Boy what a nerve racking feeling! I LOVED IT!
For those of you whom have never made a pass at your local track, I can best relate the experience to playing a big game in sports. I grew up playing hockey and I can relate A LOT of the drag racing experience to that of playing the centerman's position on the ice. Watching the Christmas tree is a lot like watching the Linesman's hand as he starts to drop the puck. A good centerman has to anticipate and react fast in order to win the draw. As a the lights start falling down the tree, so was the "puck" in this old centerman's mind!
My heart was pounding, I kept telling myself not to RED LIGHT, and to "just have fun." But I'm a competive person by nature and had to keep myself focused on just shifting.
My car is NOT a speed demon by any means. I thought it to be a 15-16.50 second car with speeds in the mid 80's.
As I staged the car, I did so by racer etiquet: Light my first light, let the opponent light their's and then light my second bulb and got ready to go. I brought the RPMs up and waited. I did NOT use my E-brake to stage the car. I just tickled the clutch against the flywheel and when I saw the lights on the last yellow I dropped the rest of the clutch. SCREEEAACH! I'm off for my first ever pass down the 1/4 mile!!!
The exhileration was immense! The tires spun a little as I jumped out in front of my opponent and cut a .407 light to his .617. I was so excited that I forgot that I was racing anyone else. I didn't see anyone else in front of me! As I sped down the track, by instinct I shifted the car to gears 2 & 3 but I forgot to shift to 4th gear until 10 feet from the traps. Oops! I was reminded that I was racing someone else when the guy I was racing passed me within the last 50 yards of the track. No matter what I did the speed topped out somewhere around 75 MPH.
The long trip down the return road filled my head with tons of questions. "What kind of numbers did I just run?" The launch felt decent, but that 75MPH is a little slow. "What did it look like to my family and friends in attendance?" What did the other run?
The car ran well, I wonder if I need bigger heads and carbs? All of this came from a practice run!
I pulled up to the scales (located on the return lane) and weighed the car in at 1625 lbs without me in it.
I knew that some of you can show me how to use the weight of the car and the ET's to find the estimated HP of my engine. I'm dying to get down to the end of the return road to get my time slip! I couldn't stop thinking "what did I run? What'd I run?" I looked at the slip and was surprised to see the time of 18.186 @ 72.37. So we took it around and lined it up again...
On this pass, I'm lined up against a buddy of mine in a faster car. He pulls right up and double lights it. Oh crap! No extra time for this rookie to get ready! I'm much more relaxed this time and I'm really focusing on the tree. I launch by the same method, and I get the hole shot again on the other guy. I get about 2 legnths on him and I'm quickly topped out at 75 MPH. He easily blows by me at 1/2 track and I'm asking all those same questions again.
On this time slip, I got my best RT of the day at .326 and he had a .348. My ET was a 18.094 to his 14.998. MPH was almost identical. So here goes round three of practice.
I line up against a slower baja bug. I stage and launch by the same method, but this time I got confused by the tree. As the lights fell, they only fell on my side of the tree. I know I should not have worried about the other guy, but it threw me for millisecond loop and I was sleeping at the tree. This RT was .555
But I still ran consistent with a 18.095 and 73.14 MPH.
With practice over, I got some coaching from a few more experienced racers. I asked their opinions of what to use as a dial in, but I kind of had already decided on 18.090. They tried to pump me up a bit, and told me to take control, this is your race, etc. Well I got a little to excited and amped up. I flashed back to my hockey days. I'm owning this race! I'm going to double bulb the other guy as I stage this time!!! Well I staged to far, and when I used my rookie method to launch the car, I rolled a little (as I had done previously) and I RED LIT and was out in the first round!
Opps! Moron! You Idiot! What a bung-hole! I was mad at myself! I should have launched from the first round with the e-brake to stage and preload the car. Oh well live and learn!
All in all, it was a marvelous time! I'm hooked! I'm going to do this again! Although,
I do need bigger heads and carbs! Somehow, I think my 2275 with all the goodies will be getting preference over the bodywork on my convertible now!
Scott Faivre
