I can tell you having bee a .90 racer who had a far amount of success that we absolutely dial off the ET predictions software. I could generally pull into any track I have never run and hit the number first hit off the trailer, did it numerous times and am helping some friends this weekend do the same. The key is having differing weather conditions in the machine, meaning racing at different tracks at with wildly different conditions. We go from the high desert where actual elevations can be 5200' with humidity in the low single digits to sea level condition's where the air is wet and grains are high. The key is analyzing data and digging down in what it is that affects YOUR COMBO the most. And that can very wildly from car to car. I just straightened someones info out this weekend and he has gone from not finding the number to running dead on last night. However for what most here do bracket racing at their home track on a one day event it is much simpler than trying to run an event over 5 days with what has been different weather every day on a stop. For local stuff often a handheld or even a Kestrel with just weather conditions will yield enough info to accurately dial the car.

FWIW I have not found anything more challenging in drag racing than learning to interpret weather conditions over a multiple day race with a stop on the car. We rarely race on a day we had a time run in. In S/ST your first round is often first thing in the morning on race day with zero info from that day and weather that can be totally different than anything you have seen all weekend. If you cannot rely on a weather station, prediction software and a knowledge of what affects your combo you will be LOST. Headed out to the track now to run second round first thing in the am with completely different weather than we have run in this weekend.