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(77 votes) Published: Nov 20, 2007 5:16 p.m. Viewed 349 times
Alot of my friends say "oh i want to take this car to a local dragstrip but i dont know what to do". Well this egg will cover everything you will need to know.
The main crucial areas at the dragstrip are as follows...
-RaceCar Entrance
-Dial-In Booth
-The Pits (drivers park cars while they arent racing and spectators can walk around and look at the cars).
-Inspection/Test area where cars are evaluated for safety and IHRA/NHRA regulated race equipment.
-Fuel Depot (You can buy racing fuel here and fill nitrous bottles at here).
-Staging Lanes (cars wait in line to race)
-Waterbox (burnout concrete pad for heating tires)
-StartingLine (The point where cars take off from)
-Finish Line (end of the section of racetrack that is raced on)
-TimeSlip Booth (Pick up your timeslip to know your speed and time down the racetrack)
Certain things like the Timeslip Booth, Starting Line, Finish Line, Fuel Depot, Waterbox and Car entrance are rather obvious. But other things can be rather confusing and a newb racer will get confused and look like a jackass and miss his/her race.
The Dial-In Booth is the area where you dial in your car. You tell the race track officials how quickly you think your car will go down the track and they write your VEHICLE NUMBER on the windshield and passener side windows. They then write underneath it what your dial-in. IF you say that your car can run 15 seconds flat every single time you go down that track, than they will write your number with a 15.00 underneath it in car chalk. Your Dial-In is very important because a Heads-Up race isnt very fair between a 1991 ford festiva and a 9,000 Hp topfuel Dragster. The Dial-In number is used for handicapped races so that a car that runs 9 seconds down the track will have a 6 second delayed green light when it races against a 15 second car. Alot of Professional Dragsters have Dial-In Plates or Even Electronic Dial-In screens on the back of their car to make things easier.
The Pits are basically where the racers park their Campers/RVs and sit around tuning their car. They will drive the car down the track, bring it back to the pits and work on it for awhile then drive it down the track again. Spectators are usually allowed to walk around and look at racecars and talk to the drivers. Give other Racers some space to work on their car and allow them some privacy rather than parking 4" from their camper and be right up in their face when you work on your car.
The Inspection and Test area is where track officials inspect your vehicle for safety, structural rigidity and safety equipment. They ask you how quickly it will go down the track and determine whether a roll cage would be needed for your speed. They check to make sure that your electrical wiring is safe and theres not exposed copper wires crossing metal chassis parts. They are going to check for seatbelts, a fire extinguisher (for some cars/races), ignition/cutoff (some cars/races), an engine oil system that isnt wide open for spillage, a safe fuel injection system that doesnt use coffee straws as fuel lines and they just make sure your car isnt rotted in half.
Here’s what happens when you spill your coffee onto your dashboard at 240 mph.
Staging Lanes may just look like yellow painted lines on a street but they are actually more important than alot of people realize. For bracket racing, you can go around and look at what other racers have for engines and decide which ones you want to race against when. Although you may not make it into 1st place, you will get more points if you are eliminated later on in the racing. Although you race a "example: 12.5 second 1/4 mile" another racer who races a "example: 12.7 second 1/4 mile" could end up getting 2nd place while you end up with 8th place only because you were eliminated by the 1st place racer who was running a "example: 12.4 second 1/4 mile". Its like saying that TED is faster than BOB but PETE is faster than TED and BOB. TED Raced BOB before PETE raced BOB so PETE got a better standing than TED. Its confusing. Staging lanes are used to determine which cars will race against who. EVEN lanes (2,4,6,8) are generally in the right lane of the racetrack. Odd numbers (1,3,5,7) are on the left lane of the racetrack. IF theres a certain car that you want to race against, try to get your lane choice and count the cars so that both you and the desired car are (ex. #7 in each lane).
The WaterBox is where you do your burnouts. A track official will give you a hold sign by putting out his palm to hold you in place. When he gives you the "spin them up" signal (wave of hand, gesture by spinning finger in circular motion) this means that you should spin your tires. IF you have drag slicks than heat up the tires on the waterbox by either using a line-lock system to lock the non-drive wheels or use an E-brake on FWD applications to lock the rear wheels. Just heat the tires to get more traction.
The TimeSlip Booth is where you go to pick up your timeslip. Your timeslip will show your 0-60ft time (usually under 3 seconds for people who arent retarded). IT will show your 100 ft speed, 1/8 mile time and speed, 1000ft time and speed, 1/4 mile time and speed and your Trap speed.It will show your reaction time and what your original dial-in was. It will also show who won the race and what the opponents information was. It tells the handicap coefficient (the difference in time between each car).
That should help you to get a good start to less technical aspect of it and more about what actually goes on at a dragstrip so you arent a fucking idiot when you watch drag racing on TV, when some Chick asks you about racing or if you decide to race your car against some kids for some stupid Bet.
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