Off set wheelbase

[Jeff Stout]

One car has staggered wheelbase the other does not. If the staggered wheelbase car rolls through the beams and the other car pops out of the beams with a wheelie and both vehicles have identical reactions times and both vehicles have identical et's. Doesn't the car with the staggered wheelbase get to the finish line first?

[Mark Markow]

Originally Posted by Jeff Stout

One car has staggered wheelbase the other does not. If the staggered wheelbase car rolls through the beams and the other car pops out of the beams with a wheelie and both vehicles have identical reactions times and both vehicles have identical et's. Doesn't the car with the staggered wheelbase get to the finish line first?

if they both have the same rt. and et. then it should be a dead heat, one just got a rolling start before the timers were started. if you had a car that couldn't run the index, than that may be an advantage. but in this case you are trying to go 9.90 or 10.90 . not go faster than the car in the other lane. if you look at most of the super/ gas and s/st. cars. they run a short tire and set them up to pop out of the beams faster. and lay on the throttle stop . if this were any other class where going faster mattered then yes go with as much stagger as the rules allow. just my opinion.

[pmrphil]

With a dragster the stagger helps a bit because the tires are so short/having not much rollout. Remember the tiny tires from the early 90's? They were almost impossible to stage with without stagger. Door cars? Not so.