About Staging on the Track for NHRA Racing

Video Transcript

"TINA STULL: Hi, I'm Tina Stull and I drive the Top Dragster for Interstate Batteries. On behalf of Expert Village, today, we're going to talk about the basics of racing. Okay. So you're finally ready to go do your first qualifying pass. Once you're all suited in, and we went through that on another segment, you're going to go ahead watch the official. He'll have you pull up and you just wait your turn. There's usually be a car that's actually ready to go down the track. There will be one sitting in the water box waiting for their turn and then you'll be held back at the line. If you just watch the official, he'll let you know when it's your turn to go through the water box. Now, I'm talking specifically about Super Comp Top Dragster at this point because the burn-out procedure is very different for all different cars. For the rest, [SOUNDS LIKE] will well through the water box and come just to the outside of the--on the other side where our tires are still a bit wet but we're up on dry pavement. You'll watch the official and he'll give you the command to roll or to do your burn-out. And for my car, we have a limiter switch. So you hold the limiter switch down. You transfer from the break all the way down to the gas and it's usually about, I would say, a second and a half. I just go a thousand one, a thousand two, come off of the throttle. You let go of the limiter switch and you let it roll out and come to a stop. At that point, I put it in neutral and let--give it a quick jab to the throttle just to clear the engine out then you'll hold down--you have to do a release. All gears are different. But mine, you'll have a lock-up button. You hit that. You put it into reverse and you back up. When you're backing up, you're trying to center the back wheels of your tire right there in the groove, and at the very last moment, you worry about the front tires. It's really important to make sure that the rear end of the car is where you want it and not be so concerned about the front end. You can correct really quickly the front end of the car but it takes 10 feet pulling forward to correct more than four inches with your back tires. At that point, you're going to put it down into low gear and you're going to start to walk your way up to the staging lights. It doesn't matter who really stages first but you need to beat in a timely manner 'cause there are timers on it that if you make the other person wait too long then you can get timed out. They set their top bulb, you set your top bulb and you're going to slowly inch in to setting your second bulb. It's very important that you stage as shallow as you can. If you're real too far forward, you can red light and it has an effect on your--not only your reaction time but also on your elapsed time. And so it's important that whatever style you do, some people like to roll, some people like to bump, but that you do it consistently. So once you've both bumped in, you're going to put your transbrake button on and when you see those lights flash, you let go and go for a ride."