advice for first time down the track??

[fordforlife0225]

looks like me and my girlfriends dad are finally taking our cars to the strip. we herd about the friday nights up at dinwitty (virginia motorsports park). im taking my 02 gt convertable and he is taking is 04 gt. both of us have a few bolt on's here and there but nothing big. he has an auto trans but has a stall and some other things done to it. we are not really worried about going out and beating people, we just want to see what our cars will run. i have never been drag racing and i dont think he has either.

so i ask, can anyone offer us any advice for first timers at the track?

[1badstang]

That sounds like a blast, i have never done it either, had a chance last year but something came up and was unable to go. I would be courious/interested in seeing what advice our experienced racers have.

[drivin-fool]

Go when the green light comes on Lol seriously just try to have fun up there. You are not John Force and you won't break any records, but you will have a ball just hearing the cars, and being out there. Try to get someone to video your runs if ya can, and have then get a shot of the times and mph boards as well.

[PME Treasurer]

We need Scotty to chime in here. He has been there to drag race his car. I am sure he will respond when he gets home.

[shb5007]

1. Make sure you sign up for the test & tune. You do not want to be bracket racing on your first trip to the drag strip.

2. Go find a pit space. Only take up one space, as the night goes on, it can get very busy. Unload any loose items in your car (I would suggest you leave what you can at home). Fill out the tech card and sign it. Usually, they also have a space on the BACK that you must sign, so look there also. Ask some of the cars parked near you whether they know if tech inspection is open, and where it is located (usually at the back, or beginning of the staging lanes). Its a good time to make new friends, and enjoy looking at all the great cars!

3. When tech inspection opens (usually 10-15 minutes after the gate opens) go to the tech area. If you are taking your street car, and it is not a death trap, you will pass tech. Some obvious things you need: seatbelts, safe tires (no cord showing), radiator coolant overflow catch canister (the factory one is fine), no blatant fluid leaks pouring out, etc! Also, shorts and tank tops are not allowed! YOU MUST WEAR LONG PANTS WHILE ON THE TRACK! All the officials look for this, so don't try to sneak it by them. This is about it for a street car. If your car runs faster than 11.99, then the entire game changes. However, if your running that well, I'll bet you've been to the track at least a time or two....The tech inspector will write your cars number on the window where it is visible by the timing tower. If staging lanes are not open, then return to your pit.

4. After you prep your car and get through tech, watch for a bit. Check out the "lay of the land". Ask the racers in the pits how everything works. Remember, everyone there is a car nut just like you, AND EVERYONE THERE WAS A "FIRST-TIMER" ONCE THEMSELVES! Every time I go, I get asked questions by new guys!

5. The track announcer will come over the PA system, and say that the staging lanes are open. Listen carefully, as some of the larger tracks have many lanes (VMP has 8), and they may have cars of different speeds report to different lanes. The staging lanes go slowly, then quickly, so STAY WITH YOUR CAR. DO NOT RUN YOUR AIR CONDITIONER! The condensation on the system will drip down onto the track. BELIEVE ME, they look for this, and if they see something dripping, then will pull you off the starting line. When they check the liquid on the ground, and see it is plain water, they will chew your butt, and send you to the back of the staging lane.

6. At the end of the staging lanes, there SHOULD be a track official. Watch carefully, and when it is time, he will point at you, and then point where he wants you to go. His job is to pair up cars to race, then put them into correct lanes. The idea is to keep you from racing a 9 second alcohol Camaro. By the way, most tracks make a strong effort to keep near stock street cars from running sub-10 second race cars, and will usually hold a street car, and let the race car make a solo run. Unfortunately, they don't always do this...If you find yourself lined up next to a John Force replica funny car, feel free (I advise beginners to do this!) to just sit there for a moment when the light goes green. Let the race car roar away from the starting line, then a moment later, you can go. Who cares that you got a lousy "reaction time"? Your ET slip will be UNAFFECTED! The timers don't start until you leave the starting line! This way, if the race car breaks an axle on a 7,000 rpm launch, and veers into your lane, you wont be there! I saw a sub-10 second car with an incorrectly set up rear suspension veer so hard at launch that he almost took out the starting line tree....

7. Just before you enter the water box, there should be another track official. He will make sure that your seat belt is on, all windows are rolled up, and will hold you until it is time for you to do your burnout. Do not enter the water box until instructed. If it is near sundown, turn on your parking lights. This is a required RULE at all tracks. This is how the officials can see where you are on the track, so they don't send another pair of cars while you are broke down at the other end, ON THE TRACK!

8. Since this is for beginners, I will assume you are on street tires. DO NOT DRIVE THROUGH THE WATER BOX! Your treaded tires will just pick up water in the treads, and when you do your burnout, it will sling water all over inside the wheel well. You will then track the water all the way down the track, and water will be dripping down onto your rear tires, making them VERY slick! If you do this, you make the track dangerous for everyone, and you may be asked to leave if you do it again. The water is for slicks, not treaded tires. DRIVE AROUND THE WATER BOX, then get your car centered in the lane. Back up slightly if needed. For street tires, I 'personally' do not think that a burnout does much at all. Street compounds are hard, and high performance tires are specifically designed to not heat up. Heat causes high speed tire failure, that is why you paid big bucks for "Z" speed rated tires. Now your trying to heat them up??? If I run my street tires, I do a quick, short burnout to clean the tires off.

9. Do not pull up to the tree! Every beginner does this. The staging beams are actually about 15 feet or so BEFORE the tree! Hopefully, you took my advise and watched the other cars run first, and looked to get an idea where everyone else was pulling up to. If you cant figure it out, don't worry, the starter knows it is "street night", and will help you. When he realizes you cant find the staging beams, watch him. He will walk up next to your car, and motion to you to either pull up, or back. Again, don't get embarrassed, or upset. The starter has to do that probably 20-30 times a night. SLOWLY pull forward until you see the very top, small yellow light come on. You are now "PRE-STAGED". It is considered a racers courtesy to wait for the other car to prestige, before staging.
Then gently roll forward a few more inches, and the other small yellow light right under the top one will come on. You are now "STAGED". Do not roll forward too far, or the "PRE STAGED" light will go out, and you may be required to pull back, to relight that light.
That is called "deep staging", and is usually not allowed on street nights. There -should- be a blue light turned on, on the tree, which notifies all racers that "deep staging" is not allowed. If you do accidentally pull forward too far, and deep stage, DO NOT PULL BACK UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO DO SO BY THE STARTER. He may just start the tree anyway, and you would be sitting there in reverse! Now, watch that very bottom, large yellow light!

10. The starter will activate the tree, and the yellow lights will come on, one at a time .5 seconds apart.
When the last yellow light comes on, GO! By the time you react, then your car reacts, the green light will be on. Trust me. If you red light, it is no big deal.
Afterward, check your reaction time, and adjust. .500 is a perfect light on a standard tree (The pros use a tree where all the yellows come on at once, then green. A perfect light on a pro tree is .400).

11. If you only take one piece of advice from me, please let it be this: DON'T TRY TO SET A NATIONAL RECORD ON YOUR FIRST RUN! If this is your first time at the track, PLEASE make at least one pass where you are only running at 80%. This will give you a chance to see what the track feels like, what your car feels like, where the finish line is exactly, where the turn off is exactly. Your senses get overwhelmed when trying something like this the first time. A mistake you would have caught easily any other time can cause you to wreck your car. I've seen excellent drivers wreck great cars from a simple mistake that would have never caught them otherwise. It can happen to you too.
This is the most fun you can have with your clothes on, but it is serious stuff too. Treat it that way.
Stay in your lane at all costs.

12. Make sure you know exactly where the finish line is! Most new racers brake WAY too early...the speed trap beams are located 66' BEFORE the finish line beams. Make sure you are not mistaking the speed trap for the finish line!

13. Hopefully, you took my advice, and made your first pass at 80%, so you don't have to worry about figuring out this next section while running flat out....Most tracks have plenty of run out area. When running the quarter mile, you will be running close to 100 mph at the finish line. If you slam on the brakes at those speeds, it is VERY easy to upset the chassis of the car and loose control, so be careful to not brake too hard.

14. READ THIS SECTION CAREFULLY!!! Before you run, know where the turn off roads are located. VMP has 2 turn offs, with one of them located at the very end of the run out area. Both turn-offs are on the left side of the track...so THE CAR IN THE LEFT LANE HAS THE RIGHT OF WAY! NEVER, EVER TURN IN FRONT OF ANOTHER CAR, CROSSING THEIR LANE!!!! If I am running a REAL slow car, I will drive all the way to the last turn off, as my only other option would be to sit in my lane and wait for them to finally arrive. I don't like sitting in the middle of my lane on a race track.

15. After you turn off, look for the timing shack, where you can pick up your time slips. Continue back up the return road (most have speed limits of 10 mph in the pits). If you want the seasoned people to look down on you, then go roaring around in the pit area. That is also a sure fire way to get asked to leave.

16. CONGRATULATIONS! You just made your first pass down a drag strip!

[PME Treasurer]

Wow - I didn't know he was going to write a book and hopefully he didn't scare you away! Have fun and be safe!

[1badstang]

Yea, same here, i copy and pasted it to a word doc and printed it for future reference. Maybe some day i will get the opportunity to try this just for the rush.
Very good and helpful response Scotty.
Thanks

[fordforlife0225]

awsome advice thank you soo much. i will keep this in case i ever need it again. i will post up on this thread when i get back.

one or two last questions. with my 5-speed how should i start? iv herd alot on this so i was wondering should i rev up to x,xxx rpms and dump the clutch or...? also id like to leave things like my back seat and spare tire at home but if i get a flatt i would like to have my spare with me, would it be safe to leave it in the pits when i get there?

[shb5007]

i am not sure about the launch.

it will be okay to leave your back seat and spare tire in the pits.

[fordforlife0225]

ok. ill say sorry in advance because im sure this wont be a short story.

ill start by saying the advice was very very helpfull scotty. thank you so much. as you know i went with my girlfriends dad which was great, we got to spend some good time together but he didnt get any advice before we went up and i guess i failed to pass a few key points to him. i followed him up since he has the gps. we got there a lil after 5 so we went straight to the tech inspection when we got through the gate. i filled out my paperwork and they came up and asked what class i wanted to run and i was like t/t, what did that guy sign up for, and the tech said Muscle Street. i was like uhhh ok w.e just put me in that too. they said i could drop to t/t if i got knocked out. so we went to the pits and parked our cars and walked out to the track. watched a few passes and they called for the qual for m/s to stage in the lanes. so we hopped in our cars and went to our lanes (3 and 4). i was extremly nervous when i got up there but i held it together. it took John (gf's dad) a second to figure out the staging lights but when we were both staged and the tree dropped it was great!!!! my first pass i had a
r/t .607
1/8 9.92
1/4 15.25 at 93.26mph

i took 3 qual passes just to get used to the feeling. my best run of the night was my third, i had a reactoin time of .505 and a 1/4 mile at 15.14 seconds.

i got knocked out my first race in the muscle street class. i got paired against an 11 second fox body. they gave me the head start but i got nervous and launched from like 2250rpm and my tires lost traction and slipped and he caught me by the 1/8th mile.

overall i ran 4 passes last night and had an amazing time. it is deff. someting i want to continue, however, i dont think my street car can take that kind of abuse so me and my girlfriend are going to persue our plan of building a 94/95 mustang for the strip. i am going to look into going to richmond though, VMP was a little on the.... idk how to say this (unprofessional) side of things. the announcer was extremly annoying, would not be quiet and talked in nothing but ebonics. he was up there trying to rap the entire night.