Weird ways to cut a light
 

Tell me about the weird ways youve had to cut a light, most likely in your slow stockers. Ill get it started. In my slooow truck I have my foot hovering over the gas pedal , and leave on the 2nd yellow, >03 +- lights. In my 15 second mustang auto I used one foot, I pushed hard on the brake [right foot] , then hit the gas whe n the 2nd yellow came on. Of course ive gone deep, used a 2 step, and another item that worked very well was a kicker, a solenoid that held the throttle open after staging. What have you done to get a slow car to cut a light, especially with deep staging not allowed?

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

The one and only time I ever raced my mom's '85 Chrysler 5th Avenue... I figured that you could RUN faster than this thing (which turned out to be true, as I've run 2.96 on foot, and the 5th Ave ran 3.09!). First ever pass, dropped the sunvisor covering just the TOP bulb, shallow staged, and left off the flash of the 2nd bulb. I think it was an .028 on the first hit. LOL I remember I had an .011 first round of eliminations.

Had a few cars that I left on the 2nd bulb going out, or otherwise had to count. My current car, I've taken as many as 3 bumps after staging to find the tree at some places. Gone deep before, but was red-lighting, and used flip-up clip-on sunglasses to kill about .010 in R/T.

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

Good creative solutions for different cars michael, any more anyone? How bout ways to quicken or slow a few hundredths? Blinders are a good option. How consistent are you when counting the lights down vs go when see?

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

Front tire size is a very reliable way to quicken or slow the car's reaction time. A two inch tire diameter change is worth about 3/4 inch in rollout. That seems to be worth about .020 in reaction time, depending on several factors.

Bruce Deveau

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

when you are cutting decent lights in car you just bracket race foot brake you dont really think about leaving the starting line but when you go from a car that 60's in the 1.70 range to the mid 1.540's it can really reck havic on the spot where to leave ,and to add having the two step hooked up to the brake pedal just adds to the the many changes that have to be adjusted ,,i have experimented with the following
blinder taped on the helmet(leaving on the flash of last bulb)
releasing the foot brake with the heel(i have size 13.5 shoe )not easy kept on sticking my toes in the insturment cluster
waiting to the third bulb goes out
counting the bulbs
if anything it has help me develope a skill that makes you tune in to the bulb from when it just starts to light ,to its brightest point, back to where it just fades out

gmonde

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

I saw a guy win the World Finals once, in a low 14-second Stocker, by staging the car very shallow, and, at a considerable angle to the starting line (crooked).... increasing his rollout by a bunch! Wasn't a heads-up race, so I'm not sure he accomplished much with that little trick, but the other car spotted him a tenth or two, and, when the tree came down, the quicker car red-lit. Might have been that unnerving aspect of seeing that slower car leaving what must have looked WAY early, but the second-to-leave car red-litl

I don't know if you could get away with that crooked staging, nowdays, but, it worked back then....

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

i have used just about every trick out there, ie... shallow stage, angled stage, offset suspension, bigger tire on one side, etc. even some that are illegal. we had this guy at my hometrack in the 80's (75 & 80 in monrovia md) that would turn on his brights. 67 pontiac bonnie if i remember correctly. each side was angled to shine directly at the tree depending on which lane he was in, if in the left lane, ligts on right side shined directly at tree, right lane left lights. after both cars were staged, he would turn his brights off to change brightness of tree, thereby throwing off driver in the other lane. as far as i can remember he raced only at nights, so this is the only time i would say this trick would work. he was an excellent racer, always stayed under almost everybodies radar, almost everybody. i knew of his trick, so next time i raced him, i "accidently" let my car roll the lights after both of us were staged and he clicked his brights. stater let me restage. that threw him off his game just enough for me to take the win.still to this day nobody ever knew what i did to be beat him at his own game. that is until now, 21 years later, te he! i guess thats could be considered a weird way to cut a light. rick.

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

My V/S malibu you could tell you was good on tree when it seemed you were driving passed tree when bulb turned green. Iv'e almost always have had sticks so most people consider that a wierd
way to cut a light.
Mike Taylor3601

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

Now this is not a way to cut a light but something I have wanted to do to Dad for some 20 years....me & him have run a few time in the finals @ the local track...but I always forget to do this... what I want to do after staging is just lay on the horn!!!!! & while he's looking @ me just take off leaving him with a VERY bad light! ;)

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

Alright new advantage to having a stick you wouldn't hear a horn.I had friend take off as soon as we staged
one time on grudge run that threw me off I was sitting there thinking what the crap.
Mike Taylor3601

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

After 25 years of racing slow cars at altitude,I`ve always left on the bottom bulb. From 16 second Stockers to 21 second 5500lbs wagons and vans,I`ve always left at the same spot on the bttom bulb. How I`ve done it has taken me 25 years to kind of figure it out. It sure sounds easy.

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

If I need to lose about 0.02 in reaction time, I press the brake pedal REALLY hard. The extra pedal travel seems to slow it down that much (as well as my foot reacting slower from all the force on it).

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

Back in the early 70's , I remember a racer at a track in New Jersey. There was a guy that ran in brackets ( the class back then was called "Street Eliminator" , 14.00 and slower.) He ran a 1970 full size Chevy, it ran in the 17 second range.. He would run a tall front tire , something like a G78 x 15 and only run about 15 lbs of air in the front tires. The tires would look flat..He would have a ton of roll out and always was a killer on the lights.. To bad back then they didn't have reaction times on the time slips..

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

What we used to do years ago was "sidestage". Stage the car at an angle, and keep straightening it out till it went red (no reaction times back then). I remember running Jerry Stein one day and both cars were pointed at the tree. Buster didn't like that at all.
Sounds dumb but it worked back then.

Re: Weird ways to cut a light
 

How I spent my summer vacation in 1989 in Ocean City Maryland. I had rented a Crown Vic to go on vacation. It was Friday night and wanted to hit us 13. My first time shot even with going deep was not even close. So the next one I bumped it twice, it got better but I was still not happy. My wife told me that the announcer was saying all types of things about me being a cop in an unmarked car bla bla bla. First round I drove past the lights and "backed" into the stage beam just getting past flickering . Had an .030 light and won first round. Did it again for second round with another .03 needless to say I drew a lot of attention to my self and the starter walked over to me and told me I could not stage like that again. So 3rd round went back to bumping in DEEP my opponent took a ton of stripe on his decent light to my late as can be light and broke out. The 17 second rented Crown VIc did not run the number so I was done. Besides Great beaches, Hearing Danny Gatton at a club and maryland blue claws my visit to Maryland and us 13 was a couple of tons of fun.