We all love watching videos of drag racing, but when it comes down to going yourself and making a pass, what do you do? I hate to say it but a lot of times at the track i have atleast one person come up to me and ask what to do, where is tech, what lanes are for what cars, etc..

Well here's a thread to take care of all your questions.

Getting ready to race
before you leave for the track make sure you have a few key items:

When you get to the track tell the nice lady at the front gate if you're just watching or racing as this is where you'll get your "tech card" to fill out your information and give to the tech guy so you can get your number and race. once you've got the car ready to race head over to tech and hand them the card to get your assigned number and driver's band. you CANNOT make a pass without teching in.

Pre-pass
Once you're teched in and ready to make your pass head over to the staging lanes. ask someone or listen for someone to come over the PA system periodically for them to say the lane assignments. majority of the time they'll have them split up between street tires/drag radial lanes, slick lanes, and .400 pro tree lanes.

once you're in your lane and getting pulled to go make a pass do as follows:

Street tires: it will gain you nothing but less tread if you do a burnout. just pull around the water box and clean them

'06 Cobalt SS/SC vs mustang gt - YouTube

thats all you need. just to get the dirt and any debris off your tires from the pit area, and get a little compound on them. you will gain nothing if you heat them up by doing a burn out.

Slicks/Drag radials: read up on the manufacturer's specs on them to see how long a burnout should be with your tires. you want to heat them up enough to bring the oils and compounds to the surface for a nice hard sticky launch. but you don't want to sit there roasting them, and the chemicals, away.

Radials will also have a shorter burnout time than a slick will. Launching on the two will also be different.

Also, make sure you're running the correct psi for the tire, too much or too little will result in a launch no better than street tires, and probably a worse over all ET. Also, don't just start launching high up in the rpm range. Play around with it a while, test out different tire psi and launch rpm combinations. You may be surprised with what you find.

One last thing, if you're going to buy a set of wheels and tires just for the track. invest in a launch control, that way you know for sure what rpm you're leaving at.

How To Burnout: Cobalt - YouTube


Making the pass
Pretty self explanatory really. stage and light both beams with the front tires, wait for green and launch. once you're through the stripe exit the track at the proper turn off. some tracks will have one or two turn offs in the beginning and middle of the shut down area and then one at the very end way way down there. others just have one turn off at the end. make sure you're familiar with your tracks lay out and remember to never EVER turn around on the track. after you've exited drive down the return road to the shack or building to retrieve your time slip. then just head back to the pits and hangout while the car cools off.

Launching
Every car is different, every launch will be different. with majority of these cars being daily drivers they're taken to the track on street tires. so lower your tire pressure to about 25-26psi. you want to lower it enough to get better tread contact than you would at 35-40psi. but you don't want to lower it too much because street tires are not meant to have that much sidewall flex. too low of a psi and you could blow out the tire. on street tires most people seem to find the best launches around 2k-3k rpms but you'll just have to see what works for you. when you're staged and ready to launch bring the rpms up and hold them steady where you want them. when you launch don't just dump the clutch but let it out while pushing the gas in, you want to get off the clutch and on the gas as soon as possible. its a fine line between slipping the clutch, tire spin, traction, and going wide open. play around with it and see which technique works best for you.


Getting a good reaction time
So you wanna hit triple zeros eh? Get lucky and you might, but its easier to be close every time. First step is easy, set your starting point. What i mean by this is kind of like a science experiment, you need to control variables and by process of elimination you will lower your reaction times. first off start simple and establish a baseline. prestage, then ever so slowly roll forward till the stage blub lights and then stop. reason for this is now every time you do this, you know you'll be starting in the same spot. practice launching at this exact spot untill you can get your reaction time down to .150 or lower every single time. do this by practicing to launch before you see green, practice to launch at the same time in relation to where the bulbs are over and over. the closer your reaction times are at this point the easier things will be later on. once you can do this you're ready to go to the next step. remember through out this process to take note of your launch rpm, this will come in handy in the next step so your over all ET's remain consistent.

Rollout
Rollout is how far the tire has to rotate forward before it brakes the beam again, this time to turn the light off and start your pass. rollout is why you can light both the prestage and stage bulbs at the same time, even though they really aren't too close together. this is why you need to practice getting your reaction times down when you stage with the stage bulb just barely tripped. because if you can pull sub .150 reaction times at the beginning of the stage bulb, you can pull sub .050 lights by playing with your roll out. again, consistency is key here just as it was when you were practicing before. but this time you're going to be using clutch pedal control, and the ebrake. so you're ready to make another pass. pull up and light the prestage bulb and again stop. remember your launch rpm?? hope so, cause now once youre stopped with the prestage bulb lit, press the gas untill youre holding your launch rpm. now with one hand on the wheel and the other on the ebrake, let off the clutch untill you start rolling forward then hold your foot steady, only this time don't stop when you see the stage bulb light, keep going for a count of one second and pull the ebrake up while pushing the clutch back in. the car will stop and your rpms will go back to what you launch at. you don't have to rip up on the ebrake as this will cause you to move your foot and change rpms. you won't be moving very fast at all so a gentle pull will do just fine. now you're staged a little deeper than you were when practing just to get consistent RTs. so if you launch just like you had be doing before, your reaction time WILL drop with this pass. reason being, less roll out. less rollout means less distance the car has to travel before it breaks the other side of the beam. so if you're launching at the same spot on the tree, but you're deeper in the beams, bam.. lower reaction time. repeat this process and keep creeping up once the stage bulb is lit untill you have reached a reaction time you are happy with. the average reaction time in your local track's Average Joe street car bracket class is probably somewhere between .070 for regulars who come to compete to .500+ for first timers out to have fun. so i repeated this process untill i was pulling sub .099 lights consistently. once you get in a good habit of staging in the correct spot, try and complete the process quicker each time untill you can just come around the water box, spin 'em and stage and be in the same spot for each pass. and remember, the lower your reaction time, the more room you have to "play" downtrack SIDENOTE. those running 2steps. the step mentioned above still applies to you, only when rolling in to the stage bulb you do not need to be on the gas holding any rpms, because you will roll without stalling at low speeds when the clutch is engaged with out gas, then when youre deep enough in the stage bulb just brake normally and get on the 2step....which you should have been adjusting for consistent launches in the first step.


This is really just the basics of the basic. racing is a lot of personal preference and technique. these tips will just get you started and general information about the track so you know what to do at all times.

 

cool write up,


dumping clutch in 2nd gear scary.

 

i wouldn't recommend it on a stock clutch. but then again if you're on drag radials or slicks on a stock clutch, don't expect it to last too long. for lsj's, atleast get a gmpp if you're going to be racing on a tire other than street tires.

 

Dont forget to bring tools to the track! just in case

awesome thread! sud'd

 

Agreed lol. Heading back to the track on the 29th to try it. Yikes. But I gotta get some heat in my radials if I wanna go sub 2.0 60fts.

 

kinda, but remember they're radials or slicks, not street tires. they're hard when cold, and you're rolling through water first. granted its not easy on things, its better than dry tires on the street.

good write up man, wish i had the money to build the cobalt a little. going for fastest NA car, but that really isn't going to be that fast. its still fun to show up at teh track and take down other guys on the bracket calsses. they hate loosing to a 15 sec car!

 

They make you wear a helmet under 13.99? I ran an 11.89 at the local drag strip with nothing.

 

^ yes, and if they are on there ****, it needs to be Snell Approved. not just DOT.

 

thats the rules for NHRA and IHRA

 

Ah yeah I never did anything like that just test and tune on Friday night. As long as your car didn't leak anything you do whatever you want. Lol

 

rules are rules. no matter what the event lol. some tracks just don't give a damn though. "if it ain't gonna break, run it"

 

Good stuff!

 

Lots of good info. Good write up

 

Nice writeup Exsoccer, forgive me if you did mention it( was trying to read this quick since I'm at work). Doesn't having half or a little less than a tank of gas a good thing? Cut down on weight as well?

 

anything helps. but honestly at the ETs majority of people are running, its not going to make that big of a difference.

 

nice. got a dumb question, since the tc's suck in 1st has anyone launched from the light in 2nd?

 

for low power levels, my guess would be you'll either bog down and stall it. create so much wheel spin that your 60' will be worse than 1st. or you'll burn up the clutch in one pass trying to find a medium between the two.

for high hp cars, just get slicks.

 

ok thats what i thought. worked fine one time i did it with the base. accedently. what about short reving. instead of full rev just hit second early like 4k rpms?

 

could work? idk lol. i don't drive a turbo that small

 

Hey man, check your PM's please.

 

What psi would you recommend for slicks? As a starting point? I plan on running the 17" m&h slicks I've been googling and a good starting point would maybe be 14 psi?

 

I would say 16psi honestly. The 17"s won't have tubes in them. And it's easier to start higher and air down.

 

Just make sure you don't leave oil or coolant all over the track, you'll close it down for the day :C