After not racing for a few years my first light was a .019 and my second and last(got the boot)was .017 and was told that was pretty damn good.......

I race box, Consistency is what I look for. I've had several good ones lately even a .0000. It looks great but if you don't duplicate fairly close you'll be out. Two weeks ago I had a .001 in the first round and won but second round I was about a .025 and was sent packing. I do believe using a good practice tree helps. I also have a full size one. I also practice staging first or last. Nothing beats seat time though.

I try to be .020 or better footbraking and .010 or better box racing. Watching online racing at some events it's all really WHO you run and WHAT round you run them. I've really tried for years to be consistent on the tree. If I'm a .020 pack or better and get beat its a good race, but it does annoy me when a competitor pulls a .00x out and than the next run they are .1xx. But that's part of it.

if you want to look at some results from the world foot brake challenge
http://dragstory.com/forum/index.php/topic,5277.0.html

Wow, that's a nice cross section. Thanks!

I'm happy with 0.02x or better. I race Pro mainly and Sportsman on occasion.

i haven't ran in years, so IF i get anything going before i croak, i got a LOT of catching up to do !
i'll have to rely on the above to get to the next round !

It's good that your practice online is close to what your RT's are at the track. Personally I prefer a practice tree that has an adjustable rollout so it can be fine-tuned to the car & track. But whatever RT's you get, it's important to first get as consistent as you can be. Then you can make mechanical changes to the car to improve the RT's. Possibly over time, you can improve your physical reactions, but it's difficult to try and vary them. Don't expect any big changes, but the little things do add up.

Things that help RT's:

* Shorter front tires.
* More air pressure in the front tires. (Be reasonable & safe.)
* A little more air pressure in the rear tires. But it is important to maintain a full width footprint for consistent traction. Wider rime can allow higher pressures while maintaining a full footprint. (i.e.: 9" slicks on 10" rims.)
* Radial slicks tend to react better than bias ply slicks. But they are more sensitive to track conditions and don't usually work well with a stick.
* Frame connector & 6-8 pt. roll bars stiffen the chassis and won't waste motion from twisting/bowing.
* Poly or solid motor mounts and front spring eyes. Softer rubber wastes time and motion by compressing. (DO NOT run a solid trans mount.)
* Front end alignment to minimize any stagger that may exist in your front suspension/tires.
* Rules require 2 throttle return springs. Safety first, but make sure they are not too strong.
* Stage at a higher RPM, or stage at a clean idle and then bring up the rpm's afterwards. But you gotta be quick so you don't get caught with the tree coming down. Also gotta do the rpm consistently. Good brake maintenance can help here.
* Carb tuning with the accelerator pump squirters and pump cams/adjustments can improve throttle response and 60' times along with RT's.

* Gears, shock tuning, converter and other things can also have an influence. Each car is different so results may vary.

* Rollout and subsequent RT's can vary from track-to-track, so try to test at the same one.

Be double 0 , go double o .. around here .. much more than that , 1st round lounge .

These days Be00 Take00 is what it takes alot of the times to win. When I ran S/ST I tried to stay with total packs in the teens or low 20's. It wins some rounds for sure but also have alot of total packages under .10 when they were needed and laid some eggs for sure and managed to get win lights occasionally that way too.


This is an old video but the premise remains.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SFq5c780kRg&feature=emb_title

When I was at the $10K race the other day the guy pitted next to me was .010 and dead-on with a 9 and went to the buyback window first round. His opponent was .0001 and dead-on with a 1. Rough crowd.

I like to see .010 or better if I can on my reaction times
EDITED: I ran my S/P car last weekend in Yakima, WA at their Halloween year end bracket bash, 1st time trial, we were allowed 2 TT. only on Saturday, was a .020 , 2nd was .002
1st round five hours later was a .060 light and I broke out by .0003 running a faster dragster Maybe I was a little to careful to not red light subconsciously
We where allowed only one TT on Sunday at 9:52 AM which was a .034 with a 1.252 60 ft. times. My car had a best of 1.244 with a worst 60 ft. time of 1.282.
The weather their was not bad or great, from 2500 Ft density altitude of on the first run Saturday morning to a worst of 3381 Ft. on Sunday mornings TT but the track had a lot of grip
First round Sunday afternoon was at 2:16 PM with a -467 due to me not putting a N on my car for no cross talk I ended up leaving on my opponents light and wonder what had happen until later that night when I was at home when I finally figure out what I had done wrong.
I have never used cross talk and I forgot to ask them up there if they had it and where using it or not, stupid me
I have been leaving at a idle, 1200 to 1400 RPM, and I'm seeing a lot of variances(from 5200 to 5700 RPM) in the flash stall when I play the run back on my box, I am going to change that next year to see if that will help stabilize the flash stall or not

Ya, those big money races bring some heavy hitters. I had a 9-pack to a 12- pack against one of the Pennington boys last year at Vegas Fling race, and I burped it before the finish line. We both ran our numbers with a 1. One of my most memorable races!
That being said, it took me almost 4 years of seat time and making the car repeatable before I started to win races. I switched to a pipe car 2 years ago, but it works very well, so the winning started much sooner. I honestly haven’t had much luck with the practice tree, nothing beats live action Jim