Had my first experience with bracket racing last night with the Houston F Body club at the local strip. Im not sure I like it. It seems anti intuitive to not always go as fast as possible. With bracket racing you can race anything, a Volkwagen bug against a dragster. I actually saw a stock Honda civic racing a 77 Trans am with a 455 Pontiac. There really isnt' any incentive to make or have a faster car. You just need to have a good reaction time and be consistent. I guess this is the only easy way that different cars can race against each other. I actually saw guys practically slamming on there brakes before the finish line to avoid breaking out, while still winning the race. Seems better to me to have classes of cars racing against each other straight up on the start, but it is harder to verify that the cars comply with their class restrictions without disassembling the motors.

I might try it again as I totaly screwed up and reg lighted in both my official races (my first races other than test and tune in my entire life).

 

That's how bracket racing works. All everyone sees on TV is heads up racing but around 80% of all drag racing is bracket racing.

Even I admit that watching bracket racing is boring but I tell everyone that being able to figure out a dial in and cut a good light isn't as easy as it looks. Since you can run a street car in Sportsman class, anyone can bracket race.

You are correct in that there's no incentive to go faster. Speed means nothing in a bracket race. All you need to do is make the car consistant and be able to cut a good light. Spending money to go fast is nice but spending money to make the car run consistant is more worth it. That's why you invest in suspension parts and tires. They won't make you any faster but if you run the same every time then you have a better chance of winning a race.

NHRA has 3 different catagories to make the racing more equal.

Sportsman ET is all vehicles 14.00 seconds and slower.

Pro ET is 12.00 to 13.99. Some tracks play with the numbers and allow Pro ET to run as quick as 7.50 or 10.00. It's up to track policy. Pro ET isn't allowed to use electronics such as delay boxes or throttle stops to affect the run.

Super Pro ET is 7.50 to 11.99. They are allowed to use the electronics mentioned above.

I run in Super Pro but don't use electronics because our track says Pro ET cars can only run as quick as 12.00. Any quicker and you're in the Super Pro catagory. All I use is a transbrake.

There's a bit of debate going on right now about transbrakes. Many of the division tracks are considering the transbrake as electronics next year. That will mean any Pro car that uses a transbrake will have to disconnect or remove it next year.

 

i like heads up better, even if the cars are faster than mine. I just like how it is more like a street race. Because quite often we do win, civics and rustangs.:lala:

 

My older sister brought a friend with her to watch me at the Division V finals in Topeka. He's a horse breeder/racer, and while we watched other classes run, it took him the longest time to get comfortable with the concept of the slower car being able to win. Finally, a guy sitting in front of us in the stands turned around and said, "Think of it as chess at 100 mph." Okay, for the 1/8 mile, it's chess at 75 mph, but that's the idea - it's more than just going fast.

There is one advantage to being the faster car - redlight. I don't know how many races I watched yesterday when the slower car bulbed, giving the race to the faster car. Very, very few faster-car bulbs. Part of that is that the faster cars tend to be driven by more experienced racers, but there's also a psychological factor of knowing the other guy got a green light, so you'd better, too. Also, slower guys tend to think they need to cut a better light than the faster guy in order to win (which isn't true - a "good" light is adequate with a consistent car).

I was the faster car in a grand total of two races (out of 8) yesterday. I had one red-light win against --- you guessed it, the slowest car I ran. I did have a better light than the other guy in all but one race, and won that one because I came closer to running my number (my "better" light was .004 sec in two races).

But, as I sat in the staging lanes, I saw a bunch of slower guys bulb.

 

A faster car will always win in a heads up race unless he red lights. A bracket race gives every racer an equal chance of winning. It makes it more of a drivers race instead of a "who has the most money invested" race. That's the appeal of bracket racing. Anyone, with any vehicle, can go race and win.

Many drivers who come out to our Friday night street legal drags don't realize that. They think that because they have a 16-18 second car that they can't win a race because it's so slow. They've never raced brackets and don't know that even the slower cars have a chance.

Class racing is harder for people to understand than bracket racing. Super Gas runs 9.90 index. All day long they have to run 9.90 so it's a heads up race. When someone watches them race and the throttle stops come on, it sounds like they missed a shift or something. When you look up on the scoreboard after the run and they ran 9.92, there's nothing wrong with what they did. Class racing is a little like bracket racing except instead of changing your dial on the window, you adjust the car to run the same ET every time. A typical Super Gas car is capable of running low 9's off the throttle stop so they have a lot of extra HP to spare when the conditions go bad.

 

My uncle had the same gripe this year when he started coming out, all I could tell him was that no matter what he'd always get beat heads up cause there is always some one with more money-plain and simple, black and white! When I first attended brkt racing I too did'nt understand it and when I got into personally this year it took a few races to grasp the concept, now with a season under my belt it's just like what was stated above, it's a chess match, even if you cut a good light you still have to play the game on the big end, sometimes you lift and win, sometimes you lift and lose-it all comes down to consistency. More often than not I've seen daily drivers go further because they leave them in drive and let the car take car of itself, usually stock vehicles are very consistent.

 

If you'd like to try a mix of bracket style racing with an occasional heads up run tossed in, try stock or super stock class racing.
You qualify at different times of day (usually a morning and afternoon deal) and do 1st rd the next day. This does make it interesting to dial the car. The heads up runs happen when two cars in same class meet on the ladder, then you just run what you brung and hope you brung enough.

 

They have another "on the side" race once in a while at our track, one of the racers that has been there a awhile holds an open comp race, you get 3 TT and your set dail in is .1 under your fastest pass. Then they go with a .500 PRO TREE, which nobody at home here ever runs. The first time I entered, the tree had me so screwed up, along with the dail in thing. It's like your waiting, waiting... BOOM yellow, green. that fast. I made it through round 1 cause the other guy broke out and then it was called because of rain. The guy that "organizes" it told me a secret about being competative is that you lower your shift points during the TT, cause if ya go all out, your car is never going to run .1 faster than what you've just tried in 3 attemps, unless you have a drastic air change or something along that line. Anyone who brackets races knows you'll NEVER win in a race race being .1 off your dail.
It was fun for 1 round (well 3 TT's also) and there's supposed to be 1 more of these on the 19th, wheather it happens or not is another story, but I'll be there if it does.

 

Sounds a little like Top Comp. It's a bracket race for the very quick cars running something like 7.50 - 8.30. You can't dial in any more than .1 below your best run. Other than that pretty well anything goes.

Not exact rules but you get the idea.

We have a couple of cars locally that run Top Comp. The quickest is a blown alcohol altered that's a Comp Eliminator AA/AM car. He usually runs quicker than 7.50's so has to slow it down a bit. He can usually run as quick as the Top Alcohol funny cars.

 

I'm hoping the truck my uncles building right now will be ready for the start of next season, he asked if I'd pilot it, and who in their right mind would say no?! I'm only running mid 13's and he hoping to have his truck into the low 10's, I'm nervious cause that's a huge jump in speed, plus hopefully I like to get a little "seat" time on the street to get used to everything. For some reason he thinks I'm crazy telling him it's gonna jerk the front end. It's a 92 S-10 that has the S&W back half, he's only gonna be running 30x12.5 meats though-it's made for 33x18.5 if he wanted. I think I finally got him convinced he needs a glide cause the truck by all the math should only weigh 2300 fully loaded, and he's got a 383 roller being built as we speak-all he told the guy was he wanted at least 500hp/500lbs on pump gas and he's gonna get it dynoed so he can orderthe stall to match the package. It should make for one heck of a ride after a few shake downs.

 

Here's my ideal race, I love being the gaint killer, low buck vs. big bucks, 8-10 times I'll push these guys out or givem a red eye-I think the magical blue bumper I have puts them in a daze!