Re[2]: [ihc] IH funny car

["ken.dunnington" <ken.dunnington@xxxxxxxxx>]

Mac McMuffin wrote:
# >>>
## >>> basically, you sign up for a bracket, with minimum ET. you get staged
## >>> next to any other car, which has its own bracket. when you
## >>> get the green
## >>> light, you go as fast as you can, and you get judged against the other
## >>> car (which gets a green light according to its bracket, not
## >>> necessarily
## >>> at the same time as you get it.) if you go too fast, you have
## >>> "broken out"
## >>> and lose. otherwise, whoever gets closest to their minimum ET is the
## >>> winner.

MM> that's interesting, Richard.  not how they used to run things out where we
MM> were doing our racing (maybe things have changed since then, this was back
MM> in the end of the '80s, early '90s for my last participation).

And I've done yet another kind of bracket racing.  The type Mac
described I've seen but not participated in.  I participated in
"High School" drags street class, NDRA street B, ANRA street A...

Anyway, all three of these, in the street legal classes, you state an
ET by pasting it on the windshield.  As you stage, they input your
stated ET as well as your opponent's.  The light is then staggered
to bring the two of you at the finish line together if you each ran
the same light and your stated ET.  The variables are many so this
doesn't happen.  The first person to cross the finish line wins,
provided they did not DQ themselves.  You can DQ a number of ways but
the mains are red light or "break-out".  A red light means that a
signal indicating your front wheels moved out the timer trigger beam
arrived at the processor before a circuit closed that illuminates the
green light(ie your car moved before green).  A break-out is when you
run quicker than what you said you would.  Those two are the common
sources of DQ.  Crossing centerline probably next.

I've not seen one exactly like Richard describes.  Mainly, the part
about whoever gets closest to their bracket ET I have not seen.
In the racing I've been around, this does not matter, atleast
directly.  The winner of a race is whoever crosses the finish line
first(and didn't DQ).

Obviously, to get the best scenario possible you run a perfect
light(reaction time), and then run your time exactly.  If you can do
this you WILL win.

A good consistent car is important for ET repeatability.  The driver
is entirely responsible for the light.

There you have bracket racing how I did it.  I took first in my
bracket at the 1991 NDRA April Nats.  I did a second at both the 1989
NDRA April Nats and the 1993 ANRA Finals.   At the 93 Finals I got
second because I redlighted by .004 seconds.  I only ran .02 off my
ET.  I was racing aginst a '63 Stingray, 427 and all.  I would've
won had I not lost...

It was nostalgia racing and I love the '50s and '60s when it comes to
cars.

Ken