hey guys, tomorrow i'm planning on heading down to the track afterwork and I'll be running my camaro for the first time ever! In fact, it will be my first time running anything at the track. I was hoping that some of you would be kind enough to pass along a few tips for launching the car and what not.

First of all...I don't have a helmet, but I heard I can rent one...correct?

now onto the car:
Like my sig says, it's a '96Z with a 383. It's got the spec stage 3 clutch with a light weight flywheel. B&M Ripper shifter, stock rear end with stock gears. I'll be running on regular street tires, 17" with 275's all around. I have Eibach springs, bilstein shocks, larger dia anti-sways front and rear, lower control arms and adj panhard rod. I know it's not ideal for drag racing, but it handles nice, i'm just going to the track for fun. Sadly i'm probably going to end up embarassing myself pretty badly...lol

But I know I should avoid the water box. What rpm should I launch at? Should I just let the clutch out all the way at once? When should I attempt to take off...right after the last yellow light turns off, slightly before, or right when the last yellow turns on? Thanks for your help guys!

 

You are definately gonna need a helmet with a 383 stroker motor...I believe most tracks its 13.99 and faster and they require a helmet...as far as being able to rent one, im not too sure...the 3 tracks I have been to didn't have helmets for rent or to borrow as far as I know. And personally I wouldn't wanna wear a helmet that a bunch of other people have worn. I got a helmet on ebay for like 55 bucks and its comfortable and doesn't look too bad.

As far as launching I wouldn't know cause I drive an automatic. When you line up just follow what they tell you to do....try and drive around the waterbox and back into it if you plan on doing a burnout. They will usually hand signal you what to do and usually they will hold thier hands up and then let them down when its safe to do your burnout. You will be nervous as hell when you first line up, but just try and stay calm... Watch the lights when you are lining up, their are 2 staging bulbs that tell you when you are lined up, when they are both lit get ready to roll (bring up your rpms a little to whatever your gonna launch at) Then watch the lights and when the last yellow (before the green) lights up then you take off. I had horrible reaction times my first few times at the track, cause I was pretty much waiting on the green light (which is too late) But, your et has nothing to do with your reaction time, so if you don't care much about your reaction then just focus on getting a good launch and take off whenever your ready (don't wait too long though)

 

I have an automatic also so I have no suggestions as to how to launch. I'd say launch like you were leaving aggressivly after a traffic lights turns green.

Call the track you're going to and ask if they have helmet rentals. Some do but not all. You can go and pick up an open face Snell 2000 or maybe even a Snell 2005 rated helmet from any motorcycle shop for cheap.

As for tips

Drive to the inside of the water box if possible. Not all tracks are set up to allow this. They sweep all the dirt and rubber to the outside so you want to avoid that. With street tires, you want to stay out of the water. Back up to the water box but stay out of the water. Do a short dry hop burnout to clean them off. Street tires are not designed to heat up so trying to do a smoky burnout just wears the tires down and makes them slippery.

Once both cars are ready to stage, completly ignore who or what's beside you. Courtesy staging should always be done. One car will move in to turn on the prestage light then the other car moves in. Once both prestage lights are on, both cars roll up to turn on the stage lights. When both cars are staged there's a brief pause then the tree will start to come down. When you see the last yellow light come on, go. How you time it is up to you but I just stare at that last yellow and ignore the other lights. Humans are terrible timing devices. By the time you and the car react, the green light will be on.

Remember, ignore the other car. It doesn't matter what they do. Run your own race. When the light turns green, you can sit on the start line for 10 seconds and the timer doesn't start until you start to move. In a bracket race, this will lose the race though. Reaction time doesn't mean anything to the ET but can win or lose a bracket race.

Ask what side the turnoff is on. If it's on the left side then the left lane has priority. That means if you're in the right lane and you're faster to the finish, don't drive into the other lane to get off the track until your opponent has cleared the track. You never know if he wants to go right down to the end or not on tracks that have multiple exits.

 

While this is a good tip, it's not necessary. You can go through the water box on street tires, if you do a proper burnout you won't drag water with you despite all the claims you see. When I run at Cordova, you have to make like a 25º turn from the staging lanes to the burnout box. So turning even more seemed like a waste to me, so I just started going through the water on street tires. I smoked 'em off decent, enough to see smoke rolling in my mirrors then I rolled out about 10-20' smokin' em. Worked great and I always had consistant 60's. All depends on track prep I guess too. I guess if it's really easy to go around the burnout box, then do it. If it seems like a pain in the ***, just go through. Going through the water won't make your car melt.

Being courteous is a good thing. The turnoff thing is tricky sometimes. Because you can be running an 18 second civic and you're gonna get bored off your *** waiting for him to catch up. In an instance like this, just go ahead and cutover. He seriously isn't gonna whack ya. It's more of a common sense thing, just be sure to check behind you.

Stephen, don't take it personal that I nitpicked your tips. Just giving my p.o.v. on it.

As for my tips, sit around and watch people run. Knowing what's gonna happen makes it much easier for you. When you get there and tech in and such, just park your car and wander the facilities. Walk through the staging lanes and get a feel of where to go when you feel like running. Go stand up at the starting line. Get a grasp to where the beams are(start line). Don't be one of those schmucks that go up to the tree to stage or stage with your rears. Which, on the staging part as already explained. There are two sets of bulbs that tell when you're staged. If you go too far and the top set of lights turn off but the 2nd set is still on....you're OK. You don't need to back up. This is simply called deep staging(this is a big factor in bracket racing since it "makes" your car react faster, which means you can't exactly take off on the 3rd yellow unless your car is really slow). The reason I say don't back up is because you being new to this you are liable to leave your car in reverse. I've seen it happen several times, from the same guy in fact.

Check out where the food stands and such are at. Being excited, you'll stay for a couple hours I'm sure. Also being nervous and excited always seemed to make me hungry, I'm sure it's probably the same for everyone. Knowing where food is, is vital.

Return road, just find out what side it's on and don't forget to hit the brakes.

Make sure you watch your speed in the pits. Nothing makes you look more like an ******* than speeding through the pits when there are tons of people and more importantly children walking around. Don't drive around blipping the throttle like a hardass, just makes you look like a fool to everyone.

Bring a towel. You'll probably want to wipe the numbers off your car when you leave. Also bring a tire pressure guage. You're gonna wanna play with air pressure (don't go below 22psi on street tires, it'll just make traction worse).

Also, if by some chance you break while going down the track, IMMEDIATELY pull over to the side. This is crucial. Nothing is more annoying at the track than having some guy with a blown coolant line or something similar just keeps chugging down the track spraying crap all over. Makes the clean up unnecessarily long. I hope you don't break, just saying in the event that you could. It's definitely possible.

As for your launching, I drive an auto as well. Just go on an empty backroad and practice some. See where it hooks the best. Although on street tires and especially with a 383, expect tire spin.

I can't really think of anymore and this is probably the longest reply I've done in about 6 months.

Oh, don't rent a damn helmet, BUY ONE. They're under $100.

 

That's just common sense. If you're in a heads up pass like during T&T or an open track then yes if you crossed the finish line in 12 seconds and your opponent did it in 18 seconds then there's lots of time to cut over safely. In a bracket race though, you'll both be crossing the finish line at the same time so you just need to be aware of where your opponent is after you cross the finish line before cutting across the lane to the exit.

 

I did say that's common sense. Bringing up bracket racing is a good thing, but this being his first time out in the car, I think it'll be awhile before he wants to try bracket racing. He'll definitely hafta build up his confidence in the car and his skills to even try it. JMO.

 

Bring a big truck, and a trailer. You will be trailering your car home (snapped rearend) because w/ just a stock 350 w/ a cam and headers I snapped mine launching at 2700rpms
have fun and be sure to get it on camera so we can all see!

 

what's up guys...i have 2 vids they unfortunately i didn't have my digital camcorder so these vids were taken with my digital camera. I did pretty badly...lol, but it was fun.
I'll dig up the time sheets later and post the details. But i definately need to practice launching. Anyways...my front tires need to be replaced so and since my rears are actually still decient, i was thinking about getting 2 nittos for the rear and putting the ones I have on the rear now up front. Which ones were the best for the track and street? the NT 555R Drag Radial or the NT 555 Extreme Performance?? I couldn't remember. This car doesn't see the rain that offten...so i think I can get hte more track oriented one...

 

Get the Nitto drag radial tire for the rears they will last pretty long on the street from what I hear. I have bfg drag radials for my rear tires and they dont last long at all when street driving everyday like I do....but now I have a set of Mickey Thompson drag radials that I use solely for the track and they hook up awesome! Like was said earlier though, be very careful, cause Traction + lotsa power + m6 + 10 bolt rearend= Boom! Hehe, better save up for a 12 bolt or 9 inch rearend if you plan on launching hard. Auto's aren't so hard on the rearends cause you can preload the drivetrain, but they still blow even then many times.

 

yea i've read a ton about the stock rear end blowing..which is why I didn't buy drag radials or slicks. I also kept my tire pressure at whatever it was for driving on the street. But I did drop the clutch at 4k for the burn outs and 3500k for launching. I was planning on getting the Nittos because they are stickier than my all season tires now, but no where near slicks.

oh and I ran an embarassing 14.654 @ 101.35 mph with a 60' of 2.683.

I can't wait to go again tho, it was a good time.

 

Are you saying you dropped the clutch at 3500 while launching on street tires? If so, that's your damn problem. Slip it some more.