Gotta vent to get rid of this frustration due to MAJOR brainfart and get ready for ET finals this weekend, so here goes:
NHRA track held their 2003 Dragster Challange and was giving away Wally trophies to all class winners. I knew last weekend I was gonna win it. Anyways, air was super and I had to drop shift points 1000rpm to stay within the class 13.00 and slower dail regulations. Won all my rounds at the tree so never got a soild time slip to compare times to for dails and the wind was averageing 20mph, sometimes all tailwind, other times straight across the track. Ended up I guy that lives down the raod from me that nobody can stand and myself in the finals, we were both sandbaggin it and had a conversation earlier about when our cars come on strangest at the track, mine is crazy outta the hole and his comes on after the 1/8th. That being said we both dailed 13.03. I killed him outta the hole and by the 1/8th mile was so far ahead I figured I burp it quick to not break out, just about the time my foot was on the downstroke to mash it, earlier conversation about our cars strong points kicked in and I woulda hit myself if I was'nt wearing a helmet. Sure enough, that frickin game I tried to play was just enough for him to run on by me at the finish near the finish line!!! UUHHGGGGGG!!! I had a .010 to his .056 RT, he crossed with a 13.12 to my 13.18, ended up he lifted a little when he seen me lift cause he thought we were on a break out run. Anyways, I've never been forced into sandbagging and never wnat to do it again, seems so much like a rookie mistake, but I've got too much under my belt for that to be an excuse. We went back after the finals to run a heads up race, I offered $100 against his Wally, but he did'nt want to. I cut a .022 to his -.024, but he still ran faster with a 12.68 to my 12.78. Was my dastest pass ever in this car, had a 1.74 (1.73 is my best) and the 12.78 against a preivious best of 12.91. Love this fall weather. Motor is smokin like a sumbitch, so time to buy a new short block to go with the heads/cam I got behind me and I will get a 10sec slip, even though it's gonna be assited by juice. I think the rear will hold up to the first 200 shot since I'll be rolling in 2nd gear, but if no 10's to be had, it will be shot at the line and we'll se what happens Gonna go or blow, then I will be forced into my Ford 9", wife just does'nt know it yet.

 

Live by, die by, right?

Sounds like you did pretty well to get to the finals anyway. See a lot of sandbagging at these divisionals because of the 13.0 break-off, and so many tracks not running their own classes that way. When our divisionals are at lower-altitude tracks, we also have a problem with our cars running quite a bit faster.

Our track qualified 9 people to go to our divisional in what otherwise would be considered Sportsman classes. But, since they let faster cars run with us here, only 4 of us actually stayed in Sportsman for the finals - the rest moved up to Pro. Two of the 4 had to sandbag, one went out in the first round.

The other guy, though, was just plain charmed that day. Has a '59 Fiat w/350, runs easy 12.5's. He disabled the secondaries and took out 8 degrees of timing, but the air improved that weekend and he was still running 12.5's full out. But, he dials 13.00, gets 3 red-light wins! Then, in the 4th round, he draws a bye! 5th round he actually has to race and wins by a fender. 6th (semi) round he finally dies by breakout.

My last race this past Friday was against a 14.2-sec Dodge. I figured he runs the best at the top, so when I dialed 13.83 and caught him at half-track, I stayed in it. Good thing, too. He broke out, I didn't with almost .04-sec advantage at the light. (Oh, did I mention that was the final that night? )

By the way, why didn't you just dial 13.0? When you're fender racing, it doesn't matter how much you break out, just that the other guy breaks out more. At least, that's what we were told for Div V - you just can't dial faster than 13.00, no problem if double-break-out and you run faster than 13.00, as long as you break out less.

 

Usually when I race this track in the summer I run on the dial's raggd edge with the heat and humidity, I usually dance between 12.9?'s and 13.00's so I dail a 13.00 and keep the brakes in check. I personally have never sandbagged so I guess I'm outta the loop on all the in's and out's, but my buddy does every race-he built a 454 that runs 11.5's but either sandbags or installs his homegrown bolt in the floor "throttle stop" to slow down and run street class since the round to win ratio is alot better than pro class, he always dails the opponents dail. So I thought since Mark-my opponet- was running the number all day flat footing it, I'd just tree him to death and keep in front of him. Plan would've worked to perfection had I not brainfarted and burped at the 1/8th like a idiot. I've been to 8 finals this season and have never been beat in a final, so that was bad enough and to lose to a fella nobody can stand is worse yet. 1 more hard lesson learned to stick under my belt for future reference. How long do we do this before there's no more mistakes to be made?
I used to think faster cars had the advantage and was nervious about stepping up a class, but I've built up extreme confidence this year as things have been going my way-knock on wood-so when I forefitted my final 2 street class races of the season to jump up into Mod. for the big buck shoot out I was rewarded by making it to the round before semi's going further than the 1,2, and 3rd palce mod racers at our track and beating some of the best drivers from the surrounding 5 states, which just concreted my idea of, you can cut a so-so light, but if the car runs the dial you will never lose. It took me the first half of the season to figure out my car and get the ***** to dial like the Top cars, but once I made that decision I've found great success-oh, the new weather station kinda helps too-definately a must have for the bracket racers. If anybodies interested I can make you a hellava deal on them At the World Series my car hit every dial I had on the window-but anticipation killed me with red lights all 3 days.
I've never lost a final until today and like I told my wife, it will never happen again!!!, I will never be denied a final for the rest of my "career" 2nd place sucks since nobody cares what happens to the loser unless it's to flip 'em chit and I keep thinking how nice Wally would've loked next to the other braggin rights on my wall. I think braket racing is terrible since from the time you get your losing slip you think of a million different ways you "could've" won had you done this or that.

 

I never sand bag. I dial the car in hard every time on the assumption that the car won't run any faster. The only time I'll lift is if I go flying past him before the finish line or if I have to play catch up and know I can't get past him.

Lifting after you go past is just insurance against not breaking out. Lifting if you can't catch him is a gamble hoping he breaks out since you know you won't.

Lifting itself won't change your ET very much. If you need to scrub off a bunch of time, you need to hit the brakes.

I lost in round 2 today when I hit the brakes. I scrubbed off a bunch of mph and still broke out by a a tenth. The car picked up some extra hp somewhere. Next pass was a test and tune pass just to see what I would have run and ran .3 quicker than what I dialed in.

 

with a convertible, im always going to have to lift.... or they wont let me run again all night...


and no im not putting a rollbar in it... its a street car..

 

I think sandbagers are cheaters! I watched one work his way through the eliminations once untill it came to the finals against me. I was dialed in so close to my break-out (won race .03 from break-out) he hit the brakes on me right at the line (less than a front fender ahead) and he still lost! I fooled around and didn't get to the trophy booth fast enough (that's the only race he won legitimatly) and he claimed to be my lane and stole my trophy.
When I got there, they told me the trophy was gone and they didn't have any extra to give me mine. After I bitched them out for not making sure wich compeditor he was (#'s on windows DUH) I went looking for him in the pits and guess what? he had already departed the track. (probably to boast to his friends that weren't there how he had won (cheated). You always have to watch out for yourself cause sometimes crybabies and cheaters will try anything to get back at you! I have even had people try to run me off the road after they caught up to me! And guess what? I never saw him at the track again. Once you get tagged as a sandbager, nobody likes you any more. It's a lonely world in racing when you don't have any friends.