Don't Forget...
In addition to all the necessary gear, such as your safety equipment, you might want to bring along a few other things. If you plan on swapping tires at the track, then an electric impact gun, a torque wrench, a jack, and a pair of jackstands will aid you in changing the tires quickly and efficiently. A small tool set isn't a bad idea either. Bring along a spare set of shoes, as well as a jacket or sweatshirt in case it gets chilly at night. Bring some sun-block to protect yourself from the sun and from what racers call "asphalt tanning," and if you don't want to spend a ton of cash, a cooler with cans of soda and a few sandwiches is an awesome idea. Spare parts such as a supercharger belt, accessory belt, and a spare battery might be items you want to include, too.
It's all About the Numbers
OK, you finished your run, did everything the correct way, and have your timeslip in hand. Unfortunately, to you it's just a bunch of gibberish, as you have no idea what the numbers mean.
Each timeslip reads incremental times for both the left and right lanes. If you were in the right lane, look at the numbers underneath where it says "RIGHT" on the timeslip, and vice versa if you were in the left lane.
The first number you will see is your car number, which is what the track uses to differentiate you from Joe Heck next to you. Underneath that is "RT," or reaction time. Reaction time is vitally important to competitive racers as it measures the time between the green coming on and your car leaving the stage beam. It has no effect on your elapsed time whatsoever, as your front wheel will start the timers when it moves out of the stage beam. Having a good reaction time can help a driver in a slower car win against a driver in a faster car.
The next number is the 60-foot clocking, which measures how long it took for your car to go 60 feet. Your 60-foot time often indicates how well your car is hooking. A 60-foot time in the 2.00-1.90 range is good for street radials. Underneath that is the 330-foot time, and then your half-track, or eighth-mile, e.t. and speed. Next is the 1,000-foot time, and following that is the quarter-mile, or finish line, e.t. and speed.
Making the Move
While running time trials on a Wednesday or Friday night is awesome, eventually you may want the thrill and excitement of competition. With that thrill of victory and agony of defeat comes trying to figure out how to get started into competitive drag racing.
A good way to get your feet wet is to try bracket racing, where you predict how quick your car will go. While we could take this entire issue to explain the intricacies of bracket racing, the key to it all is having a good reaction time and running as close as possible to your prediction, known as your dial-in, without running underneath it or breaking out. For example, say you dial an 11.50. Running an 11.50 would mean you hit the dial dead-on. If you run an 11.52, you are two-hundredths of a second slower than your prediction, giving your opponent the opportunity to beat you. By the same token, if you run an 11.48, you are two-hundredths of a second under your dial, thus you have broken out. If you break out, you will lose, unless your opponent breaks out by a larger margin. Confusing, yes, but bracket racing is an affordable way to get into competitive racing, and its format allows those with slower cars to be competitive against those with faster rides.
If you want to give heads-up racing a try, keep in mind that the higher-echelon classes will ultimately cost you more green to go racing. Sanctions such as FFW and NMRA have low-buck heads-up classes such as Street Stang and Mod Motor. The easiest way to find out which heads-up class is for you is to check out the rule books and see how quick some of the competitors in each respective category are running.