Anyone have any tips or secrets they would like to share about cutting a good light.

For the pro guys, do you lauch when you see the ambers flash or do you wait for the green or what?

How about the regular count down(don't remember what they call it) lights, people told me to take off when you see the last amber.

 

don't wait for the green......

 

practice... youll get it..

 

Practice makes perfect. Look at Paisley, he cuts some awesome lights. He takes everyone to school at the tree. I for one need ALOT of practice..lol

 

go when you see yellow

 

For the competition tree (staggered lights), go a little after the third amber.... not much after though.

Never ran on the pro tree so couldn't tell you.

 

Exactly, on a sportsman tree/3 amber countdown, go when you see the last amber. On a pro tree/all 3 ambers at once, just go when you see amber period. The pro tree is a little weird if your not used to it, but like everyone says PRACTICE.

 

in my street car i used to leave on the second yellow light and get awesome RTs, now in my drag car i leave on the third yellow and still get great RTs. on a pro tree i just leave as soon as i can but im only pullin low 100s on a 4/10th pro tree.

i agree with art, paisley is the man on the tree. im not the fastest guy out there but i take much much pride in cutting good RTs. even if i dont win usually i have the win on the RT side of things.

 

go to http://www.pacificraceways.com... click the drag racing link on the top and NHRA Tree Reaction Time Simulators.

It has both Sportsman and Pro tree light to practise on

 

Practice, you have to do that? DOH.

One tip that helped me alot was stage the EXACT same way every time out. Pull the car to the prestage beam, wait for the prestage and roll the car just enough to BARELY light the stage beam. Then all the variation is in your actual reaction not in where you are in stage. Of course once you get used to this and really whittle down the R/T where you're consistent, you can change your staging a bit too to bring it down more.

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by HondaBullSQ &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">For the competition tree (staggered lights), go a little after the third amber.... not much after though.</TD></TR></TABLE>

Agreed.

I start a little after seeing the 3rd green. I don't time it to launch at the same time...basically react to it. This is with me "Deep Staged" as much as possible (just barely trip the 2nd staging light).

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Daily Interlude &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

Agreed.

I start a little after seeing the 3rd green. I don't time it to launch at the same time...basically react to it. This is with me "Deep Staged" as much as possible (just barely trip the 2nd staging light).</TD></TR></TABLE>

well dont listen to this guy cause he doesnt even know what deep staging is.

 

I dump the minute I see the 3rd light change or when I see all 3 light up on the Pro Tree. My last meet I ran 5 sub 0.1 RT's with a best of 0.03x worst RT for the day was 0.112
But alot depends on your cars set-up, slicks, clutch, launch brake, suspension etc... its just practise...

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1 2 NV &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

well dont listen to this guy cause he doesnt even know what deep staging is. </TD></TR></TABLE>

hahaha...

For myself.. i like to stage a little deeper into the second Stage light when i need to cut a decent light.. i've gone from high 500s on a pro tree down the low .500 with this... But not deep staged too much risk of red lighting not worth it for me..

 

staging deep depends on your roll out too. Becarefull..hehe

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by 1 2 NV &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">

well dont listen to this guy cause he doesnt even know what deep staging is. </TD></TR></TABLE>

So what is it?

 

Deep staging is when you roll completely past the prestage light, and only the stage light is lit. You usually have to alert the tower of this, by writing DEEP on your window by your competition number. This way it takes less time to get off the stage beam and start the clock, but it's also easier to redlight if you're not used to it.

 

Teach on!! DEEP

 

OK, so what's it called when you are staged as far back as you can (just barely trip the second light)?

Some people may have different terminology. From what I've heard, deep staging is when you are as far back from the trip beam as possible, therefore staged as deep in the hole and as far away as you can be but still have both lights on...

BTW, the benefit of this is not decreasing R/T but to give you a bit of a head start so to speak...


Modified by Daily Interlude at 12:27 PM 3/29/2005

 

There are so many variables to cutting a good light. You have the technical ones, then the mental ones. The first thing to do is make sure that the technical ones are dealt with first. These are things that you can fix and once they are fixed they will never give you a problem again. You can do things mechanically that can both, speed up your light or slow it down.

Just think about the physical action of getting your car to move. You release the clutch pedal off the floor and then what happens? You have linkage that moves, maybe you have a hydraulic setup, you have a throw out bearing that has to move, then you have a clutch that needs to engage and you have a transmission that needs to start rotating and then you have a driveshaft and axles that need to turn as well. All of this stuff takes time to happen. Some cars take longer than others. Take my car for example. My clutch pedal is released and I have a rod (called a cross shaft) that goes directly from my pedal through my bellhousing to my throw out bearing. My throw out bearing pivots on the fingers of this cross shaft and that is what engages my clutch. Because I run a blown alcohol set up I am forced to use a cross shaft per the rules. They say a fork is a quicker reacting set up, that is what pro stock uses, but I have never tried it. I can speed my clutch up or slow it down mechanically. Most of us do this through something called airgap.

Then you have the mental aspects of the reaction time. This is what most people are talking about when they ask this question. How do I physically make myself react faster to the tree. Well here is the answer, you don't. You either have it in you or you don't. What is most important is that you are consistent. If you can consistently cut light in the .200 range that is fine. Let's say you cut a .205, .203, .198, .201 all in one day, then we have something to work with. If you cut a .203, .156, .024, .125 all in the same day with the same conditions, then you are not paying any attention. Once you are cutting consistent lights then you can work on mentally improving them.

FACTORS THAT WILL CHANGE REACTION TIME-

Time of day- This is a big factor. Reaction time is slower when it is brighter outside but everybody has the same disadvantage so it doesn't matter. When you race at night you will always cut a better light because your eyes absorb more light from the tree I guess. When the sun is in your eyes you will always slow down. We adjust our clutch to slow down the reaction time when racing at night because I will go red.

WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT ON THE TREE- On a pro tree all three lights go on at the same time but if you're looking out all three lights your reaction will be slow. PAY ATTENTION TO ONE LIGHT ONLY. They all light up at the same time so it doesn't matter which one you pay attention to. I don't even look at the tree anymore when I'm racing. I'll catch a hint of yellow out of the corner when I'm looking down the track and I leave. Figure out which bulb you're going to pay attention to and stick with that bulb. Sometimes, depending on the car, your a pillar may be in the way of a certain bulb depending on the lane your in or you may have some other obbstruction so pay attention to that.

WHEN TO LEAVE- If you see a green light, you're slow. On a pro tree when you see the yellow come on, leave. That's it. Don't wait for the yellow to stay on for a little bit because you're worried about going red, you won't go red. If you went red, you didn't actually see yellow.

I usually have a pretty good idea of what my reaction time is when I leave the line. I shoot for a .009-.012, that's a good light for me. If I go .020 or slower it was a bad light. The average reaction time in Pro RWD is improving but it is still pretty slow. The average reaction time last year was about .150. The cars are beginning to get so competitive that reaction time is gonna become that much more important. I had one of the slowest cars in teh class last year and I was able to win 9 rounds of racing against cars that went faster than me last year. I usually have about a 1/10 of a second head start when I race.

Reaction time is something that you have to get comfortable with. I know many people tell you that you have to do the same thing every time you go to the line and all that but i don't do that. i will stage differently every time in one weekend depending on who I'm racing. It's just that I feel really comfortable in the car when i stage and I'm never worried about the tree.

If you have any questions or any ideas you want to ask me please feel free to ask. I will be down at Moros this weekend although I'm not racing, please feel free to ask me anything or I'll take a look at your car and I'm sure I can help you improve you r/t's dramatically.

 

very well written. Thanks for taking the time to write that!

 

good write up

 

<TABLE WIDTH="90%" CELLSPACING=0 CELLPADDING=0 ALIGN=CENTER><TR><TD>Quote, originally posted by Paisley &raquo;</TD></TR><TR><TD CLASS="quote">
WHAT ARE YOU LOOKING AT ON THE TREE- On a pro tree all three lights go on at the same time but if you're looking out all three lights your reaction will be slow. PAY ATTENTION TO ONE LIGHT ONLY. They all light up at the same time so it doesn't matter which one you pay attention to. I don't even look at the tree anymore when I'm racing. I'll catch a hint of yellow out of the corner when I'm looking down the track and I leave. Figure out which bulb you're going to pay attention to and stick with that bulb. Sometimes, depending on the car, your a pillar may be in the way of a certain bulb depending on the lane your in or you may have some other obbstruction so pay attention to that.

WHEN TO LEAVE- If you see a green light, you're slow. On a pro tree when you see the yellow come on, leave. That's it. Don't wait for the yellow to stay on for a little bit because you're worried about going red, you won't go red. If you went red, you didn't actually see yellow.

</TD></TR></TABLE>

dude i just got schooled!

 

Get used to launching your car at exactly the same time, every time so that you have the same RT every time.. Then slowly start launching earlier and youll get great times..

 

i just time the lights and count with my fingers on the steering wheel, then take off when the 3rd finger drops. works for me. lol. never ran on a pro tree though.