First off read Daytona's post on this
thread
Here are some others, sorry if they get repeated.
Stall Launch Also called "loading up" Easy to do. One foot hard on the brake, another light on the gas. When the lights come down, off the brake and slam the gas. The tricky part is finding the right "launch RPM" You don't want to spin the wheels on your launch, even a chrip of the tires can cost you time. This helps by locking up the torque converter, and starting with the motor at 2000 RPM's is much better than 800 RPM's
Tire pressureI run 35 PSI on the street but go down to 26 PSI on the track. Go low tire pressure gives a bit better traction, but you don't want to go too low becasue it will slow you down too much. Flater tires are harder to break (spin)
Good Burnout Unless your running slicks, go around the waterbox. You don't want your tires wet here at all. Advoid water like the plauge, even driving thru the pits. You'll see rubber on the track surface, try to do your burnout on that. It is very sticky and burnouts heat up tires. The combo gets the tires really, really sticky. Kinda like movie theather floor. If you ever walk across the rubber on the track, even tightly laced shoes pull off your feet
All Acc Off Kinda a no brainer, Radios distract you and draw power away. A/C is a speed killer, and heat doesn't help out either (at least on the line) If your running at night, headlights are OK, but cut off the fogs.
Cool Motor Down Running the heat, and holding down the gas a little bit will reduce underhood temps. You'll see the needle move
Lose Weight Not you but the car. Spare tire and jack are about 30 lbs. Don't carry unneccessary crap to the track. If you are going alone and take food and such, just travel light.
Run Less Gas In a FWD car, a 1/4 to 3/8 tank is all you'll need. Higher Octane isn't neccessary but if you want to run it, go for it. If you use track gas, no more than 100 Octane (unless they have a lower grade ava)
Run Auto Tranny in "3" Driving in 3 will pervent the car from going into overdrive. Overdrive is a cruising gear. An Alero will not outrun 3rd gear in the 1/4 mile (unless s/c or t/c) and shifting won't help.
Reaction Time or R/T Reaction time is very important in bracket and heads up racing. It could win or lose your race.
ALWAYS GO ON THE 3RD AMBER The old saying is, "If you still there when the light turns green, you lost" The New LED systems set a perfect light at .000, the old light blub system was .500 for a perfect light. You typical ricer on Import racing days will set between .400 and .700 R/T. I avg about .080 and if I get anything higher than .125 I hate myself. Daytona avg about .020 and hates anything higher than .040. I know this is confusing so let's look at an example.
Your car runs a 15.50 and the other car is running a 15.00. That's a 1/2 second faster than you, but that doesn't mean he or she will win. If car 2 has a .100 light and you have a .088 light, you will win by .012 seconds or about the distance from the front bumper to the front of the front wheel well. You beat a faster car, by R/T
Dial In Time This is key in bracket racing. Also call handicapped racing. You perdict what the car will run based off you previuos runs of the day. Let's just say you ran
15.82 , 15.78 , & 15.84 I would dial at 15.77 or 15.76 pending on the current weather and the time of the fastest run. I see a lot of kids on Import day dialing about 1 second faster than the car will run. Dreaming doesn't win races. If you outrun your dial, you break out and lose.
Deep Staging Daytona does this, I cannot. At the top of the "tree" (lights) there are 2 sets of yellow lights. The very top is "Pre-Stage" and the second is "Stage" Deep Staging means that after you light both lights, you roll ahead a little bit more and the very top lights go out. Only the "Stage" lights are on. This will cause you to have a better R/T and faster E/T but a lower MPH. I red light a lot doing this. "Red lightning" or "going red" mean you went before the ambers came down and this gives a negtive R/T. One time I red lighted by -.004 Heartbreak. I was deep staging at the time.
Be consistant What ever you run in time shots, do the same in brackets. Don't change what your doing when comp starts. If your best run is 15.80 and you think you can get 15.40 by doing something different, do it next time.
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