Competition Humbled By A Christmas Tree

[biggy238]

Oh well, maybe it was THEE tree... The one at beech bend.



1st race (ever)

R/T... LB3A (Oooops)

60' ... 3. 305

330 . . 7. 678

1/8 . . 11. 288

MPH . 68. 04

1000. 14. 441

1/4 . . 17. 115

MPH . 84. 59



Aaaaahhh so I got a little jumpy on the first run.....



2nd Race

R/T... . 522

60' ... 3. 004

330 . . 7. 547

1/8 . . 11. 200

MPH . 67. 29

1000. 14. 379

1/4 . . 17. 077

MPH . 83. 70



All hell broke loose on the 1-2 change. Throttled it to gain traction



3rd Race

R/T... . 639

60' ... 2. 056

330 . . 6. 262

1/8 . . 9. 885

MPH . 66. 20

1000. 13. 122

1/4 . . 15. 848

MPH . 82. 92



Four wheel drive is a beautiful thing... . until you feel the front axle in the floor board because it didn't dis-engage.



Truck weighs 6700 with me in it. Most of it's in the sig. Fuel plate is actualy just a shade lower than stock setting. It's been like that for a while to keep the hx35 alive. LOTS of room to grow. Launch on 20ish boost. Broke the lights at 15 pounds and stabbed it after that. I do remember seeing a 23lb flash (The dakota digitals flash at me)



With 6 minutes in between passes, the trans never came over 180* which pleased me. I'm sure it will with another 200 hp or so cut loose on it.

I felt pretty good about the whole boost launch/ tree/ watch the gauges thing. Left lane is easier to see the tree because the gauges aren't there flashing in my face.



I watched from the pits for an hour or so, just long enough to dry out my contacts really good. Makes it just a little harder to watch the tree without blinking.



Aside from the mechanical side of things, What can I do to hone the skeeeeeelz?? (skills)

 

[JVolpe]

Practice, practice and more practice. That is all that helped me. The more you do it the better you get. After a while you get a feel for where boost is and can start doing more concentration on the Tree itself.

 

[RHestand]

I agree with JVolpe about practice.

The more seat time you get, the more capable you are seeing and thinking about everything that's going on around you.

It's been my experience in my years of drag racing (mostly 60s and 70s muscle cars) that you spend a lot of time waiting to race, then a very short amount of time (mentally), to put everything together, to win a race.

It can be a daunting task, to do over and over again.

I've seen RTs go from not even talked about in the 60s, to all important in today's races.

It's become an excruciatingly fine line between cutting a good RT,(. 000 to a . 020) and a red light.

I've found when racing heavier vehicles, if it's not against the rules, I would "deep stage" for better RTs.

Deep staging simply means, pulling further into the staging lights.

Example: After both top staging lights are lit, pull a little further in, (6-10 inches) untill the top light goes out.

It makes for a shorter distance to get a lot of weight moving, before the light actually turns green.

If you talk to some of the veteran bracket racers at the track, they are a wealth of information about these kind of tricks.

Good Luck, Ray