[Matt Kennedy]

Ahh, one of my passions....


Our cars do very well even on street tires. The hardest part of the drag racing thing, especially with our cars is that it takes quite a lot of self discpline to do it well. If you hammer it off the line and over rev it in every gear which is the most natural thing to do you'll have a horrible run. Keep this in mind as you follow the steps below.

1. Pre-staging: I'll assume you tires are going to behave a lot more like street tires than drag slicks. If so STAY OUT OF THE WATER BOX. Go around the water completely. You will most likely see other experienced drivers doing this. Go around the water and then if necessary back up slightly. Do a short dry burn out to clean off your tires. That's it. Roll up towards the line. (Water is for heating drag tires. It will only serve to hurt your traction on street tires.)

2. Staging: There are two staging beams and two corresponding staging lights on the top of the tree. As you break each beam one of the two yellow staging lights will light up. Once both staging lights are lit you are ready. When both cars are staged the race is started. Tip. Be ready. They do not waste time.

The self discipline here is to ignore everything going on around you and stare directly at *your* column of lights on the tree. In particular you want to watch for the last yellow light to comes on - just before the green. Leave when that last yellow comes on. Human reaction time will dictate that you won't actually leave until the green is on. If you wait to see the green light up you'll never get a good reaction time. If for some reason you have amazing reflexes and leave early and red light next run try to avoid staging quite so deep into the beams.

3. Launching: Our cars are very light thus traction is a BIG problem. Unless you are running true bias ply drag slicks you will need to do a roll away "street light" start. This means you will leave the line from idle and feather the accelerator. The goal is to work the gas pedal trying to maintain as much traction as you can until the car is accelerating down the track with full traction. (I can get a repeatable 1.8 60' times on lousy BF T/As doing this.) If you hammer the pedal you'll just spin. This is where the discipline comes in. Everything in your mind and body is going to be telling you to squash that gas pedal because the guy next to you is revving his engine to 4000 rpm and preparing for a hard launch. Don't do it. I tell Cobra guys this all the time. They almost always ignire this and hammer it the first couple of times out until they decide its emarrassing to run 14's and get slaughtered by the stock corvette, near stock mustang, or even the ricer lined up next to them. Note that you'll need to feather or manage the accelerator all the way through first and part way through 2nd. After that it should be pedal to the metal.

4. Driving the 1/4. Once you leave the line you should move your eyes immediately from the lights on the tree to your tach and don't take them off. For the rest of the quarter mile all you have to do is keep the car straight and shift every time your tach hits the correct rpm. You must watch where you are going (obviously) but you *must* also stare at your tach. Do not make the mistake of trying to shift by ear when drag racing. This too takes a lot of self dicipline. This too is something my Cobra buddies aren't always able to do the first time out. I almost always hear them bouncing off the rev limiter in every single gear. Not good for the car and just horrible for your ETs. WHEN YOU DO THIS IT WILL ABSOLUTELY KILL YOUR ET. If you are not sure where to shift then just plan on shifting a few hundred RPMS below your rev limit. Thats it. All there is too it.

In summary:

1. Avoid the water. Short dry burnout
2. Line up. Stare at the lights on the tree
3. Leave off idle when the last yellow lights up
4. Feather the gas - maintain traction
5. Shift your eyes to the tach.
6. Keep the car straight and shift at the correct rpm every time.

Good luck and have fun!

HTH
-Matt