I am new to bracket racing this year and am just starting to get a handle on it. Saturday was a beautiful day and my buddies and I were out with a couple of our cars. The other guys were just testing, but I was running eliminations.

After three easy rounds I was feeling good. In the 4th round, I drew one of the best local competitors. He's an old guy (even older than me) and retired, so he is out at the track constantly and often wins or at least gets to the semi's almost every time. So, I knew I had to be on my game. I wasn't nervous, but knew I would have to be good to beat the old coot! It was getting cooler and the previous round I had dialed in at 9.430 and went 9.437. So, I dialed in at 9.420. He was dialed at 9.460. I left on him, if that's the right term for such a close start, with a 0.522 light to his 0.523! We were basically neck and neck the whole way down the track. My ET was 9.426 and he ran a 9.464. Advantge, him by 0.001 seconds!

To be honest, I felt good about losing such a close race. It was fun, but I keep replaying it in mind and am looking forward to running him again. I am tempted to put up some bucks and see if I can entice him into a match race.

Any experiences of close races like that?

Rich

 

Wow - nice race!

Not in eliminations but I lost to Cantonracers Lightning 1 night by that margin. I really thought I had him that time but the Lightning caught me up top and ended up with the win. I'd have to check the timeslip but I think that's what the difference was.

 

keep racing it'll happen. done the .001 quite a few times.
last time I went to the track I had a -.0001 redlight believe it or not. My dad has also lost by .0008. Just shows you how close things are now a days
nothing to say but oh well

 

Any experiencies of close races like that? Yeah, one that irks me to this day. It was just a final for a trophy. Big deal. LOL The other guy had a slower dial in and left first. I chase him down, barely pass him, and because I have to much time to think (this happens when your driving a slow car) I decide to hit the brakes right before the finish line. Thought I might break out, which I have never done before. Needless to say, I gave the race away. I did learn one thing, never touch the brakes in a close race.

 

I've lost several by that amount over the years, but I did win one by 0.0001 one time.

Randy

 

A few years ago, driving my POS '93 Civic running 17.9@80mph, and lined up against a 3000GT VR4 running low 13's, I redlighted with a reaction time of 0.499. I would have won.

The 3000GT went on to win the bracket competition that day (I took fifth of about 50 cars).

-Jake

 

I lost by .0009 to a full blown drag car with a box. That was a damn good race. What the hell, that was my first year bracket racing and that was the semi-finals round. I was ecstatic. I have yet to go this year though.

 

My local track only times to 0.001, which prevents the agony of losing by just 0.0001. Damn, that is close! I must say I have been re-running that race in my mind at odd moments and can't wait to get back to the track.

Rich

 

You didn't give away the race with a red light or a break out. Shake his hand and congratulate him on such a good win. It's those kinds of wins I'm not ashamed of losing to. 2 good lights and 2 close ET's.

I've seen people get perfect lights and lose. I've also seen people run dead on their dial and lose. You have to be close to perfect at both ends of the track. If you have a close package and still lose then there's not a whole lot more you could have done. Trying to shave a new thousands more off the RT may bring on the red light.

Really sucks to have such a good run and lose but that just means your opponent had a slightly better run. The biggest thing is that you didn't give it away. He had to really work for the win and should be congratulated.

 

I definitely agree. That's exactly what I did - he agreed that it was a fun race but I think he was a little psyched. As I said, he is one of the "regulars" at the track and I am a newbie to the brackets though I have been around for a long time with testing and the occasional grudge match. I think I put him on notice

Rich

 

I have been on both sides of that equation. Many of our local tracks only go to three places and I have been on both sides of a .000 timeslip. When it is that close and the lights are good and the ET's good then the race was good regardless of the outcome.

The frustrating part can set in if it happens three weeks in a row to three different competitors, however...

 

Absolutely !! While it's not too enjoyable I've also won a few rounds by less than .001

 

what track were you at??? i'm not too far from buffalo.
You may have heard, i'm the maple syrup guy.
sounds like a good race.

 

New York International, our local 1/4m. track. I am there a lot!

Rich

 

Thats the track i intend on going to. First i need to put all the peices together and get the car out of the barn.
Haven't been lately, last time i was there was about a month ago watching.
I hope to get down there before the snow.