Drag racing for the first time Suggestions

mattypsd

mattypsd

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Joined
Nov 15, 2009
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23
I have a 12 valve im going to be draggin in summer for the first time.
any advice on making the run. obviously in 4 wheel.
but i was told by someone that they manually lock the converter in at the line
when i asked about when to lock it in and i never heard of this?
i have the lock up switch. but i know if you leave it on and slow down truck starts shaking and im told you can ruin it if you leave it on.
what would be diff about locking it in at the line. just higher rpms that will keep it from getting the shakes like when you are stopping.

any advice on the run id appreciate
 
when its your turn put your truck in 4x4 hi, pull up to light the first bulb (pre stage)
build boost (one foot on the brake and one on the go pedal)
keep your boost up and inch forward to light the second bulb (staged)
launch on the last yellow light
run your rpms up high to where it shifts into 2nd and hit the lockup switch. hang on!

once you hit the traps unlock the converter and shift back to 2 wheel drive

pull off the track and pick up your speeding ticket and see how you did.
 
kc8yhk said:
when its your turn put your truck in 4x4 hi, pull up to light the first bulb (pre stage)build boost (one foot on the brake and one on the go pedal)
keep your boost up and inch forward to light the second bulb (staged)
launch on the last yellow light
run your rpms up high to where it shifts into 2nd and hit the lockup switch. hang on!

once you hit the traps unlock the converter and shift back to 2 wheel drive

pull off the track and pick up your speeding ticket and see how you did.
Click to expand...

One thing - if your track runs with "Autostart" enabled, you probably want to start building boost before you turn on the pre-stage or you risk getting timed out (which is what happened to Seth at the Super Stock race). Basically Autostart starts a countdown timer (typically set at 7 seconds but it can vary) as soon as one driver has staged and the other has pre-staged. If you take more than 7 seconds once that has occurred, you will get an automatic red light. I build boost before turning on the pre-stage, then quickly turn on the pre-stage and roll until I am about to turn on the stage light (which you get a feel for that distance after doing it a few times), and carefully bump in the last couple of inches until the stage light comes on. For consistency you want to just barely turn on the stage light, don't keep rolling once it turns on.
 
Keeping what Michael says about the tree timers in mind, you might do yourself a favor by telling your gasser opponent beforehand that you're gonna need to build boost and then stage (or creep into the 2nd staging light). Let him pre-stage first. The point being, you're not sitting there with trans fluid temps skyrocketing (resulting in thinner fluid) while he's getting around to it.

With my little mess, I let him pre-stage first, then I pre-stage. Just when he fully stages, I quickly build boost and then fully stage.
Certainly my mess isn't as quick as most here, so I've got to make the best of what I've got. I've learned that waiting for numb-nutz to get into the staging lights while I'm at full launch boost, results in my trans-fluid temp in the converter to to jump over 100*F higher (as measured immediately after the pass/compared to before the pass) than otherwise, resulting in me running almost a .1 second slower in the 1/8th. $.02
 
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