Went to the track for the first time in a while and on my third run pulled a .001 reaction time. So close, yet so far away. Also pulled a 1.8 60 on regular street tires which I was pretty happy with.

 

Congrats!

I started racing in 1978. My first perfect RT (that I know of - not all the tracks gave RT in the early years) came last year.

(Nice 60', too.)

 

My last perfect light was in 1998 or 1999 and that was with my truck. With the delay box I get many close ones but no perfects yet with the Camaro. I get more .001 or .002 red lights than green.

Now get a perfect light and run your dial in. Dialing in 13.50 and running 13.501 to 13.509 is considered running your number.

 

Back when footbraking had numerious .500's and got called out by 2 Super pro guys in gamblers because of it, but guys running the track had seen it time and again and got a kick out of the big boys having their azzes handed to them by a POS looking street car-before I redid it. Ahhh them were the days.

Closest I've ever come to a perfect package was in Cordova last year in the Worls Series. Running a bike so I had to keep it tight and had a .501R/T and ran a 13.068 on a 13.06 dail. Mike Welper, out current points leader in Mod did have the perfect package at ET finals last year .500 running 11.980 on a 11.98 dail, got his picture in IHRA mag and everything. That same event one of our street guys and his opponent both cut .500 against each other.

People do as they wish, but when I'm in .50? or .00? that's waay too close to disaster and as Stephen admitted redlights are just that split second away, better to shoot for .51? and be able to race. Except in Top of course, but even most of those guys are'nt hitting .50? consistely, seen alot of them in the .51?-.540 range.

 

The last good weekend I had I was getting consistant .03x lights. I'd like to tighten it up a little more that that's good enough to go rounds and keep from turning on that red light.

Even having a perfect light doesn't mean you're going to win the race if your dial in is out to lunch.

Local track has a perfect light award. Sunday eliminations, the first person to cut a perfect light during eliminations gets $50. It's usually won by a Junior Dragster or Sportsman car. If not won, it's carried over to the next race weekend as $100

 

I remember reading that when you posted it awhile back and I tried using that "game" as a way to advertise my business at our track, but they just scoffed at it. They wanted $500 for a 2'x3' sign which is totally ridiculious here and the other guys I know advertising there have never gotten one call from the track advertising for any business-just a way to write off income. I just figured this way instead of giving them $500 up front they could offer the perfect light as 1 more way for drivers to make money if they get lucky...but they did'nt want any part of it??!!

 

Sounds like our track. They spend no money, have poor payouts, have a track that needs to be resurfaced and wonder why the racers don't want to race here. Of course with all the rain this season (raining again this weekend) their revenues are down about 80% from last year. That's including spectator income, oval track races and road course races. If they don't come up with some investments and start fixing the drag strip and the oval, racers are just not going to come no matter what kind of payouts there are. The payouts now are very poor. It's better to haul the car 3 hours to the next closest track on a chance to get 3-4 times the payouts to win.

For us it's pro rated. 40% of the gate fee is prize money. 50% of that goes to the winner. Electronics class has low car counts this year. Lets say 10 cars are running and we paid $50 to compete. That's $500 gate fee. $250 is prize money and $125 goes to the winner (plus a trophy for winner and runner up). That kind of money isn't much incentive to race when I can travel and get minimum $500 to win no matter what the car counts are.

Our perfect light award isn't provided by the track. A local sponsor puts up the money.

 

Our tracks owners also own Byron; so all us racers and track employees can assume is they use our track for the loss at tax time. They did come in and pave all the pit roads, resurface the track, but other than that, business as usual. Absolutely no advertising, terribly unorganized, misrun program (ex. they started a gamblers [B]before[B] 1st round of elimns yesterday?WTF!!) and after 3 yrs for me and a heck of a lot more yrs for countless others, it's just getting to be too much headache for as much as it costs for a day at the races when we can tow 1hr south for cheaper spectator fees, cheaper class entry, same payout, and superb program. Downside...big 3" gravel pit area and they use teflon-or something like teflon for traction compund and that's the number 1 reason most serious racers dont go there because on average your 60' will vary .02-.06 between passes. That's most cars in every class so you can see the downside of racing there, if you go far it's usually luck realted. unless your slower than dirt with big stickies.

We do have guarunteed payouts, but they are top heavy to say the least. Last night when I runner up'ed in Mod. I got $200 and the winner got $500 on a $55 entry.

If I could get this car dailed in tighter like I want it, I'd jump up to Top for a few races-no delay box of course -since it's usually only 5 rounds to the finals at best. $70 entry, $50 buy back and 1-30 cars is $700 to win and $250 R/U. Very top heavy payout, but it is what it is.

 

Our local track hosted an event by a local street machine club and they gave out prizes for fastest car, fastest bike, etc. I won the Best Light with .501. two Sundays ago (8-15-04) That same day I also had a .503, but also had .495, .484, and .47x. I won $25/cash and a $25 Summit gift card.

I had a near-perfect run last year (sept 03) to take my first-ever money race. Cut a .505 and went 12.978 on a 12.97 dial. Won $400, plus the chance to run the winner of Top for more money. (I lost to the winner of Top, but still took an extra $50!)

-Dave