starting line reaction tools/methods for stockers

[CrateCamaro]

ok enough man...go have a beer and stop it with your frozen yogert.

[David Lee]

I have been off road racing (SCORE) for the last 7 years. I noticed a big differnece between the off road crew and the drag racers. I noticed that most drag racers were in bed by 10 and not seen until the pits opened. The off roaders left thier hotel rooms at 10 and drank all night long. One of the top drivers told me that a hang over just made him drive a little meaner

[George Mirza]

This is an interesting topic, and so far most of the discussion has been on driver reaction time (DRT), but I think the author was looking for tips on vehicle reaction times (VRT). As most of you know DRT is very difficult to change, you can sharpen it but making it consistant is the thing. I agree 100% with getting rest, staying hydrated, eating right and physically fit as very important factors.

One thing most of the older racers face are meds for many different kinds of health issues. Many of these can affect ones natural reaction time, this is something the average person would never notice, but as a drag racer you will when thousands of a second count.

As I mentioned earlier being consistant is the most important, yet most difficult factor to achieve. Thats where practice and natural abilitly come in. Face it some racers have it and some don't and never will, some people are just better at certain things in life than others. The difference between the great drivers and the good drivers is DRT consistancy. A great driver will have a RT variation of say (these are just random numbers) .020 average of 50 RT's where the average racer may be .040. So the racer with the .020 RT variation can set his car up to react closer to .000 than the racer with .040 RT variation.

Once you reach this point you can start to adjust the car to work with you. When the car is working right and the driver has a comfortable spot on the tree and the VRT is right you'll start going rounds. Often you'll see a racer change a converter, gear ratio, or tire size and all of a sudden he starts winning rounds. It can go the other way also, being class racers we are always trying to go faster and sometimes a change may pick the car up .1 but hurt the VRT by .05 and now you have a faster car to lose in the early rounds with. Now it's time to make more adjustments and it just keeps on going.

Let's hear about some things that can help VRT's. I'll start with converters, if your late put a tighter one in and if your red a looser one may help. Thats if adjusting the launch RPM doesn't help, some times it will sometimes you won't see enough change. So lets hear some others.

[Ron Ortiz]

At the season opener divisional race in Bradenton, FL I took my future son in law. He had a good time and enjoyed all the cool looking cars. All the friendships and howdy do's from other racers that I have'nt seen since last year impressed him. I informed him of the great parties at night with all these other people. What a dissapointment to walk around the pits at 9:00 and see no one. It was like a ghost town. Everybody was huddled in their motorhomes or had gone off to their motel rooms. I believe that we saw maybe 4 areas where there were people hanging out, but it was not as if they were having a good time. I guess that most people have decided to lead the clean life and get ready for the upcoming days activities. I would understand this reasoning if it was on a Saturday night, with eliminations starting at 8:00 AM on Sunday, but this was a Friday night. What a dissapointment.
If anybody is at a race and wants to have a good time at night, look me up, I'll be the one with a beer in hand and food in my mouth sitting there waitnig to party.

Ron Ortiz
U/SA maybe I should get serious..................right.