I believe it's personal prefrence. I've been both the slow car and the fast car. I don't mind looking over my shoulder. I'm used to it. Being the fast car is nice but it's hard to be in some divsions. 10.90 @ 135 is perfect to me.

Dustyhof,
I've raced S/ST for 10 years, over 40 NHRA Divisionals, and 12 or so Nationals. I'm not one of the best, but I know all the best racers, and I know what it takes to win.

The car you use to compete in the class is not important. Knowing how to use the car you have in the class..that's the key!!!

Truthfully, a guy in a 10.80-120 all out car, who's using weight to adjust his ET, and is running at his home town track that he knows well...That guy scares the heck out of the 142+ crowd!!!

The reason Big MPH is an advantage, is that with all the variables that come with trying to hit a set index when you're only getting 2 runs a day, it ends up being a top-end game of trying to take the stripe or give it up. The guy with the most MPH ultimately gets to make the Decision, and impose his will on the other racer. Problem with that is, is the guy with the big MPH smart enough to make the right decision, and is he good enough to execute the manuever once he makes the decision??? Sometimes ignorance is bliss!!!


Now let's get to the nuts and bolts of the situation:

If your car runs between 119-124 (10.90-10.60) it's really not fast enough to consistantly use an air or electric t-stop, so you need a manual stop, and weight.

If your car runs between 124-135 (10.60-9.90) you can run a single action air linkage style stop, or electric under carb stop, and be extremely successfull.

If your car runs between 135-145 (9.90-9.00) First, you have to have a chassis cert, neck collar, gloves, full suit, engine diaper. Then you need a dual action air cylinder linkage style stop, with adjustable bleeders, or an adjustable air under carb stop. The single action slam closed, slam open stuff won't work if you plan to get close to the number.

If your car runs between 145-168 (9.00-8.00) You need everything the above group needed, PLUS, usually dual stops, AND, the innate ability to know to lift 3,4,5, or 6 car lengths BEFORE you catch your opponent!!!

I've help set-up, and dial-in just about every combo there is, and trust me they are all different. If I can help you get a few legs up on the learning curve, I'd be glad to.

Good info MoparBilly!

I have a 10.50 car mechanical stopped ( and on DOT tires)to run 11.50s in another class. I am having a blast its nice being the faster car. When I ran the other class ( Pro 9.00 to 15.99) I was in the middle of the pack. My buddy runs a big Chevy Biscayne in Pro it runs mid 15s, the 9 second cars hate him,they can`t judge him at the stripe.

I did it for a number of years, tried a few different ways to run .90 with a .60 car. The most success I had was when I shifted into 3rd, I watched the tach and when it got close to 5500, I slowly lifted my foot to hold it there through the traps. The MPH would usually be 112-116.

My friend Frank Luckey won several NHRA events doing something similar, he would set his shift light around 5000, when the light came on in 2nd gear (powerglide), he would take his foot completely off the throttle and coast across at around 100 MPH. He had to quit doing that when some officials said that other racers were complaining of cheating.

These techniques probably sound goofy, but they go to show that you don't need to run big MPH if you know and trust your car, and practice, practice, practice.

One last comment, I went back to brackets for the reasons stated above by Bigdad, a whole weekend used for one shot at the tree on Sunday started to get ridiculous. I always liked the format, though.