Drag Racing Timing System

[SlowerThanYou]

JSins,

Wow, someone posted in the Drag Forum!

I see you recently joined & the above post is your 1st.

Thanks for contributing!

[Johnny Sins]

On 5/8/2013 at 7:11 PM, SlowerThanYou said:

There was some discussion & questions going on in the Shout Box a couple of weeks ago. It had to do with staging on the drag strip.

 

I would like to start with some very basics of where/how a timed drag race begins. This is basically the same for all surfaces, but some of the procedures may be slightly different.

 

I would like to keep this organized & not stray off the current subject(s).

 

We'll start with the pre-stage/stage lights & beams (refer to diagram below):

 

The pre-stage light (tree) comes on when the front of your tire breaks the infrared pre-stage light

beam across your lane. This is basically a warning to both rider's/racer's in either lane they are getting close to staging.

 

Next, is the stage light (tree) when the front of your tire breaks the infrared stage light beam across your lane. When both rider's/racer's are staged is when the race can start.

 

The tree can be activated in a couple different ways to start the race, manually & auto-start. That will be the next subject & why that's important for you to know!

 

Notes for future subjects:

- When does the timer start in your lane.

- How to change your reaction times & ET with staging.

 

Please stay on the current subject, pre-stage & stage! We will move on when they are exhausted.

 

 

http://i143.photobucket.com/albums/r143/BLK1700/StagingBeamsChristmasTreeCapture_zps1e1ac335.png

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How to change your reaction times & ET with staging???

You should never want to change your rt. You always want to get a perfect rt when racing against someone. I don't believe that there's any advantage in deep staging since you take away your rollout. I always advice persons to stage as shallow as possible to utilize as much rollout as possible when the ambers/yellow lights are on. Practice getting a perfect rt when shallow staging. That way when the lights go green and you leave the stage beam, your et timer will start at 0.000 seconds but your vehicle is already moving with a rolling start. The rolling start you get also helps a lot with your et and top speed.

 

[SlowerThanYou]

20 hours ago, Johnny Sins said:

How to change your reaction times & ET with staging???

You should never want to change your rt. You always want to get a perfect rt when racing against someone. I don't believe that there's any advantage in deep staging since you take away your rollout. I always advice persons to stage as shallow as possible to utilize as much rollout as possible when the ambers/yellow lights are on. Practice getting a perfect rt when shallow staging. That way when the lights go green and you leave the stage beam, your et timer will start at 0.000 seconds but your vehicle is already moving with a rolling start. The rolling start you get also helps a lot with your et and top speed.

 

Let's start with your 1st sentence in the main paragraph.  So, a racer is cutting consistent shit/slow RTs or red lighting. I know I'm going to make changes to the race vehicle(s) set-up to change the RT!

Now, for the second sentence. There's only one time a year I set up for a perfect RT. We have a 50K run for the money. A perfect package wins, we set-up for a .000 RT. The rest of racing against an opponent we don't shoot for perfect RT. Reaction times have a variance based on different factors. We try to keep that variance as tight as possible:

Let's use a .010 RT variance for testing/qualifying. During racing if I set up for a perfect RT. The RTs are going to vary -.005 - .005, going red isn't going to work for my racing.

Now, take that same .010 variance & set-up for a .005 RT medium; you theoretically get RTs in the .000 to .010 range.

I do agree with staging shallow as possible to keep RTs & ETs the most consistent.

[Johnny Sins]

I understand now. Thanks a lot for your detailed explanations. 

[SlowerThanYou]

I hope it helped!

I've been doing this for 35+ years & it's somewhat easy for me to do naturally. It's a different story when you try to explain it in written form to others.

While I think we have mainly been talking about .500 sportsman/full tree. I'm well experienced in both the .400 & .500 pro light, leaving off top bulb .500 full tree with a delay box & still working on a blocked tree leaving off the last bulb.