Joel, that's the NHRA Kindergarten explanation, the fact they lumped Comp in with the Super classes throws away any shred of validity that statement may have had.



Now, let's try to work through all of Monte's posts on this thread. Is he asking baiting, rhetorical questions? He denied that accusation, so I'll take it at face value that that he wants an answer to each time he used a question mark.

First, the whole "You cut a better light and run the number, you win doesn't matter what they do" statement. Another kindergarten, "Let me dumb this down" explanation that while technically irrefutable, doesn't even begin to explain the strategy of bracket or index racing.

So, apparently, since I'm not being baited...I'll break this down into smaller bites.

"Cut A Better Light"
Sounds simple enough, but for your light to be "better" than your opponent, we must take into account this simple fact: "What is The opponents light?" Since this plays prominently into Monte's equation for winning, this means we can completely dismiss the part of his statement which says: "It Doesn't Matter What They Do"!! Sorry Monte, it absolutely matters!

If you can consistently cut .020-.040 lights foot braking, and your opponents in the Sportsman Class are throwing .080-.120 lights at you, you're a big deal, and might win a track championship! If you take those same lights and go big bucks racing against pipe racks with electronics that can consistently go .005-.015 you are going to donate your entry fee and your buy back money.

Another part of the equation is the red light penalty, it's not like you just go up there and shoot for .005 lights every time, because the red light ends your race. Many times a racer will just try harder to avoid the red than to kill the tree, figuring they can race the stripe even if they give up a little on the tree.

Monte asked, "Do the electronics turn the button loose for you?"

Yes! Absolutely YES! That is the delay box's main function. As I stated earlier, electronics make an average racer a good racer, I know this to be fact because I'm an average racer (If you looked at my stats over the last twenty years, that probably being kind). Lucky for me, drag racing is like sex: you don't have to be good at it to enjoy doing it.

My delay box has a practice tree function. When I'm three sets of cars back or so from racing, I take 3-5 hits on the practice tree and record those numbers, then compare them with the earlier pre-run hits from my time runs or earlier elimination runs. This tells me, the great crew chief exactly where me, the crappy driver is mentally, emotionally, biologically, and I can adjust the delay box to accurately PREDICT whether he is going to be slow or fast on reacting to the tree.
EXAMPLES
I found that my jumpy, emotionally charged driver was almost always .020 quicker on the tree in first rounds of divisional or National events, so once the crew chief started adding that much to the delay in those situations, the red lights went away.
Come around the corner and realize the sun is making it difficult to see the tree? You can pull delay out between the burnout box and the tree. What are you going to do in a no-box car? Take a bump, up the launch rpm? No way that can be as accurate.
Another trick the crew chief learned was this: If the driver directly in front of my driver went red, my stupid driver gets tentative on the tree, and is late. So, if I immediately throw .005 extra in the delay box and say "There, that's your red light protection", it would calm him down and he could hit the tree as previously predicted.

I've got so much more to write on this subject, but I've got to go to work...I'll leave you with this:

If you like Monte's "Cut a better light and run the number" statement, here's one about electronics racing, "If the crew chief puts the right numbers in the delay box and throttle stop, every run will be a perfect pass".