Starting Line Beam vs Rest of the Track

[LNorton]

The long nose can be a blessing at times. And other times you just wanna chainsaw the nose off of the car.

It wouldn't bother me one bit if they moved the beam down to 3" at the finish line. I can still get the nose down there!

[Billy Pires]

Originally Posted by SStock1373

How about this scenario?

You are racing against Mr. X in his low riding late model car and he is giving you a headstart. Let's say Mr. X spins off the line now he knows he has to make up some ET because he may not be able to catch you assuming you are on an average run, didn't break anything, and had an average light. He comes up along side of you only to be a wheel behind at the traps but dips the nose to cross inches in front of you and not break out because he had already lost ET at the starting line. This gives Mr. X an insurance policy and another weapon in the arsenal if this scenario ever should happen to him. He can manipulate his track position against you in your 69 Camaro.

I've seen it at bracket races and even on Pinks All-out when the early model car clearly had a foot on the other guy and lost.

thats one of a million differant scenarios as far as bracket racing. The only time you can count on the front end helping you is in a heads up race... and thats only if you're within a hun at the stripe.

[countrypuppy4865]

Originally Posted by SStock1373

How about this scenario?

You are racing against Mr. X in his low riding late model car and he is giving you a headstart. Let's say Mr. X spins off the line now he knows he has to make up some ET because he may not be able to catch you assuming you are on an average run, didn't break anything, and had an average light. He comes up along side of you only to be a wheel behind at the traps but dips the nose to cross inches in front of you and not break out because he had already lost ET at the starting line. This gives Mr. X an insurance policy and another weapon in the arsenal if this scenario ever should happen to him. He can manipulate his track position against you in your 69 Camaro.

I've seen it at bracket races and even on Pinks All-out when the early model car clearly had a foot on the other guy and lost.

The E.T. you gain with the nose is minimal and really irrelevant in a bracket racing situation. If someone dials .15 over what they can run in case they spin, they will probably still be able to run the number. You can't stop anyone from doing that. Like Billy said in a heads up this might be more beneficial, but you are still only talking about .01-.02.

[Rich Biebel]

I raced a '97 Firebird Stocker for a year or two. It had single adjustable front shocks. If I set them loose and had the nose low the car would drop the nose very quickly and as everyone knows, that front overhang is way out front.......

I rasied the nose some but still had the shocks set loose....I had no down travel limiter device like a stop or maybe some cable limiters....

I had a race at E-Towns Lucas event......Raced a car dialed at 13.9x I was in the 10.80's all weekend. Speed was never over 123. I had the better RT but not by a lot.... .010 to .02x ......I was pretty hard on the brakes and admittedly had dialed UP as the sun was very hot.......In a doulble breakout race I lost. My speed on that run was almost 124.......My friends saw the race from the stands and saw me drop the nose and said I was down before the stripe......I assumed the nose got me....or I was later on the brakes than I thought......Ran 1 MPH faster hard on the brakes than flat out.......

[Bobby Fazio]

Originally Posted by countrypuppy4865

The E.T. you gain with the nose is minimal and really irrelevant in a bracket racing situation. If someone dials .15 over what they can run in case they spin, they will probably still be able to run the number. You can't stop anyone from doing that. Like Billy said in a heads up this might be more beneficial, but you are still only talking about .01-.02.

Obviously you can't stop anyone from dialing up .10-.15 in case of a spin but you can stop anyone from making the track 1 to 2 feet shorter on a given run in a frantic, strategic moved as opposed to the early model car that has no choice but to run the full 1320'. That's the whole reason for my post. And that is by making the beam 2"-3" like at the starting line. Actually you can make it lower than the starting line because who really goes through the finish line with the front tires in the air? Why not make it 1" ?

In my scenario I said the guy was behind in a wheel race and the nose saved him. I never said he lost .10-.15. Maybe he short shifted or sputtered or something that only cost him .01-.02. I am in agreement with you guys that in a heads up race it may be more beneficial but I think some may be underestimating the importance of this in a bracket race. Nonetheless, the poor guy on pinks lost out on his $10,000 ! And some poor guy in class elimination could lose out on 300 bucks, a coveted Wally, and some bragging rights.

Go through your past issues of National Dragster and turn to the sportsman winner's quotes. On more than one occasion you will see how their "lucky round" included dipping the nose from behind to get the win. Or, read Dan Fletcher's article in the last Dragster, he was pretty angry about recently being on the losing end of the same thing. You would be too don't you think?

[Frank Bialas]

On a previous set of runs against a similar combination I thought I took the stripe every time but this picture shows what actually happened.

Who do you think took the stripe, and who do you think got the win?

Originally Posted by SStock1373

How about this scenario?

You are racing against Mr. X in his low riding late model car and he is giving you a headstart. Let's say Mr. X spins off the line now he knows he has to make up some ET because he may not be able to catch you assuming you are on an average run, didn't break anything, and had an average light. He comes up along side of you only to be a wheel behind at the traps but dips the nose to cross inches in front of you and not break out because he had already lost ET at the starting line. This gives Mr. X an insurance policy and another weapon in the arsenal if this scenario ever should happen to him. He can manipulate his track position against you in your 69 Camaro.

I've seen it at bracket races and even on Pinks All-out when the early model car clearly had a foot on the other guy and lost.

[Brandon Peterson]

Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET-- Speed-----Car#-Driver(Opp'nt)-RT-----ET-- Speed
988 Brandon Peterson 954 Richard Alford Jr
E5 0.015 7.239 90.66 ****WINNER**** 0.025 7.261 85.04
M/CM Dial: 7.25 (+/-): -0.011 E/SA Dial: 7.20 (+/-): 0.061
Prior rounds:
E4 (M McCandless) 0.020 7.244 -0.016 (G Jordan ) 0.016 7.225 0.025
E3 (W Dent Jr. ) 0.040 7.272 0.022 (R Caraway ) 0.023 7.231 0.001
E2 (G Powers ) 0.018 7.260 -0.010 (R Roland ) 0.050 7.211 -0.029
Qualified: #2 7.223 -1.077 #25 7.170 -0.530

Brandon Peterson breaks out and Richard Alford gets the Stock Ironman.

Here is one of the worst times my nose has bitten me....i alford spun hard on the starting line and i was on and off in front of him most of the way down track and we both crammed the brake at the same time about around the mph cone, we had figured about 86.5 to 87.5mph by the numbers but it turned up at 90.66mph...i was running around 93 wide open.... i fixed my problem for the most part by putting a 29 inch M/T tire on the front lol....but i also needed it to help out my reaction times

[countrypuppy4865]

Bobby,
I could see where that would suck. Really it would make no difference to me if they would lower the beams. It's kind of a double edged sword because yes sometimes it will allow you to get there first, but it's also a risk of breakout too.

[Bobby Fazio]

Originally Posted by Frank Bialas

On a previous set of runs against a similar combination I thought I took the stripe every time but this picture shows what actually happened.

Who do you think took the stripe, and who do you think got the win?

Frank, you're clearly ahead by a foot and a half.. You are the blue car right? Can't you send this photo to NHRA or something?

[Chris1529]

That is a great picture Frank. I think some people do underestimate how this works.
If people know their car well enough, they can make it a real advantage.
That is why I said earlier that if I go to a bracket race, I always like to see who has the spoilers on the front of their car, because if you think you have a wheel on them, you obviouly don't.

a friend of mine that rides a bike lost his track ET championship to a car that had the spoiler on the front for that reason. The bike was alot faster than the car (Bracket 2-modified), so he caught the car and could easily see that he was just in front of the wheel, but the guys homemade spoiler took the stripe.