they done want you taking any trash (oil , rocks, water) past the starting line.

3. When you get done with your pass, there will be a return road on one side or the other. If the turn off to the return road to the pits is not on your side, it is common courtesy to let the other guy turn off first. NEVER EVER EVER turn across their lane to return to the pits untill they have first. And if the return road is on your side, you should turn off first. Slow down as safely as you can, and dont worry if you pass the first return road. there are usually 2-3 exits past that one. But turn off as soon as you can.

4. no speeding / burnouts in the pits. good way to catch a quick ass kicking for obvious reasons.

5. If during your pass something breaks on your car, pull over as close to the wall and come to a complete stop as quickly and safely as you can. You will gain a little respect by not taking your car all the way down the middle track spewing fluid in the groove. Wait untill the car your were against has exited the track, double check that the starter hasnt sent another car down the track ontop of you, then get out and see if you are or arent leaking fluid. If youre not leaking and the car is driveable, you can drive it slowly to the return road. If you dont want to start it back up or it isnt driveable, they will tow it for you to the pits. It reduces cleanup time, and keeps oil out of the "groove" where all the rubber has been laid throughout the day / night. The groove is very important to the high horsepower cars or cars running slicks, and they will appreciate you trying to preserve that groove and keep it safe for everyone else.

6. The "tree" is not the staging point. You will actually stage the car approx 20ft or so from the tree. Watch a few races and see where everyone else is staging their car. you dont want to get laughed at by trying to stage the car AT the tree :P It is also considered courteous to only pre-stage your car untill the other car has also pre-staged. by pre-staging I mean only lighting one bulb on the tree. Then once your competitior has pre staged, you can roll in and light the 2nd bulb. once he lights the second bulb, you are both staged and the tree could begin its countdown at any moment. you should be fully prepared to make a pass at this point.

These are some of the basics of drag racing unwritten law. Hope this helps you out!

**djvaly** · 08-26-2007, 06:53 PM

good common sense material, I think it's worthy of being a sticky thread.

**mrr23** · 08-26-2007, 06:55 PM

i'll add my webpage

http://centralfloridastreetcars.com/...dragracing.htm

**djvaly** · 08-26-2007, 06:56 PM

whoa, nice info on your webpage

**mrr23** · 08-26-2007, 07:02 PM

something a friend of mine wrote up

Originally Posted by roadrocket

Introduction:

I. The week before racing:

A. Make sure everything on your car, both electrical and mechanical is in proper working condition.

B. Second, make sure that whatever tires you are going to run, are in proper racing condition, i.e., no slow leaks, no nails in tire, no patches, no plugs. Etc…

C. Third, make sure you have all your tools ready that you intend to take to the track. You can never have too many tools, because you never know what you might need while at the track.

II. The day of racing

A. First thing you should do when you get up that morning is to check the weather for where you are going to be racing. This way you can decide if you need to go ahead and start getting everything together, or just cancel. The worst thing on race day is procrastinating, trying to figure out if you’re going to race or not. You make the decision that morning. Either you drive to the track, and risk racing being cancelled, or you just stay at home, and risk not racing if they do end up racing.

B. Second, once you’ve decided that you are going to race, you need to remove everything that’s loose in your car possible. Some people, such as myself, prefer to do this the night before, but it’s mainly up to you, depending upon how much time you have before you have to leave for the track. Now, when I say everything loose, I mean things such as articles of clothing, books, magazines, any trash, everything in your glove box and console that you won’t need, anything in the rear hatch that isn’t needed, and just anything in general that you don’t want in the car. Be it for cleanliness purposes, weight reduction, or safety measures.

C. Third, loading the car. Once you’ve removed everything from the car that will be of no use to you at the track, start loading the things that you will need. Such as tools, wheels and tires if you’re not already driving on them, food, drinks, laptops, etc.

D. Lastly, do a quick once-over of the car, and make sure that everything is still in proper working order.

III. Arriving at the track

A. First thing you’ll do when you get there is to go through the entrance gate, and pay your race fees. Upon payment, you will receive what is called a tech card.

B. Second. Once you’ve received your tech card at the gate, proceed to the pits, and find yourself a good parking spot. Personally, I usually like finding one that is relatively close to the staging lanes and the concession stand.

C. Third. After you’ve found your parking spot, go ahead and unload your car, and start making whatever preparations you need to make to the car, be it changing wheels and tires, making adjustments to your tuning, removing seats, etc.

D. Once you’ve made all your preparations, you need to fill out your tech card. The main info they need on there is your name, address, phone number, make and model of your car, and your signature. After you’ve filled that out, jump in your car, and drive over to the tech booth. Once there, pop your hood, and wait your turn in line till they get to you. Once it’s your turn, hand them your card, and let them look over your car.

As a reminder, you may want to bring some window chalk with you, because sometimes, the tech guy won’t have any, and you’ll need some to write your number down on your window.

E. Now that you’re done with tech, return back to your parking spot, and wait till they call for your class before you enter the staging lanes.

IV. Staging Lanes

A. Once they call for your class to enter the staging lanes, go ahead and jump in your car, and head on in. Once in the staging lanes, turn your car off and pop your hood, that way the motor stays nice and cool. Only start when your line moves up, and leave your hood up, cause you can still see to drive through the line.

B. Once you get a little further up in line, be sure to do a quick once over of everything, just to make sure everything is working and where you want it to be. Now, this can include, but is not limited to, tire pressure, temperature, seat position, etc.

C. By now, you’re probably pretty close to the front of the line. Go ahead and close your hood, and make sure it is closed securely. You really don’t want your hood popping up going down the track, it’s not a pretty sight, trust me. Get back in your car, and get buckled in. Make sure all of your accessories are off, as you don’t want anything to be running when you pull out onto the track.

V. Ready to Race

A. Now it’s time for you to pull out on the track. Go ahead and pull onto the track, avoiding the water, going around it if you have to. Once you are straight in your lane, go ahead and start to back up. This next part is VERY IMPORTANT, so please pay attention. If you are running regular street radial tires, only back up a few feet, going nowhere near the water. Reason being, the grooves in your street tires will pick up the water, and carry it to the starting line, which will in turn cause massive wheel spin…. not good! Once you’ve backed up a few feet, put the car in a forward gear, and just barely turn them over a few times, just to clean them off. It is very important that you DO NOT do a huge burnout on street radials, as the rubber will become very greasy once it is heated, and will cause major wheel spin. All you have to do with a street tire is turn them over a few times, and clean any debris that’s on them off.

B. Next, if you’re running any type of drag radial, street slick, or full-on race slick, go ahead and back into the water. Once you’ve backed the rear tires into the water, barely turn them over, 2-3 rotations at the most, just to get the tire wet. Once the tire is wet, pull forward to the edge of the water, and begin your burnout. If you’re an automatic car, I prefer to start off in 1st gear, get the rpm’s up to around 5500, and shift to 2nd, and try to hold about 5000 rpm’s for at least a few seconds. This process should take you no longer than 10 seconds at the most. Contrary to popular belief, if you are not making huge power, there is no need for a John Force style burnout.

C. If you’re a manual car, it’s going to be a little bit trickier. The way I personally do it, is once I’ve pulled forward to the edge of the water, I bring the rpm’s up to around 5000-5500, side step the clutch, and soon as my foot comes off the clutch, it jumps directly on the brake, and then I apply more gas, keeping the rpm’s around 5500 or so. This is a very complicated procedure, and requires lots of practice. Trust me, the first few times you try this, YOU WILL KILL THE CAR! The same amount of time applies to this as above.

An important thing to remember about your burnout is, never just lift your foot off the gas pedal to complete your burnout, you’re going to want to do what is called rolling out of it. What that means is, you let off the brake, and continue to burn the tires towards the starting line a few feet, while slowly letting your foot off the gas. Don’t worry, there’s plenty of room to do this, and you will want to come to a complete stop before you get to the starting line.

D. Now that you’ve done your burnout, or have cleaned your tires off, and are at a complete stop, you are ready to stage. Before you start to roll up to the line, look down and make sure all your accessories are off, and that all your gauges look like they’re in acceptable ranges. Now, slowly start to roll towards the line until you turn the top 2 yellow bulbs on the tree on. You are now what is called "pre-staged". Stop here for a brief second, take a deep breath, make sure everything feels right, and get to ready to launch the car. If you’re an auto, put one foot firmly on the brake pedal, and the other on the gas, bring your rpm’s up to whatever your desired launch rpm is, and then barely ease up on the brake pedal, just enough to let your car inch forward. While you’re inching the car forward, be watching the tree, because when you turn on the 2 bottom yellow bulbs, you are then what is called "staged". Same applies for manual cars, except you won’t be easing up on the brake pedal, you will be easing up on the clutch. Therefore slipping it a little bit to allow you to roll into the staged position.

E. Now that you’re staged, you are ready to launch. Watch the tree now, because below the bottom 2 yellow "staged" bulbs, there are 3 single bulbs on either side of the tree that will start coming down one at a time. Below the 3 single yellow bulbs will be a green bulb, and below that one will be a red bulb. Once the first single bulb lights, there are .500 of a second between lights till the green one comes on. A good way to measure how to launch is, once the 1st yellow bulb comes on, start your countdown. 3…2…1, and then the green light will come on. After a few runs, you will get your countdown in sync with the light coming on.

When that green light comes on, release the brake/clutch, and mash the gas and do your thing!!!

F. Now that you’re going, be sure to keep it straight going down the track. If for any reason at all, the car feels loose, or you begin to lose traction, or it starts getting a little sideways…. LET OUT! At this point, the run is botched anyway. There’s no point in risking your safety, or the persons beside you, because you are not going to run a new best at this point!

**mrr23** · 08-26-2007, 07:03 PM

Originally Posted by roadrocket

G. Now that you’ve crossed the finish line, let off the gas, and begin to gently apply the brakes. There’s no need to shower down on them, because there’s plenty of room to slow down. Your return road exits will usually be on your right-hand side, and if you’re at a ¼ mi track, there will be at least 3 of them. I personally, take the very last one, that way my car has plenty of time to slow down, and I don’t have to be so hard on the brakes.

H. Now that you’ve completed your run, and you’re on the return road, you will come upon a little booth on your left-hand side called the ticket booth. Here is where you will receive your time slip. Now that you’ve received your time slip, you can return to your parking spot in the pits, analyze your slip, pop your hood so the motor can cool, check your car over, and wait for them to call you up again!

Conclusion:

Drag racing is meant to be fun. So that’s what you should try to make it. We are by no means serious racers, so there is no reason to get really serious about it. The main thing is to make sure your car is good running order, and to make sure you have all the necessities to make a run at the drag strip. Once you’ve done it a few times, be prepared to go back for more, because you will be hooked!! .

add to it if ya like!

the rest of it

**BLKCLOUD** · 10-02-2007, 05:26 PM

NOTE: I wrote this at the end of the 2004 season after competing in the National Mustang Racer's Association's Factory Stock Class. Though most references are to Mustangs, much of it applies equally to any heads-up drag racing class/series. Also, due to the length of the article, I had to split it into two posts.

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Heads-Up Racing: A Perspective

The 2004 NMRA Racing Season ended almost a month ago. As I started reflecting on my year, the things that had happened, my experiences prior to this year, etc, etc, I decided it might be kind of neat to put some thoughts down on paper (errr….computer). I thought that perhaps a few others might be interested or entertained by what was going through the small amounts of gray matter inside my brain. Eventually, those thoughts morphed into a short essay on what I have learned and experienced with heads-up drag racing, with a few random thoughts from the 2004 season thrown in for good measure. I hope it doesn’t put you to sleep too fast.

First and foremost – heads-up racing is fun, but it is also quite expensive if you want to be even remotely competitive. It takes time, money, and lots of dedication to run a full or even partial series at the Sportsman level. I commend all of my fellow racers (especially my buddies that ran F/S with me in 2004) for their hard work and dedication. Anyways, let’s start by looking at some of the costs.

It goes without saying that you have to have a car in order to drag race. Further, that car not only has to be “fast”, but it has to be legal (both technically and safety related), and you have to have a way to get it to and from the track. You have to eat, have a place to sleep, obtain fuel for the car and the tow truck, ensure you have tools, spare tires, spare parts, etc. I kept pretty good track of my expenses over the year (The Summit logbook is great for this). I try to be as frugal as possible, and retain enough “slop” in my budget for unforeseen issues that might arise during, before, or after a race weekend. I live in Virginia Beach, and every race involved a minimum of 6 hours to get there (Atco NJ), with some taking almost 20 hours (Kansas City). Some folks are in better locations, some are much worse. That’s just part of the deal. Anyway, I averaged ~$500-$600 in expenses per race. This varied depending upon the location, but is a good starting number for me. A basic breakdown goes like this:

Bowling Green Race
Distance: 750 miles each way.
Hotel: 150
Tow Gas: 245
Entry: 75
Race Gas: 30
Food: 75
Misc: 25
TOTAL: $600

It should be noted that I sleep in my Expedition at the track (motel costs are for the first night out and the last night back), and cook the majority of food I eat in my pits, thus, I save a decent amount of money over someone that stays in a motel each night. The NMRA schedule had nine races this year (including the Atco rainout), and while some race weekends were much cheaper, some were more expensive, and in the end, expenses ran me ~$4800. That doesn’t take into account those things that go wrong – such as post-race engine fire at Bradenton, breaking a torsion bar in the Expedition towing back from the same race, transmission failures at Columbus and Maple Grove, complete engine teardown/tech inspection at Kansas City, and things like that. Bottom line: You have to consider the costs of racing above and beyond just the car. The dollars spent are not inconsequential for most of us.

Looking at the car itself, an old saying that comes to mind really applies here; speed costs money, how fast do you want to go? Simply put, if you want to be competitive in ANY form of true heads-up racing, you’re going to have to spend a substantial amount of dollars on the car. As a general rule, the cost of the faster classes increases significantly over those of the slower ones. That said, even little ole’ Factory Stock is not a cheap proposition. You can very easily spend $20,000 on a truly competitive 5.0 setup, and more than that on a 4V package.

I go into the whole deal with the assumption that I won’t see any return on that money. I want to win, and it's nice to win some money, but I don’t count on it. Some of the more experienced racers with the proven successful combinations can do that, but they are the exception and not the rule. A prudent person would be wise to ensure he/she has the budget to meet the realistic goals they wish to meet – a budget that does not include potential winnings.

Some of the expenses involved in racing can be offset via sponsorship. The thing is, how do you get it? That’s a good question, and much has been written on the subject. Personally, I’ve never actively gone out and pursued a sponsor (though that likely would have been the wise thing to do). I have been fortunate enough to have friends that help me here and there, or companies that see an opportunity in my program to get some decent press for their product, or referrals from fellow racers. Which brings up a major point for sponsors: With some exceptions, when a company/shop sponsors you, they expect (and deserve) a return on their investment. It is incumbent upon the racer to do what he/she can in order to make this happen. That doesn’t necessarily mean win – but it does mean make a good showing for their product, and being a good spokesman for their company.

Back to the car. When deciding to go heads-up racing, the first thing you should probably do is decide what class you want to run. As already stated, faster classes typically cost more money and take more time. What can you afford? How much time can you dedicate to testing, fixing, improving, etc? How fast do you feel comfortable going? Lots of questions, but important ones that deserve a lot of thought, research, and honest answers.

Once you decide on a class, you then need to decide upon the specific combination. There are advantages and disadvantages to be considered. In my judgement, the best way to go about this is to grab a rule book, research past performance of the different combinations in the class you wish to run, and make an informed decision based on those things, your budget, and you level of commitment. Make that decision EARLY. It usually takes MONTHS (and sometimes longer) to get a program together. Engines don’t get built overnight. Chassises don’t get setup in a weekend (not normally anyway). Testing is more than just a one-visit-to-the-track affair. My recommendation is to start a program at least 9 months to a year in advance of the first race you wish to run. If that is the season opener (usually in March), you best be well on your way by the previous summer. There are exceptions of course (in fact, my 2004 season was one), but that’s playing with fire and time. I don’t recommend it.

So you’re going to build a car to run xyz class. Cool! Where do you start? If you have the car already, you need to focus on getting you and it ready for the season. That involves preparing both the car AND the driver. I think one of the main mistakes made by folks new to heads-up racing is putting too much emphasis on the engine and not enough on the chassis. All the power in the world is damn near useless of you can’t get it to do the job that needs doing. No matter what class you run, there is no “perfect setup”, and there is going to be more than one way to get the car to hook and work. Once I got it figured out, my very simple setup worked great for me. It might not have worked great for someone else, or for someone else’s car. Of course, figuring out what is right for you and your car involves money (everything involves money, time, and effort). These can be mitigated somewhat by learning from those racers/chassis tuners that have PROVEN to be winners in what they do. I never take their advice and opinions as gospel, but I do pay close attention. There is always more to learn, and it is always possible to go faster. Always.

**BLKCLOUD** · 10-02-2007, 05:26 PM

I consider the driver to be almost a part of the chassis – certainly an integral part of the total car package. Successful racing (be it drag racing, road racing, autocross, whatever) takes practice. The more practice the better. Sure some folks “catch on” faster than others, but virtually nobody is really good until they have made hundreds, even thousands of passes down the ¼ mile or around the racetrack. At least in the slower classes, and especially with a manual, a great driver can easily be worth 2 tenths over just a good driver – in the same car, at the same track, on the same day. It can make a BIG difference. Practice, practice, practice. Experiment. Try new things. Don’t be afraid of breaking – if you are, you won’t run the number, it’s as simple as that.

I would caution that in my opinion, the time to experiment is BEFORE the race – not during it. This isn’t always possible, but it is certainly preferable. Making wholesale changes over the race weekend, especially during eliminations, is a recipe for losing. You can get lucky sometimes, but I’d rather be prepared and on my game than to have to depend on luck. There’s an old saying that goes something like “I’d rather be lucky than good.” There’s some validity to that – but not in heads-up drag racing. Lucky counts sometimes. Good counts ALL THE TIME.

That leads me to another issue that I think bears some discussion. What do you do when the ladder pairs you up with a car that you know should beat you? I’m sure some folks will disagree with my opinion, but I think you should do the same damn thing you have been doing. Don’t go playing games. Don’t do things differently. Don’t try to ‘psyche’ the other guy out. From my experience, this usually leads to a mistake on YOUR part, making it that much easier for the faster guy/gal to win. Get a routine. Get familiar with it. Make it second nature. Do the same thing every time you get into the car and pull up to the water box. Repetition breeds consistency. Consistency brings wins. If not now, later. If I may be allowed to use my season as an example, there’s a ton of videos over on www.stangcrazy.com. Those folks covered all the NMRA races, and have most of the final rounds on their event coverage page (and many of the earlier rounds too). When you have some free time, download those runs that include my car. Watch - or rather, listen to what I do as I pull to the line (and even in the waterbox if the video has it). The obnoxious, high-revving engine you hear in every video after I have pre-staged is my car. I bring the motor up to launch rpm once I pre stage, every time. I tickle the clutch to inch the car up to the staging lanes, every time. I ignore the guy in the other lane, every time. I've had racers make me sit and wait for many seconds with my motor at 5500 rpm just waiting to go. But it doesn't matter. I'm so used to holding that rpm, to having my clutch right on the cusp of launching, that it just doesn't matter. There’s nothing special about the way I approach launching the car. There’s no magic, and it is not necessarily the best way to do things. But it works for me – and I do the EXACT same thing, every time. No surprises and no extra stress – just a better chance of getting the absolute best run out of my car. I cannot tell you how many times this past season a competitor screwed up a run because they apparently tried something out of the ordinary. Granted, I had a nice performance advantage most of the time, but it was very, very rare that a racer pulled their best ET of the weekend when they were lined up against my car (it was far more common for them to have one of their worst runs – there were exceptions, of course). My personal opinion is that this was a result of trying to get fancy with something because they knew they had to step up.

Shew, enough of that. Getting back to the car, let me rant a bit about the heart of any race car – the engine. I know I stated above that you have to have the chassis worked out, and you have to put plenty of attention towards that and towards your driving skill. Those two areas can make up for a LOT of HP difference. But in the end, and until we can find a way to defy physics, you have to have the power to run the number.

One of the very first things I did when contemplating whether or not to run F/S in 2004 was decide who I was going to ask to build my motor. There were plenty of good choices out there (including the Tymenski’s at Modular Performance, and my buddy Jason Steen at Steen Racing - who helped me tremendously with my program throughout the year), but in the end, I went with someone that I felt had the experience, knowledge, and reputation to build a class-winning motor combination. That was Al Papitto (known as “Boss330” on varies websites). Why did I go this route? With no disrespect at all towards any other shop, Al proved, to me, that he knew what it took to get the necessary power out of the motor to be successful. He had the quickest N/A modular-powered street Mustang in the country – by far the quickest. I knew what he had done with his car, the testing, breakage, and frustrations he had gone through, and I knew of his past racing history (Al was an IDBA Pro Stock Bike Champion back in the late 90’s). He talked to me with a no BS, matter-of-fact attitude, told me upfront what he thought he could do, how much it would cost, how long it would take, and also what I would have to do in order to make it work. We went from concept on the motor, to an agreement on what we were going to do, to having the motor in my car in less than 3 months. Might sound like a long time to some, but we started from SCRATCH with a bare shortblock, bare heads, bare everything. He had to order custom pistons, new rods, custom rings, etc., then assemble it all and ship it to me in time for the season opener. If you’ve ever seen Al at his shop or at the races, when he’s working, he’s like the Energizer bunny on steroids. He knows what needs doing and he gets it done. Not later – now. Keep in mind that this wasn’t just a typical street engine rebuild – this was a serious race motor built to very specific rules. He made a believer out of me, and told me that we could make it work.

And work it did. My initial goal for the 2004 season was simple, really: I wanted to win one race, and to be within a tenth of the defending F/S Champion, Michael Washington. We figured that given the current weight structure, it would take ~345 RWHP to get there. We got there, and then some.

We won the first race at Bradenton in a very, very close final round with Mike, and with both of us spinning tires like they we were running on ice. Remember that rant I made above about testing and practice and luck? Well, to put myself on the spot, I did not do enough testing, nor did I have enough practice with the new combination, and it came down to luck allowing me to win. The weekend wasn’t all good luck though. After the win, we went through a minor tech inspection, and in the process, managed to ignite a small fuel fire under the hood. Minor fire turned into big mess when a dry powder extinguisher was used to put the fire out – dumping copious amounts of stupidly-corrosive yellow powder into the exposed cylinder head. Motor came out the next day (at Al’s shop) for disassembly, cleaning, and reassembly. Such is life sometimes - I highly recommend having some sort of plan for these sorts of unpredictable contingencies.

The second race in Reynolds, GA went better, though I still had not devoted the testing time needed to sort out the chassis. Even so, towards the end of the weekend, we started sneaking up on things, and ran consistently enough to pick up the win. By Columbus, some changes made and tested prior to that race started to make the difference I’d need for the balance of the year. We got the car to hook – and it ended up killing a tranny in the 2nd round of eliminations. Same thing happened at Maple Grove. Basically, I pushed my luck too far (in this case with a tranny too weak to deal with what I was asking it to deal with), and it bit me. Lesson? Lack of testing, and failure to budget for what should have been the obvious need for a stronger (and thus more expensive) transmission. If I had started earlier, I would have figured out that the tranny was not up to the task, and had it fixed long before it costs me a race (twice) and extra dollars.

We fixed that after the Maple Grove race with a near bullet-proof G-Force T5 setup. With the chassis worked out, the engine pumping out consistent HP, and the tranny engaging perfectly every time, the car got ultra-consistent, and things came together in a big hurry. At every race from that point on – Kansas City, Joliet, Martin, and then the finals at Bowling Green – the car ran an 11.4x, and usually ran several of them over a weekend. We held the record for most of the year, and though I wasn’t the quickest in the last two races, consistency counts almost as much as being fast, and in my case, it got the job done.

So there you have it – a perspective on Heads-up drag racing, with some personal experience from the 2004 NMRA Factory Stock season thrown in for good measure. I love heads-up racing, and I hope to get back into it in a year or two. I have nothing at all against bracket racing, index racing, or open comp racing. We all have our personal preferences and biases, and that’s ok. It’s just that heads-up does it for me. It is especially fun when you can make a car run decently quick with – in the words of Evan Smith from many years ago – “all the wrong parts”.

Best of luck to all racers out there, and see you on the starting line!

**greatwhiteZ28** · 11-01-2007, 05:29 PM

nice write up, didnt know i cant use a patched tire at the track.

**redhcnc** · 12-29-2007, 07:13 PM

Yes, alot of that is common sense that everyone should know. And if they actually read all of that, they will for sure know some basic details. Everyone whos anyone needs to read that if they don't know basic guidelines or haven't yet.

**D.statt** · 12-02-2009, 05:22 PM

Ive maintained for years that the reason drag racing has waned not just SC is that there is no one thats out there actvely promoting it. Look at NASCAR as an example, there are people with life long affiliations/loyalties to drivers, and those people get seriously pissed off if something changes a la Dale Jr leaving his fathers team after a disagreement with his controlling step mom. There were people out there that took that shit personally. We need someopne to come aalong and help create those followings and support of drag racing. Once you have a stout fan base, then success HAS to follow

**Stinger** · 12-05-2009, 07:11 AM

I've thought about taking my car to a track before, but i'm not sure I have the nerves. I might know what to do when I get there, but I feel like i'll screw up somehow.

**Sixpack** · 12-07-2009, 01:23 AM

Just relax, use your head, and go have fun. You are going to make some mistakes everyone does. But once you get some experience you will have a blast and be hooked for life!

**shady milkman** · 12-07-2009, 06:29 AM

Originally Posted by Stinger

I've thought about taking my car to a track before, but i'm not sure I have the nerves. I might know what to do when I get there, but I feel like i'll screw up somehow.

Originally Posted by Sixpack

Just relax, use your head, and go have fun. You are going to make some mistakes everyone does. But once you get some experience you will have a blast and be hooked for life!

^ this ...dont worry man ..when i went my first time...i missed the beams and felt dumb..but after about 2 runs..it becomes business as usual

**Hi-Po** · 12-07-2009, 09:51 AM

Everyone screws up. Missing beams, taking forever to roll into the beams, stalling the car during the burnout etc... that stuff happens. Go with a buddy, or go and just watch people stage for an our. That will take some nerves away.

**Sixpack** · 12-07-2009, 10:12 PM

The more of your friends that you get to go the more fun you will have laughing at each others mistakes and friendly competion between cars.

**Stinger** · 12-08-2009, 07:35 AM

Alright. Thanks.

I'll have to go whenever I get alittle bit of work done to my car.

**Turbohatch** · 02-15-2010, 07:50 PM

i want to make a correction to the tutorial posted above and also two amendments. the correction is never ever wait to see green, if you see green before you launch you will have a very poor reaction time, rather practice leaving off the last yellow, it depends on your car and how deep you staged as to exactly when you leave so play with it until your cutting good lights, this brings us to the amendment, not all tracks use a sports man tree many use a pro tree format and this means all 3 yellows come on at once rather then count down, for this style tree you will want to adjust the depth your staged and leave as soon as you see the yellow flash, by leaving as soon as you see the yellow flash and adjusting how shallow of deep you stage you will figure out what it takes to get a good light, this brings us to the second amendment, the staging menthod above is ok for most situations but if you find your not able to cut a light no matter how fast you try to leave then you may want to try whats called deep staging, this means pulling in until the 2 bulbs are on and then pulling in just a tad further until the top bulb goes out, this can greatly help your reaction time, make sure to write DEEP on your windows along side your number and dial in so the tree starter knows you will be deep staging, in competition the tree starter is taken out of the loop and the computer will auto start the tree a certain number of seconds after both sides have staged so make sure to not take very long to get in deep.

**0verkill** · 02-17-2010, 09:00 AM

Originally Posted by Turbohatch

i want to make a correction to the tutorial posted above and also two amendments. the correction is never ever wait to see green, if you see green before you launch you will have a very poor reaction time, rather practice leaving off the last yellow, it depends on your car and how deep you staged as to exactly when you leave so play with it until your cutting good lights, this brings us to the amendment, not all tracks use a sports man tree many use a pro tree format and this means all 3 yellows come on at once rather then count down, for this style tree you will want to adjust the depth your staged and leave as soon as you see the yellow flash, by leaving as soon as you see the yellow flash and adjusting how shallow of deep you stage you will figure out what it takes to get a good light, this brings us to the second amendment, the staging menthod above is ok for most situations but if you find your not able to cut a light no matter how fast you try to leave then you may want to try whats called deep staging, this means pulling in until the 2 bulbs are on and then pulling in just a tad further until the top bulb goes out, this can greatly help your reaction time, make sure to write DEEP on your windows along side your number and dial in so the tree starter knows you will be deep staging, in competition the tree starter is taken out of the loop and the computer will auto start the tree a certain number of seconds after both sides have staged so make sure to not take very long to get in deep.

good post and all tru but a bit advanced for new track goers. but as they get better good advice for sure.

**NaviDyn** · 03-24-2010, 12:05 AM

Nice write up. I would like to add don't speed on the return road, save it for when you line up. You aren't impressing anybody, and some tracks will boot you for it.