This might be a dumb question and it's probably been asked before, but I'm new to drag racing so please bare with me.

My engine has a mechanical fuel and water pump, so all I really need electricity for is the starter, ignition, the gauge lights and a tail marker light. Do you think I should even run with an alternator, or can I save weight and drag and instead simply recharge the battery in the pits? How long will an average battery last powering the ignition and the few small lights I mentioned, or is there a battery you'd recommend?

Also, if I ditch the alternator does anyone know which short belt I can use to drive just the waterpump? Or what did they do to keep a longer belt properly tensioned?

Thanks for the input.

Keep the alt... less stuff you have to worry about the better in my book.. and if your track likes you to round robin in late rounds it will make it hard.. I need to buy a new alt for my car soon. i have been looking at mancinis set-up with a denso alt and brackets.

First of all no one can tell you what belt to use if you don't tell us what the engine is etc.

Secondly I never recommend removing the alternator. The miniscule drag and weight savings is not worth the hassle of charging the battery all the time. Maybe you forget to plug it in and now your battery is dead and you've just lost a round a racing. Tsk, tsk.

If your running one standard automotive battery and a race type ignition keep the alternator on the car If your running two really good deep cylcle marine and RV batterys try running it with the alternator hooked up and then try running it the rest of the day with the alternator disconnected and see what it does, do charge it between rounds as long as you can, if you can also If it doesn't slow down or get hard to start make your decesion then

If your a bracket racer keep the alt on it... its
much nicer to get back to the pits and sit down and
take a break then running around setting up the gen
and charger.. I use to turn my alt off on my car and
seen ZERO difference(the belt was still on it)and if
you get to round robin a lot of times they only give
you a bit of cool down time in the lanes so that would
mean you have to get that stuff to the lanes... no
thanks.. I'll keep the alt

Thanks for the input guys. Nuthin' beats learning from the experience of others!