Have a working neutral safety switch!
from time to time someone will start their car in gear while in the staging lanes,this leads to bent sheet metal,I know a guy this happened to,worse yet you squish a guy inbetween cars.

All good advice here, and I think this was mentioned already, but if you bring small children, PLEASE keep them under control at all times. This summer our track announcer recounted an incident the previous week where a racer leaving his pit space backed over a 2yr old, killing her. The racer left his car at the track, walked home and shot himself in the head. I believe the child belonged to a spectator. I'm not against bringing children, but the pits are a dangerous enough place for adults, let alone small children.

Yea I can't believe "Jerks" bring their quads, golf carts, and bikes to the track so that their friends and families will actually come out to the track since they rarely do because of the miles and miles of walking that goes along with a day at the track. Give me a break, slow down in the pits and take a few extra seconds to get back to your pit area. Every car should be able to make a run and get back to the pit area w/o over heating, if not they need a new cooling system or a quad to pull them back to the pit area slowly. The mopar nationals looks like the golf cart nationals and it doesn't bother me a bit, just more people to watch you rumble by.

Nobody wants to hit somebody or be hit by a car. A race car with a full roll cage and the driver strapped in a 5 point harness, neck brace, etc. simply can't see everywhere all the time. People need to be careful, and drivers are people too.

Walking in the pits requires extra care. I think it is impolite for pedestrians to wander around like they are in California (not looking out). Don't go near a running car (they may back out). Don't go more than 5-10 mph in the pits either.

Bobby, this is not the theme of this thread but this topic (Westhampton)is what gets Long Island racers boiling mad! There is a huge population of racers on Long Island that would LOVE to stay home and not fight the traffic on Staten Island & the BQE. It IS a crying shame that we can't have a decent track to run (or at least test) on.

The pits is NOT the place to check converter stall speed, practice your burnout, or see how your car hooks up.

Don't give everyone in your party a mini bike, quad, or other motorized vehicle and allow them to spaz out with it in the pits, and piss off racers.

Re: walking the track, great idea but I don't think anyone would take too kindly to stopping the program to let me walk it. And it isn't like I can walk it when there is a race going on, so when is a person supposed to do that? Get there before anyone else does, and just do it without asking? That would also be frowned on.

Agree 100% on courtesy staging, and right-of-way to the turnouts.

Easy instructions for courtesy staging: Do your burnout, then light the prestage light ASAP, then wait for the next guy to prestage and/or stage.
In other words, whoever finishes their burnout first should prestage (only) and wait for the other guy to pull in before he stages the car.

I have never seen the autostart turned off, ever. It always says it's on, on the timeslip.

I'm guilty of not being 100% ready at the perfect time, and having to take an extra second to cinch the helmet down. I wear glasses, and in the summertime they can fog up something awful when the car isn't moving, so I tend to wait. I figure I am better off taking an extra second rather than trying to drive blind.

Zippy pretty well covers it all.The bottom line is common sense and courtesy in general.Remember, Murphys law is just waiting to happen.
Speaking of common sense or lack of it,one evening a moron in line for tech not 3 feet behind the car in front of him was going wide open throttle against the trans brake.How can any one be THAT stupid ??

Zippy, maybe stay after the race and walk it or show up early. I have never been thrown off a track for walking it and i normally find some debris to pick up. Just a safety concern that most people don't think about at speed. Jon

I know sometimes it is un avoidable... I know that, but at local small time drags/weekend deals. Shut the damn car off for the national anthem. Nothing worse than a couple of reds leaning over a Chivy Nova revving it to 8000 during the anthem. Nascar issues fines.
As far as safety...... nothing like a leaky overflow/fuel cell overflow..

This is really going to hurt some feelings too, but you asked..
"10. If your car runs faster than 13.99 you will need an approved (SNELL 90 or better) helmet."
You have a 12 point roll cage, you bought a simpson 3 layer fire suit, you bought $140 simpson 2 layer gloves, you bought the No fear foil/heat shoes........ Yet your wearing a motocycle helmet... Its Snell 2000, but it is designed to take a different style of a hit and most important to me, is that it is not Nomex interior !!!!! Motorcycle is different.
As for people walking in the pits, if you walk in the pits like a wondering Gomer, then wonder in straight lines and be predictable. Seriously, be predictable.

Great thread! I'm learning lots here.
Zippy, re your glasses fogging, any dive shop or ski shop shoud sell anti-fog for glasses. Good stuff. Come to think... optometrist shops may sell it.

Checking the trans brake for operation in the staging lanes...no sh%t...actually saw a guy in the staging lanes do this at WOT..let go of the button and went into the car ahead of him plus about three others...police had to be called to control the near riot that broke out...incredible...

WHAATTT?? SPEAK UP!! Actually, yes, I already have permanent partial hearing loss due to (1) a bicycle tire inner tube exploding in my right ear (2) Playing in rock bands, and (3) hanging around loud race cars. It sucks. Wear ear protection!

440shorty