That's crazy. Glad everything turned out okay. Looking down the 1/4-mile for the first time was almost surreal. It seemed to go on forever.My first time was like something out of a movie. I had just spent a week on the neurology level at University of Cincinnati hospital, getting prodded and screened for every disease you can think of that may have been causing swelling in my brain. When they finally decided i needed a biopsy to make sure it wasn't cancer, i had a week until the surgery was scheduled and i was sent home to wait for it. I decided, if it IS cancer, i may not have long left, so i'm going to race my car before i never get a chance to. I wore a bandana to cover these metal connector tabs they glued around my head that are used during surgery. It was evening, just getting dark when i got into the staging lanes. When it was my turn, as i pulled around into the water box and got my first view of the track from the starting line, the lights along the outside of the track lit up almost like they lit up just for me. Of course, the car was bone stock back then and i blew the tires to pieces and ran a 14.7, but i'll never forget it. Lucky for me i didn't have cancer
Anyway, as far as real advice goes...spend some time watching before you go out. If you're on street tires, don't bother doing a big burnout..you're not going to improve anything. Go AROUND the water box, and do a quick burnout just to clean your tires off. You go around the water because you don't want to track water to the starting line with you, which will hurt your traction off the line (this is far less of an issue for guys who are on slicks).
Behind that...inch up on the staging lights, you wanna just barely brake the light beam to get the two yellow stage lights. This is known as "shallow staging". Leave on the last yellow light...don't wait for the green to light up. If you're on street tires, don't mash the gas off the line...even if you're good at pedaling for traction on the street, you'll have less traction on the track on street tires and you'll blow the tires off. Try to leave just hard enough to hear some sliiiight tire squeal, but not any harder than that...think "chirping". Don't pound 2nd gear, you'll probably spin there too.
Ummm... was the original question about drag strips, or road courses?
I've done both.Greatly prefer road courses!
Dumb question:
Are drag radials considered street or track?
How was your first time?
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