Anyone going 30 at our track will get a a$$ chewing from the owner.Not to smart but we have the ricers and they most of the time are not to smart. How old was your son?

SlantCecil, The turn off on that track is to the left that is why they specify for the left lane to turn off first. The main thing is never turn off in front of someone because you don't know how fast they might be going and if they could avoid you if you were to turn in front of them.

At SIR we normally run at night and people who coast thru the pits with engines off, no lights, over that speed are idiots. If you hit someone you will quickly discover that the courts may not be sympathetic about your thinking you have the right of way because you are driving a race vehicle. 5 MPH in pits and return road is the rule here at SIR. That is to allow you to STOP if someone happens to wander into your path. At that speed you can probably not coast all the way to your pit location. Pedestrians in most states, and in AZ, have the right of way, not some smart a$$ in a race car. Further, the pits can be very crowded, and someone backing out of a space with the engine running may/can not hear or see you. Use a lot of caution.

Also the jerks that bring all their "quads, golf carts, and motorized bikes", and then let their kids and family cruze around the pits like it was their own race track. Personally if they outlawed all that stuff it would not bother me. At SIR the rule is that you have to be licensed to ride those things around anyway.

Pulling forward in the lanes with other cars, that depends. Here in Tucson the evening temps can exceed 100 degrees most nights. I DON'T start my engine and pull forward everytime the line moves. It is really no big deal if you don't do that. You are not going further than the front of the lane anyway until you are pulled out to the water box by the lane steward.

Most tracks require at least one rear light on the car after dark.

Staging depends on the track. We don't do courtesy staging here. Some tracks do, you should watch what the locals do. I like the autostart. It gets rid of the guys who like to screw around getting staged. I usually wait for the other lane to at least light the top bulb before staging the rest of the way.

You need to talk to the track owner.Ya those scooters are a pain in the a$$ here to.Like I said the tracks around here will not put up with that.Scares me after its dark and my car has few lights and little kids if not watched will run out into the pit roads.

Best bit of advice I can give, aside from all the other comments, is to make your first time racing at the track on a test and tune night. Usually the atmosphere is a little slower, no great rush to get everyone's time trial in before eliminations, not as many cars typically, and you can embarass yourself in front of fewer people in the stands. Get the bugs out of your car, and you, on test and tune nites. When you are ready and know the drill, try elimination day.

How about, take someone with you that knows their way around a dragway.

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Courtesy staging, should be done at EVERY track.

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Jeff..

I agree with that, its just that unless the track enforces that it just doesn't happen. At some of the meets thats the rule and you are DQd if you fail to do so. I think that if Courtesy staging is in effect, the auto start should be on too.

Bill

Here are some things to consider. First, find out which side of the track the turn-outs are located on, go down and familiarize yourself with them before you do any time shots, laps or race. Make sure that you do not cross over in front of the other car when you conclude the run. Let the car closest to the turnout get out first then follow. Second, please obey 'courtesy staging'and go in or follow to Stage in a timely fashion. Don't hang someone up getting your head screwed on, revving the motor, dry hops,...before the run: Be ready. Finally if you do not have slicks drive around the water box. Water dripped from street tires under a hard hitting car with slicks is never fun to experience after a solid launch. Like the other guys mentioned; go over your Starting Line sequence mentally in the car before you get up there. It will become habit but at first you are nervous and anxious. Be safe and have fun.

How about being carfull when your opening your doors in the staging lanes. Some of the lanes are quite narrow without much room to open your doors all the way. I have a nice little scratch and ding about the size of a quarter in my passenger door from someone in the Sportsman class flinging the door open into mine. Show some respect for others property. Also dont be leaning on someone elses car or hanging your head through the window.........cant tell you howmany times I have had someone leaning against my car when I come back from using the bathroom.

Very good point, my drivers door needs some serious body work, one year the previous owner was at Norwalk, a tech guy opened the door on a windy day to tell him something, the door flies open and wedges itself into another car. Norwalk did nothing to pay for the damage.

I guess this is one of the things that ticks me off that a lot of people do is spin the hell out of street tires in the watter, which gets thrown up in to the wheel wells when you go to the line it drips down leaveing a trail of watter the next person goes through after doing there burn out. so when thay get to the line no hook just spin. this happens most times at the mopar events, old time drags, exct. becaus of the cars running street tires I know that thay are there to have fun so am I I like to kid around in the stageing lanes I dont get mad if I get beat Ill come over and shake your hand if you win and I can find you, but it ant no fun going up in smoke on the line

Every reply to this post is excellent info. I would like to copy and compress it into a document form for the tech archives, for the first timers, if that would be Ok and Tom would agree to that, unless he's already doing that.

As a tech inspector, I would like to add a couple things to some great advice. Have your tech card ready and filled out when you get to tech, we are not the pencil police. Second, walk the race track. i have seen racers go 200 mph and have never walked down the track. Show up early and take a look at the surface, bad spots, grass growing thru, sand. Most important, stay safe and have FUN!!! Jon

Here's one I haven't read here. DO NOT do your burnout with a car sitting on the starting line. Most times the guy in the water box will signal you, but sometimes there won't be anyone there. My son used to run the tree at the local track here on Long Island. The owner was too cheap to hire a water box guy, so my son had to be the policeman. Some guy did a burnout with the two cars still on the line. My son walked over to him and had him shut it off. He respectfully reminded the guy, who was an experienced racer, not to do that anymore. Needless to say, the guy was not apologetic. He resented my 23 year old son telling HIM how to behave. There was also a group of street racers there with a $hit box T-bird with a heavily sprayed BB Chev. in it. They gave him a HARD time when he was tech'ing their car. REALLY threatening! The first time down the track the car got out of shape and crossed over into the other lane. The A-Hole got back on it and continued the run in the wrong lane. When admonished for doing this (not kicked out mind you) he said "WTF are you talking about? I went straight down the track! The owner, as I said, was too cheap to hire any security and wuold never turn anybody's entrance fee down. I wasn't too happy that my son had to put up with this Bull$hit, I can tell you.

OHHHHHHH but now you hitting a soft spot with me........I can attest to the A.. hole owner of that track. which is why I willl NEVER < NEVER go back there,

Basically at this point in time , the track is not sanctioned by anybody and the owner, as ken said just likes to take in money and most of the "clientell" are street racers, that blow up their JUNK all over the track . and of course the owner doesnt have any good way to clean it up SO .....DAY OVER< go home

SORRY I didnt want to get started on that guy . So I drive twice as far to race at MUCH better tracks on the MAINLAND... LOL