The drag strip, and timing lights...



In the following posts I will do my best to explain a typical drag racing track and the lighting scheme for the new guys trying to learn how to drag race.



The folowing picture illustrates the drag racing light also known as the "Tree"

The tree is broken down into all the lights you see.

The "Pre Stage" light



This light comes on as you drive forward to the starting line. when the prestage light is lit, you know your tires have crossed the first set of "beams" . The beams are light sensitve photocells that are placed approximately 12 inces apart. When you approach the starting line and the prestage light comes on, move slowly forward until you see the "Staged" light

The "Staged" light



This light activates when your tires acctivate the second photocell. This is the time you need to get ready, when this light is activated you are telling the track official you are ready to race. You need to keep both the staging and pre stage lights lit as shown below. When your opponent and you both have the staged lights lit the track official will begin the tree countdown timer.



One thing you need to know is a term known as "Deep staging" this means you have driven far enough forward into the lights that the pre stage light goes off and only the Staged light is lit. Most tracks will not allow the lower classes to use this lanching method. Check with your track for the rules of the event you are attending for the class you are racing in (usually given to you when you register to race)

Once the track official begins the countdown timer the track computer will begin counting down to light the countdown lights. These lights are designed to light at .500 seconds apart from each other. Your main focus is the last yellow light on the tree, the final countdown light. When you see this light come on, launch. If you wait until the green light you will already be at a loss in your launch. The reason for this is that the human body needs time to react to the things it is doing. By the time you see the light and start to release your clutch to launch the green light is already lighting and your reaction time is begining to count against you. Look at it this way, there is .500 seconds between the lights, by the time you see the yellow and begin reacting, the green will be lit. From the moment the green light is lit and your tires move away from the beams is what is called your reaction time. A perfect reaction time is .500 of a second, what this means is that from the time the third yellow lit, till the tim your tires start to cross the starting line was .500 of a second. You left the line exactly at the moment the green light came on. On your first attempts do not be surprised to see 1.04 or higher as you get used to launching this way.

The dreaded Red light https://www.nopistons.com/forums/pub...DIR#>/ohmy.png



This occours when you move accross the beams during the countdown timer phase prior to the green light being lit. This results in a disqualification, and you will lose the race you are running. One thing I have noticed on guys that are red lighting is that they are anticpating the yellow light coming on instead of waiting until it lights to react. Remember you launch on the third yellow, do not allow the car to roll at all during the staged or countdown phase.

The track layout...



This is an overhead view of a typical 1/4 mile track. here you can see the layout of all the timing devices and their locations on the track.



The burnout box, usually located about 15 ft behind the lights, this is where you make the tires sticky if you are running a drag radial or slicks. If you are running regular street tires drive around the wet area in the burnout box and do not burnout your tires long, only a few revolutions are required to clean of any debris from the staging lanes. Over heating of a regular street tire will usually cause oils in the tires compund to come to the surface and create less traction.



The Rollout area, this is where the two staging photocells are located. They are the cells that light the pre stage and staged lights. just behind these cells on the burnout box side in the center of the track is the official.



The 60 foot mark, and timer. This is one of the first things you will look at on your time slip to get an idea of your traction, the higher the number the less traction you have, on a typical Street driven car with street tires expect a 2.0 - 2.5 second range, with drag radials such as Nitto or BFG Drags these numbers can be lowered.



The 660 foot timer. This is where you are at half track. Some dragstrips will give you this number, and speed at this point.



The MPH timer this cell is located 66 feet from the finish line, and takes the time traveled from this point to the finish line to calculate your final speed.



The finish line, this is where the final time is calculated from the time your tires rolled accros the rollout beams until the end of the track. The timing does not begin until you cross the beams at the beginning of the track.

very good information. newbies always get confused with the pre-stage and staging. sometimes they deep stage and sometimes they pre-stage but dont stage and creates a mess.

What's "deep staging"?

Also if you sit farther back in the box does that help your ET/60FT because you get a mill to go before triggering light?(At the cost of R/T of course.)

That about sums it up. Well done. My worst launch was when i put it in third gear instead of first. The thing I most concentrate is trying not to wheel spin in second, sometimes I get too excited going from first to second and the wheels start to spin like crazy.

I posted general information, Some people that have never been to the dragstrip may not know these things. I wanted to give everyone the best information i could. One thing I think I could have added is the fact when you are in the pre stage area, this is where you want to do all the final checks. Make sure the car is in the correct gear, make sure all your gauges are reading, RPM's @ launch are what you want etc etc. I prefer to Stage first, Some tracks will ask you not to stage until both drivers have pre staged. This is to eliminate the games some driver will play on the line. Staging first gives you an extra second or two to get your setup right to launch. Understand you will not become the next John Force reading this, but you will also not look like Bozo the clown coming up to the light. Know your rules prior to competing, you may find you have a more enjoyable time at the track.

Pinned - excellent write up.

I know also alot of really nice tracks during events require you to courtesy stage. That is when you and your enemy must be at pre stage before entering staged.

I believe at an actual event once the first car rolls from prestage to fully staged the other car has a set amount of time to stage or he fouls out.



That is why it is not cool to stage when the other car has not even pre-staged. He will have to rush to the line and it will piss him off. Its sort of like playing dirty.

I did not mention this little tidbit in my tips because it varies from track to track, you need to attend the drivers meeting or get the local track rulebook and read it prior to lining up. These tips were for general reading, and are basically the same at all tracks. If you have a specific question you need to ask the track officials in the staging lanes, or during your tech inspection.

How to find your local track if you don't already know where it is.....





http://chasinracin.com/track-locator/

Just an Update on the lights...



NHRA implemented two significant changes on the starting line for national events. First, the numerical value of a driver's reaction time will be modified. The modification simplifies the process of understanding a driver's reaction time to activation of the green lights on the Christmas Tree. Previously, a perfect reaction time for all Professional and some Sportsman drivers was .400-second. For the remaining Sportsman competitors, a .500-second light was considered perfect Now, the timing system will be modified to display a perfect reaction time as .000 for all categories. This change applies only to NHRA's 23 national events.



On the traditional Pro Christmas Tree, a .399 light or quicker is considered an early start, activating the red light, which results in disqualification. Under the new system, a 399 will be displayed as -.001, a .398 as -.002, and so on. Anything from a perfect reaction time of .000 and above will be a legal start The new timing system in no way affects any driver, vehicle setup, or other significant aspect of competition on the dragstrip.



Also, as previously reported, NHRA will implement the use of LED amber lights on the Christmas Tree starting system, replacing the traditional yet damage-prone incandescent lights.



"The biggest advantage is that the vibration, especially that caused by the Top Fuel and Funny Car classes, won't cause the LED bulbs to burn out like it will an incandescent," said NHRA Senior Vice President-Racing Operations Graham Light. "Amber bulb failures, especially during full Tree countdowns in the Sportsman classes, lead to reruns and other problems. We are trying to avoid that problem as well as step up our technology.



"We tested the new bulbs without problem during preseason testing in Tucson," added Light. "Racers who attend the Winternationals and subsequent events are advised that the LED lights illuminate quicker, by about three-hundredths of a second, than the incandescent lights."





Anthony

I posted this because I quizzed about 10 of my friends who drag race and asked what is a perfect reaction time, 9/10 responded .500 seconds. There is some confusion about this. Most track nowadays list a perfect reaction time as .000 We race at englishtown and etown is one of the track that list a perfect reaction time of .000



Any track that has changed their bulbs from incandescent to LEDs will reflect the new perfect reaction time of .000



Anthony

whys the track finder say englishtown has a street course? i mean its been there for years but they dont use it

whats the three yellow , green verses the one yellow then green?

We have thet 000.00 but I must admit I wouldnt know if it has any correlation to the NHRA stuff.