What do you guys that race regularly consider a good light?

Talking about a Sportsman tree here.

Where do you consistently try to be?

I played with the online one quite a bit over the last few months and if I try to get my average below .06 in 10 tries I start going red.

Interestingly enough, .06 was about where I averaged this weekend racing with a couple of reds.

Anything with a zero or 1 next to the 5......

.020 or better off the bottom bulb.

You say sportsman tree, I'm assuming that is a full tree? If I am .020 or better, I'm happy. But, I've won a lot of rounds being .060 on the tree, -.001 red, not so many.
I think that you are on the right path though. You MUST be consistant (what ever it is, .05, .06, .09 whatever), before you can work on being better.
And just because you average a .020 or better, doesn't mean you going to win. At Bristol one weekend this season (sat & Sun), the worst light I had was a .040 (had two of them, both in time trials, and .039 in elim), had a bunch of .01X and a couple of .00X to boot. All I had to show for it Sunday on afternoon was a empty fuel jug. Also, a few years ago, I won a Super Pro race, with my best light was a.03x, and that was in the finals. I got away with a .05 & a .07, when the dragsters beside me had .07 & .09 respectively. But the car was dead on my dial in with a .004 or .002 six of the seven rounds that day. Got lucky!

Brian

Im with this BUT it will also be whether a .400 or .500 tree . Now it seems most of you guys run a .500 tree . We run .400 full tree , occassionaly .400 pro tree DYO for fun . If i can keep under 0.040 i am happy if 0.030 or under its great . I run bottom bulb no box and that also changes stuff up . And knowing your car can help a soft light , holding/consistant .

Tex

.02x will usually get you to the next round if the car is close. But not every time. Stay in that area and you will find the winners circle more often than most.
Doug

A good light? .01X or better. A great light? .000X. However none of those will guarantee a win if the car is off the dial. I've lost with a .004 light and .006 off the dial. I've also won with a .168 light and shut the car off at 1000'. You have to be able to race the finish line as well as the starting line. Most times the finish line is more important than the starting line. I kept meticulous records on engine temp, oil pressure and weather and was usually able to dial my car to within .006. Of course that didn't happen overnight either. I also prefer to be the faster car as you have the whole race in front of you so I built my cars to run at the bottom of the class and slow it down if necessary.

For "box" racing .010 or better. Footbrake, .020 or better. BUT some of the hotshots are cosistantly better by a bunch!

The box class by me is brutal. If you are not cutting '0' lights, you are done......I am a foot braker, and when my brakes would not hold for the last race at Lancaster, I switched to the T-brake. I think I am more consistent off the T-brake than the foot brake. My reaction times were over all better.

anything better then the guy in the next lane........

I ran a buddy of mine earlier this year. I was .026 and was dead late. He went .006. No box.

Thats it in a nutshell. I got beat last year going trip zip on the tree on a points night at US131
Brokeout by 2 thou racing a very fast bike I wasnt going to lift against. He was 012
Got a 9 thou package put on me one night this year. It happens
But i have had 5-6 round nights footbraking against nobox points guys with brakes and had only a couple lights 20 or better and gotten a paycheck.
Big thing is... you have to be green, and have a car that runs the number that you trust.. If you can do that, it forces the guy In the other lane to make decisions at the finish line. Sometimes they make bad decisions.

Best light for me is always the win light....

I have always tried to set up for a .010 bulb no matter if I am footbraking or button racing. The button racing I am starting to put myself in the mid .00 range lately. You start giving the guy in the other lane too much, and they are good at driving the stripe, they will eat you alive.

Depends. You won't win a race with .020 lights all day in a dot 90 class. Or a serious bracket race. Maybe a few early rounds.

Maybe some of the other classes I won't name so I don't get accused of talking bad about them.

Practice to be consistent. Get a practice tree. Set it up to use it while in your car with the switches you will use. Or a foot switch if foot braking. Look the same place every time. Try different things. If you can stay within .015 - .020, range, then you can adjust the car to you.

A win light never has to be pretty, it just has to turn on.

I run .500 full tree bracket racing and .500 pro tree index racing, I really like the pro tree, I would say 020 or better on either … foot braking. I've lost with better and Won with worse.

Quote of the year right there!

Go to YouTube, and watch the live stream from the Memphis million. Lots of everything.

im happy when its not red.

I mainly delay box race. I try to set up for a .007 - .009. Hopefully if I miss it I am better than .020 and if I am pumped up and crush it I am low .00. However my plan does occasionally not work out exactly as hoped!!!!!! LOL

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