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Learning to drag race Part 3 - Where and when should you race?
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Getting started in actual bracket competition
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By Matt Zapp |
Once your first run at the local test-n-tune session has been made, the bug will most definitely have bitten you. Now a seasoned one-pass veteran, let's look at what you actually accomplished on the track surface. After going to the ET booth, the information needed to get you started in bracket racing will be in your hand. The ET slip will tell you how long it took you to react to the green light, the elapsed time your vehicle took to travel down the track, and at what speed you crossed the finish line. To make things simple, our example beginner will be behind the wheel of a street legal car. Our vehicle of choice will be an eight-second Mustang that travels 90 mph in the eighth mile.
In this scenario, all the safety equipment that is needed will be a factory seat belt and a helmet. A $70 investment in a good helmet can lead to hours of fun at the drag strip in your new ‘race car'! On the time slip will be sets of information. The numbers in the left-hand column will be that of the driver that was in the left lane on the track. And the driver in the right hand lane will have his information printed in the column on the right side of the ticket. Determine which lane you were in, and begin reviewing your data. The time it takes the driver to react to the green light will be marked by RT or printed out as Reaction Time. The numbers will read something along the lines of .550 or .825 and so on. These numbers are the partial seconds that passed as you reacted to the green light. The object of the game is to have your car leave the starting line the instant the light is green. This will result in a perfect .500 reaction time. As a driver, one must consider the amount of time it takes the light to travel from the christmas tree to your eye. Your mind then has to process the information that it is time to go, and finally the body has to push on the gas pedal and make the car begin to move. This all takes is quite a while. As a result, you must leave on the second or third yellow light in the sequence. Finding your ‘spot' on the tree will take practice. A good street class racer will try to have consistent reaction times in the .500 to .590 range. This will provide you a chance to be competitive.
When you begin racing, simply try to do the same things over and over again. If you do the burnout, do it the same way and for the same length each time. Stage your car slowly each time, and attempt to leave at the same RPM. Be patient, your reaction times will improve with practice.
Let's get back to our example Mustang. After five or six runs, you can begin to estimate what ET your car will produce. We have made six passes that provide the following results- 8.81, 8.95, 8.90, 8.78, 8.88, and an 8.91. The fastest the car has run is 8.78 seconds. The slowest it performed was 8.95. The average it ran was an 8.871. So what do you dial the car for the beginning of competition. A dial-in is the estimated time you think the car will run on its next pass. Traditionally, a racer will mark that time on his front windshield with ordinary shoe polish. The numbers are to be clean and visible so that the track staff can enter your dial-in correctly into the timing system. To make things simple at first, dial a bit quicker than your average. This will allow room for the car to speed up and avoid a breakout loss. A breakout occurs when you run faster than the dial-in you post on your window.
When you begin to run in a handicap style bracket such as Street Legal eliminator, the tree will most likely begin to cycle one side at a time. This can be very distracting. All you need to do to be effective is remain calm, concentrate on your side of the tree, and develop a routine for leaving the starting line.
If you practice these steps, consistent reaction times will begin to follow. Then, you will start to win or ‘go rounds' as racers say. A very important set of numbers on the slip will be the 60-foot increment. This indicates the time it took your car travel the initial 60 feet of the surface. This set of numbers is important because it informs one of how well the car actual left the starting line. If your car has four passes where the 60-foot times are in the 1.800 range, then a pass that is 1.95 seconds. You can assume that the tires spun at the starting line and slowed the car's momentum to the 60-foot timers. The better and more consistently a car leaves the starting line, the more often it will repeat the same elapsed times. The industry standard is as follows. If a car slows from 1.800 to 1.840 in a 60-foot time, it will lose .08 of a second in ¼ mile ET. The amount of time you ‘lose' down track is usually double the amount you lose at the starting line.
Therefore, if your car ran 8.80 seconds with a 1.800 60-foot time, it is likely that a 1.840 incremental 60-foot time will cause the car to run at least a 8.88 ET.
Worrying about 60-foot times, driving the finish line, and tuning your car for increased consistency will come later. For now, work on leaving the starting line the same and keeping an accurate record of your time slips. To keep your racing information together, use the complimentary logbook that is provided by Summit Racing Equipment. This book will have a place for your Reaction Times, 60 footers, ET's and mph breakdowns. Keep record of your performances, we will need them later in the series! And a bit of advice, always clean the shoe polish numbers and dial-ins off of your car before heading home. In most states, it is illegal to display such numbers when on the highway. Reason being, you may entice the car next to you to drive erratically at the local stoplights in town. So race where it is safe and follow the rules when leaving your local IHRA track. It will save you a costly fine and avoid giving the track a bad reputation for ‘causing trouble'.
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