74bigblock said:
Not to knock you down vette rod, but I was under the impression that if you have any tires that are not complete racing slicks (ex: radials, street slicks, pr any other street legal tire)... that you should avoid the water completely, as the tread sipes will soak up some of the water and cause you to spin the tires on take off regardless of how much you spin them after going thru the water?
I was told to just spin the dry street tires a little bit... just enough to clean them off of debris, small rocks etc.????
Absolutely correct. Street tires should NOT go in the water box. Drag radials or slicks should use the water box for a burnout, but it will hurt street tire performance.
There will be people in the staging area to give you instruction using signals. They will be fairly self evident. As one pair of cars is staging, you will be directed to enter the burnout area. Drive around the water box, and line your car up to go down the "groove" in the middle of the track. The traction is best there. 74bigblock is correct in suggesting spinning the tires a little to remove sand, etc. The traction compound on the track will stick to your tires, and small stones and other debris will stick to the traction compound on the tires.
When directed to stage, drive slowly to the starting line and stop when you light the top two (prestage) lights. Wait for your opponent to prestage. Then pull forward about 4-6 inches, and light the next set down, the staging lights. In general, leave the prestage lights lit. It is OK to "stage deep", but I would avoid that for now. If you have an automatic, place the left foot on the brake and bring the RPM's up, but stay below stall speed. When the yellow lights start to go down, release the brake and press the accelerator at the LAST yellow. The starting line is about 16" in front of you, so you will have 0.5 seconds to go that 16". Wheelspin is generally bad. If you hear your tires screeching, roll into the power more slowly.
Remember that the elapsed time is the time that it takes between the starting line and the finish line. The reaction time (depending on whether 0.5 seconds or 0.0 seconds is ideal- find out at your track) tells the time between the green (or last yellow) and when you cross the starting line. You can run a 14 second et even if the light turns green and you sit there for 15 seconds before you start. The et is independent of the rt. It matters in a race, but not in a time trial.
If you have an automatic, I don't think that you can very easily hurt your car. A manual is harder on the drive train than an automatic. As long as you stick to street tires, you will generally spin the tires before you damage the driveline components. Stickier tires come with more risk.
As far as a helmet goes, NHRA rules only require one if you run faster than 14 seconds. It takes a pretty stout car to run that fast. You may not need one. Of course, the track may have stricter rules that require a helmet regardless of time.
Enough from me. Let me know if you need to know how bracket racing works.
I have several hundred passes in two Corvettes, a 97 A4, and a 2002 Z06, so I have fair experience.
Best times:
97 A4 14.1 @104MPH
'02 Z06 12.42@ 113.63MPH, all at 2600'. Sea level would be about 0.3 seconds faster.
Jim
