Weird ways to cut a light

[Tim Ellis]

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?

[Michael Beard]

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.

[Tim Ellis]

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?

[racerhead]

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

[gmonde]

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

[bill dedman]

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....

[rick lester]

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.

[Mike Taylor 3601]

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

[greg fulk]

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!

[Mike Taylor 3601]

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