First drag tournament - advice needed!

[soldave]

OK - I'm 18 days away from taking part in my first drag race tournament: the HKS Drags - Okinawa. Touch wood the car will be ready; I've got a Punishment Racing manifold on order, and will be fitting a ported O2 housing, and maybe a new frontpipe to replace the stock one. Will be getting a meth kit too if Devils Own can sort out the current issue I'm having when placing order with them. So the car should be ready, but I need to be!

Let me give you a bit of info on the event first. Okinawa's main "circuit" is a bit of a joke, and is basically an area of land the size of a car park. Consequently, the drag run is only 150m or 1/10th mile. It should also be noted that the surface is damn slippery (the asphalt up there is coral-based meaning getting traction is key). The event itself with be in time bracket racing.

Now I've done some reading about the staging lights and how to properly launch (will have to be 4500-5000rpm so as not to just be spinning my wheels at the start), but wondered if anyone could offer me any more advice. I have read the advice threads about launching and shifting, and will probably shift around the 7300rpm mark, as I'm still making power until then. I'll be taking the wing off the car and also letting a little air out of the tyres to keep traction. Am excited about this, but already a little nervous as I want to put in a decent performance there. Thanks for any advice you guys can offer me

 

[awamsley]

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[soldave]

Thanks. Have watched a couple of videos of these staging lights. Do I need to drop the clutch when the last yellow light is fully lit, or as soon as it's starting to light up? That probably depends on my reactions and I doubt there's much in it.

 

[mrallen]

when i was in oki we did something like this in naha, the key is going right after the last yellow goes, what i do is when the last yellow comes on i say out loud "1" then i start to "slip" the clutch to launch well.

 

[soldave]

Interesting technique - thanks for that. And where in Oki were you?

 

[soldave]

Got the car back from the tuning shop after new exhaust manifold, O2 housing and frontpipe was fitted. The mechanic wasn't too impressed at having to cut, weld & recut a frontpipe originally made for an Eclipse, but that's what I pay him for!. The 2 broken studs that fit the manifold to the engine head were fixed too. The only downside is that they put a pretty average manifold-engine head gasket on it. Ah well, you can't win em all.

The difference is huge though. Much quieter, a nicer spool up and quite a bit more power up top. According to my APexi Rev/Speed Meter I was hitting around 311WHP maximum before these parts. Will be doing tuning tomorrow but just doing 2 runs and richening it up a little (as it was making more power and going a little too lean) it hit 340WHP. Now I know the Rev/Speed Meter can be a little inaccurate, but an increase of 29WHP or about 10% in power is pretty impressive by anyone's standards. Shame I can't get my meth kitted fitted before Sunday as it's just come in but will leave that for another time. But I've now gone from flooring it at 4,000rpm in 2nd and it kicking with power, to flooring it at 4,000rpm in 2nd and having to hold on tight!

So the car's as ready as it's gonna be, and I'm looking forward to a good day. Will report back after the 27th.

 

[turboglenn]

Glad to hear the car is ready. What i do at the drag strip is just try to relax a little (if you're tense you'll miss things) Pay attention to the track martials signaling for you to stage, burnout etc...

Then when you get the front tires breaking the beams and lighting up both staging lights, take a deep breathe, breathe out smoothly and bring the RPM's up to where you want to launch. Then as soon as you see the last yellow light come on (on period, not judging how bright it is) then quickly and smoothly release the clutch. Some people just dump it, i like to release it as fast as i can without side stepping it, basically just giving some control to it's return.

I've always focused on the last yellow light and barely pay attention to any of the others except teh staging lights to make sure i'm in the right spot.

Of course i'm ASSuming that the tree will be run like a typical tree in the us (non pro). Best of luck and let us know how you do!!!!!!!