I'm interested in starting to race in one of these organizations. I don't know much about it and have never done it. I've been to drag strips. I live in San Diego. I'm wondering what the best way is to get started. Right now the car only has a stock 302 with nitrous. I like head to head racing and not the bracket type where you have to have a set time. Any advice?
gonna need a faster car for head to head or you will just get frustrated stock 302 won't be fast enough even with a little nos in my opinion.... bracket racing would be a lot of fun though
I should have the 331 in the car very soon and it's built tough enough to have nitrous on it. hopefully once I have the engine dialed in well I'll put the vortech supercharger on there.
You need to go to the track and check their rules. I believe the Summit racing bracket series in Division 7 does not allow NOS in Sportsman and Pro. Heads up races are few and far between. Some tracks have some index races such as 10.50, 11.50, 12.50, 13.50 etc. Where you pick the class you want to run in then run heads up. If you break out you lose, so it's pretty hard to sandbag. But these are not an every week thing.
Ya might just consider the cost of this type of racing. Look around at combos that are competative and just price some stuff. Iv been around to alot of races and man, there isnt anything remotely called a budget on any comtetative heads up stuff. Bracket stuff is the best way to cut your teeth in drag racing.
Check with the tracks for Test and Tune nights, that way you can just go down the track and learn it. Just going out on your first bracket race is not going to give you much learning time. Work on the "tree" and work to get the car consistant. Then hit the brackets. Brackets are better for lower budget racers. My Maverick is about the only car that drives to the track, and has no trouble going rounds against cars 4 seconds faster than it! And keep asking questions, we don't mind helping out.
you set a dial in time (whatever time your car does in the quater mile) and you try to run that exact time everytime,or as close as you can without going over ( breaking out) whover gets clsest to their dial in without breaking out wins even if your runnin 14 flat and he runs 9's. its about consistancy. you could got your local rent a car place,grab any old econobox and goto the races.just mash the pedal when it turns green.i've seen guys go several rounds that way.
A lot of good ideas here, let me second the part about going out for test-n-tune. You need to get used to the car/track...............and see what the car can do. You also need to get used to the Christmas Tree, staging is one of the most critical things you can do, and it will also make you more consistant.........................you need to stage the same everytime until it becomes a habit. We have a headsup group here at our local track..............but almost everyone runs in the low 10's or high 9's...............it takes a little HP to get a 3000lb car there. There are a lot street drags............usually on a week night like Wednesday where you can pick the car you want to race and go headsup, but let me say again...........................practice makes perfect and you need to go out and make run after run after run to get used to your car and track. I see a lot of guys who race a lot do what I call hot laps; they stage, make their fun down the 1/4 then come back the return strip and pickup their time slip.....................then get right back in the staging line and do it again, and again.....................as I said, practice makes you get better and also makes you more confident! If I could pick just two things for you to do...................one is practice staging and the other is to keep improving on your 60' time.........the more consistant you get the better your 60' times will get. Just go out and have fun! IMHO
sounds like bracket might be the easier one to get into and probably cheaper. somehow headsup has me more intrigued though. what are the disadvantages of headsup besides what's mentioned?
What was mentioned earlier is the downside of heads up racing. Usually, it's based on a certain set of rules (like in NHRA pro classes or NASCAR) and the competion will be spending lots or money to squeeze performance out of their cars within the given set of rules. Bracket racing is usually "run whatcha brung". Index racing(10.50, 9.90, etc.) as was mentioned earlier, is really just bracket racing where everyone in a given index class has the same ET dial-in.
mo i started running bracket class this year and i think its a blast it is the only time you can run a faster car and have a chance.what i like about it is if you have a slower car the faster car has to catch you and alot of the time they get antzy and red light or miss a shift believe me its a blast you just have to be consistant and have good reaction times at the tree.you dont have to be fast.
AND how close you run to your dialin. Example: Car 1 dials in 10.00 and runs 10.15 with a reaction time of 0.15. That's .30 seconds off of a "perfect run". Car 2 dials in 12.50 and runs 12.55 with a reaction time of .2. That's .25 seconds off of a perfect run. Car 2 wins even though he had a slower reaction time. It can work the other way as well. To win rounds, you need good reaction time and a consistent running car so you can hit your dialin. Generally speaking, the more powerful the car is relative to ability to hook up, the less consistent the car runs due to variation in the first couple hundred feet. So make sure whatever power level you bring to the track, your chasssi setup can hold it. Also, stick shift bracket racing is tough, as human error in the shifting process comes into play with consistency. BANGIN' GEAR IS MORE FUN THOUGH!
