DRAG RACING TIPS FOR BEGINNERS

Provided by Jose Hernandez - Originally from Jeffrey Tyler, updated by Rob Cheek, Tom Pierce, and Jose Hernandez

Table of Contents

General Tips

If you don't know, ask! Everyone at the track knows what it is like to be a first timer. After all, nobody was born there.

If you can find someone that has gone, go with him or her. Perhaps a club outing. If not, then go to watch your first time. When you are ready to try your luck, most tracks have "test & tune" nights, or "street nights" where it is open for anyone to make as many passes as they want. This is a great time for newbie’s to get out and try it without being under pressure. TOP

 Front Gate to Finish Line

  1. At the entrance gate, pay your entry fee, and get your "tech card".

  2. Find a pit spot. The pits get full later, so don't hog up a ton of spaces. Remove everything from your car (any loose items), and fill out your tech card.

  3. When the announcer calls for tech inspection to be open, listen, and go where you are told. If you don't understand, ask someone. If you get there after tech has started, the attendant at the entrance can usually tell you where to go. <G>

  4. Usually, even a relatively highly modified late model car can pass tech easily. If you're running a 13.99 or quicker, you'll need to have a driveshaft loop and a helmet with you. Open your hood, and remove your center caps. If you are doing better than an 11.99, things get substantially more complicated (roll cage, firesuit, extinguisher, etc). The tech inspector will write your car number on your car windows where it will be visible to the tower.

  5. When the announcer calls for staging lanes to be open, pull into your proper lanes. Smaller tracks only have two. Bigger tracks have different classes split to different lanes. Again, ask, or refer to any documentation that you were given when you paid your entry fee.

  6. Once you are in the lanes, stay with your car.

  7. When it's time for the cars in your staging lane to pull forward and be positioned to race, a track official at the front of the lanes will direct you. It is very important to pay attention! Watch the track officials at all times for proper direction.

  8. After you have been paired up out of the staging lanes and pull up next to the timing tower, be ready to go. Make sure your windows are rolled up, seatbelts are on, the track official at the water box will check. If it is after dark, turn on your parking lights. Even on a well-lit track, it is hard to see you at the other end and if you have turned off or not. It would be a bad thing if you broke at the big end of the track, and they sent a pair of Pro cars because they thought the track was clear!

  9. Go around the water box. Do a short burnout to get the dirt off of your tires and heat them up a bit. Hold the brake with your left foot, and goose it with your right for a couple of seconds. You don't want to get near the water. It will run in your tread, be thrown into your wheel wells, and drip on your tires and the track the whole run. This is very dangerous for the "Big Boys" running slicks behind you, and could get you removed from the track. Also, don't do your burnout in the water, as it tends to throw water all over everyone and everything within 50 yards of the starting line! The car in line behind you will be very annoyed.

  10. Another thing that could get you removed is running your AC. Water condensation drips onto the track.

  11. When you are told to, pull your car toward the staging beams. They are not located next to the starting lights (Christmas tree)! Watch other racers to find where they are located. When you get close, the top set of lights (pre-stage) will come on. Now, slowly creep forward until the next set come on (staged).

  12. Take your time! Nobody will rush you! The starter knows the regulars, and he will realize you are a new face. It is considered a courtesy to wait until your opponent has pre-staged before you stage.

  13. Find the yellow light just above the green (The third one on the tree), and concentrate on it! Go when this last yellow comes on! If you wait till the green, you will get a terrible reaction time! The interval between timing lights is 1/2 second. Your reaction time is measured from when the last yellow light comes on, so a reaction time of .500 is perfect. (The pro tree uses a .400 interval).

  14. If you feel things get out of hand (massive wheel-spin, Hey look at the blond who just sat down in the grand stands, or whatever), just lift off the gas and ease your way to the end for that run! There'll be others! Also, if it's your very first time down the track, you might not want to give it 100% the first time. The track is a lot slicker than most roads, so be aware and be careful.

  15. Stay in your lane at all costs. As you get close to the finish line (several car lengths ahead of the Crapstang), keep it on the floor! The first set of beams you see set up are to start the MPH timers, and the second set records your elapsed time. Find out exactly where the end of the quarter mile is!

  16. Ask which way the turn off is at the end of the track. If you are in the right lane, and the track turn off's are on the left, then the other car has the right of way. Do not turn in front of another car! At the Texas Motorplex, a guy in a street car was racing a 10-second car. The 10-second car had trouble on the line, and the streetcar got to the finish line first, but the 10-second car was now on the way. The street car went for the first turn off, and turned in front of the other car that hit him running around 120 miles per hour. This rule is not followed by a lot of people, so be careful.

  17. Proceed up the return road, and stop to get your ET slip. Now is not the time to read it, wait till you’re in your pit. There are a lot of people (kids) walking around not paying attentions, so go slow! TOP

Bracket Racing

In most professional forms of drag racing, the first one to the finish line wins. However, in bracket racing, that isn't always how it works out. Usually, cars are separated into four "brackets": Super Pro (7.50 to 10.99 seconds), Pro (11.00 to 11.99 seconds), Sportsman (12.00 to 13.99 seconds), and Street (14.00+ seconds). Since each of these categories contains a wide range of E.T.'s, you are handicapped based on a time that you predict you will run. This is called your "dial-in". The person who runs closest to their dial-in without going faster wins the race. If you go faster than your dial-in, you "break out" and automatically lose the race.

For example, if your Impala runs a consistent 15.10 and the Camaro you are racing dials in at 14.20, you would get a .90 second head start. If you both got to the finish line at exactly your dial-in, the race is a tie. In practice, this never happens due to differences in reaction times and vehicle performance.

The staging lights also measure how long it takes you to leave your staged position. This is called your reaction time. On test-n-tune nights, it isn't a big deal, but in bracket racing it is very important. You must be consistent in your launch (via reaction time) and your car must be consistent in the quarter mile (via dial-in). Your reaction time is usually expressed as a number indicating how long you leave after the last amber light comes on. A perfect time would be .500, which is exactly when the green light comes on. If you get .499 or less, you "red light" and lose the race. If you take longer than .500, you will take longer to get to the finish line, which can lose the race.

There are also different ways to "stage" in bracket racing. All strips use the standard "Stage" and "PreStage" lights on top of the "Christmas tree" lights. These lights are tied to two light beams that go across the track, one 7 inches after the other. When your wheel breaks the first beam, you are "pre-staged". This lets you know that you are getting close to the starting line. As soon as you inch forward to the second beam, you light the "stage" lights. As soon as both lights are lit on both sides of the track, the starter will begin the race.

The key to winning in bracket racing is a low reaction time and a consistent performance by your car. Every millisecond difference from your dial-in and a perfect .500 reaction time hurts you. If you run faster than your dial-in, you automatically lose, so if you feel you are running too fast (as often happens as the night gets cooler), you might want to slow down just as you are approaching the finish line so that you don't go over your dial-in. You might also want to do this if you are fairly sure that your opponent has broke out.

Eliminate variables between runs. Keep your car in the same configuration, do you burnout and stage the same way, shift at the same points, and do everything else as consistently as possible to win a bracket race. Compensate for changing track conditions using your dial-in (you can change it after each race). Also remember that slower cars are often more consistent, so you don't need to try to eek every last HP out of the car for a bracket race. Have fun! TOP

Drag strip Etiquette

  1. Don't start your burnout until directed by an official. He'll usually give you some sort of hand signal. Also make sure you are all the way on the track and facing directly forwards.

  2. Don't do burnouts in the water, period. Don't do burnouts with treaded street tires. Water gets into the treads and tracks all the way to the starting line. This makes the drivers with slicks very angry. Heating up a street tire is useless because of the hard rubber that street tires are made of. It won't help you're 1/4 mile times.

  3. Don't do a John Force-style burnout (i.e. spinning the tires through and past the starting line, forcing you to back up) unless you don't have any front brakes and/or you are John Force.

  4. If you are bracket racing, don't lock up your brakes at the end of the track in an attempt to not "break out". Locking 'em up at this speed could be very dangerous. This isn't an issue for test-n-tune nights, but be sure you leave plenty of room to brake at the end of the track without doing a massive ABS stop.

  5. Some tracks employ a courtesy rule. This means that the first car into the staging beams should light only the pre-stage light. When the second car is pre-staged, then either of you can move up slightly into the staging lights.

  6. Make sure your numbers and dial-in (if applicable) are visible from the tower.

  7. Make sure you get in the right staging lane, and make sure that you don't attempt to run in a class where your car would not be appropriate (e.g. you probably shouldn't end up racing a junior dragster in your Impala). Ask if you are unsure. TOP

Impala Tricks & Tips

If it's your first time, just take a look around and see what the other people are doing. I guarantee you'll see some of the stuff below. After you're comfortable with the track, and know the etiquette rules, feel free to try some of the following suggestions to be a faster racer in your Impala.

In an Impala, you usually don't gain anything by shifting the automatic by hand. Let the computer do it for you. You may want to put it in "D" instead of "OD", but it probably won't make a difference. If you want to shift quicker/faster/better, get your PCM reprogrammed or buy a shift kit.

In an Impala, you probably don't want to mash it to the floor immediately: your tires (and your ET!) will go up in smoke. Instead, "roll" the throttle towards the floor. You should be a WOT in a second or a bit less.

You may want to pre-load the drive train a little bit to remove some of the shock from the system and also get a bit of a quicker launch. This is done by "brake-torquing": keeping you right foot firmly on the brake, depress the accelerator until your revs increase slightly. You don't want to do this too long, as your torque converter will overheat, nor to too high an RPM, as the engine will eventually overpower the brakes and move the car forward. Also, launching at too high an RPM will just send the tires up, and that kills your ET. Remember that all of that built up energy gets transferred to the tires: pick an RPM where you won't bog and where you won't obliterate the tires.

Weight is your. Remove all unnecessary items from the car, and make sure that you're fuel tank has around a 3/4 tank or so (less and you'll miss as the fuel sloshes, more and you'll be slower than you have to be). In addition, some people remove the spare tire and jack at the track. If you want to get really wild, you can start taking off interior pieces, the front sway bar, washer fluid, floor mats, etc. Every little bit helps!

If you're looking for a quick ET (and don't care so much about winning the race), barely inch the car into the staging beams. Your time doesn't start until the wheels no longer block the beam. By staging this way, you get an extra couple of inches to accelerate before your time is recorded. Similarly, if you are interested in getting to the finish line first, go forward more. Beware that some dragstrips are very strict about backing up if you go past the staging lights.

If you are bracket racing, remember that consistency is the key, even if you are consistently slow. Make mental notes of everything about the car: launch RPM, lane choice, temperature, length of burnout, etc. You want all of these to remain constant for each run. Even if you are not bracket racing, mentally keeping track of all of these variables will help you get to a better time.

While stiff, lowered springs are great for handling on the street, they really hurt you at the drag strip. For maximum bite at launch, you want all of the car's weight to transfer to the rear wheels. Thus, you want nice, soft springs that allow the rear to "squat down" and take the weight.

Half of the battle at the drag strip is winning the launch. If you can get a good, solid launch without spinning the tires, you've almost won the race. The posi-traction unit in the Impala goes a long way to help this: it distributes torque to both wheels. Make sure that you have the proper amount of additive in it and that both wheels are getting torque. Also, some people use an airbag in one of the springs to combat the natural tendency of the drivetrain force to attempt to "roll" the car over on its side: the airbag keeps the entire car level and prevents the weight transfer to one wheel only.

Some people remove the serpentine belt in an attempt to eliminate power losses from the power steering and alternator. A safer solution is to leave the belt in place and unplug the alternator wires. There is very little power loss from the power steering when you are going straight, and if you get sideways on the track, you'll probably need your power steering. TOP

Driver Checklist For The Day

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