I used to not care about ET breaks in Footbrake ("Pro", "Modified", "Bracket II", whatever).

But a new trend is taking place, in my area. There are maximum allowable (slowest) dial-ins for Footbrake at the same places that offer no eliminator alternative for those slower cars. Therefore, if you run slower than that cutoff, there no place at those tracks for those slower cars to compete. Typically, I am seeing a 9.99 cutoff in Footbrake. No dials slower than 9.99 allowed. That's fine, but what if you don't happen to have something that runs quicker than 9.99 (1/8 mile)? There is no "Street" or "Stock" or some such at many of these tracks.

If there IS an eliminator for those slower entries, fine. But to have absolutely nothing for cars running 10.00 and slower just seems counterproductive to me. Oddly enough, the big buck events don't seem to mind, so long as you ante up the big entry fee. Lots of folks have supported the idea of TruStart to even up any advantage a quicker car may have, but I haven't heard many folks mention this. Thoughts? Opinions? Observations? Should I just shut up? Take care. Tom Worthington

What does 9.99 in the 1/8 translate to in the 1/4? That seems really slow, but that is where our Street ET class would run I imagine.

The Wallace Racing calculator says 9.99 in the 1/8 is about a 15.85 in the 1/4 mile. I know the first car I bracket raced couldn't touch that. I know my daily driver 1994 Buick Gran Sport 3.8L wouldn't run that quick either.

Northeast Dragway, in Hertford NC, has a Street eliminator (any dial in is OK). However, most other tracks in this immediate area do not. Not all of them have a 9.99 Footbrake ET cutoff, but many now do. Take care. Tom Worthington

Around here footbrake/no box doesn't have an et break at the fast or the slow end. Nothing like running against street pickup trucks and mini vans and spotting them 5 seconds or more. Then you get cars in the 5's next round. They did start the Sportsman class at some of the IHRA tracks with a no faster than 7.50 et break.
Around here the only et breaks they worry about is to keep slow cars out of box.

New track manager at local track let a 11.80 dial street car race S/P recently. Dude didn't do any good,got beat by a 4.70 dragster. Think there was about 75 mph difference. I later mentioned to the track manager that it was kinda sketchy with that much mph difference. Totally went over his head. He thought it was fun to watch and hopes it happens more often.

I remember some Bad Mo Fos winning ALOT of races in Cavaliers going slower than 9.99. Steve Stites won one of the 20k Piedmont races with his dialing-in in the mid 10s if I remember correctly.

Bad idea having the slow break at all and too quick if they insist on having it

I recently bought a s10 truck for both top and bottom bulb racing (swap feet on bottom).

In some places you will find a break...9.99 is slow and I mean slower than 11 year olds in Jr dragsters. Many track owners find cars that cars that slow simply slow down a program and if they lost 2 or 3 cars a weekend...so be it. Just stating what I have heard thru the years at various locations in the country.

Others do not like the huge gap in mph but have no break to get every customer they can..

In the end the tracks and mgmt make their decisions and sometimes we get to race...sometimes obviously not.

Our footbrake et break is 9.99 1/8 mile. Our sportsman class is 10.00 and slower. I would be okay with maybe 10.50 seconds in our 1/8 class but any more than that the mph difference gets crazy unsafe. I already race guys all the time and have 40 mph on them.

I had a race recently that we didn't have enough cars to pay full purse. We needed one more car so we made a deal among ourselves to buy in one of the sportsman cars and the winner cover the tech card. The guy who did it races a Ford diesel all the time. He only runs 72 in the 1/4. I had to run him first round. He had to dial 9.99 by the rules but only ran 11.42 in the 1/8. Obviously I lifted on him but my closing rate on him is stupid scary thinking about racing him and possibly getting out of shape. I run 117 in the 1/8.

Curtis

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:
Our footbrake et break is 9.99 1/8 mile. Our sportsman class is 10.00 and slower. I would be okay with maybe 10.50 seconds in our 1/8 class but any more than that the mph difference gets crazy unsafe. I already race guys all the time and have 40 mph on them.

I had a race recently that we didn't have enough cars to pay full purse. We needed one more car so we made a deal among ourselves to buy in one of the sportsman cars and the winner cover the tech card. The guy who did it races a Ford diesel all the time. He only runs 72 in the 1/4. I had to run him first round. He had to dial 9.99 by the rules but only ran 11.42 in the 1/8. Obviously I lifted on him but my closing rate on him is stupid scary thinking about racing him and possibly getting out of shape. I run 117 in the 1/8.

How often does anybody get out of shape?

Let's ban the street cars for making racing too dangerous! LOL!

I do hate racing them though.

For those that use the” its unsafe excuse of why there needs to be a cap”, what’s the difference between a 1/8 dialed 7.99 vs 4.50? Even 8.99 vs 5.70 is mph difference is still considerable. I have fought this battle here in Indiana. From what I see personally is the rule is emotional based as guys with “race cars” get fist fight pissed off when you load them week after week. We had a track here add a cap to pro/no box over this. If it’s safety then all the classes are screwed up.

quote:

Originally posted by Lenny5160:

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:
Our footbrake et break is 9.99 1/8 mile. Our sportsman class is 10.00 and slower. I would be okay with maybe 10.50 seconds in our 1/8 class but any more than that the mph difference gets crazy unsafe. I already race guys all the time and have 40 mph on them.

I had a race recently that we didn't have enough cars to pay full purse. We needed one more car so we made a deal among ourselves to buy in one of the sportsman cars and the winner cover the tech card. The guy who did it races a Ford diesel all the time. He only runs 72 in the 1/4. I had to run him first round. He had to dial 9.99 by the rules but only ran 11.42 in the 1/8. Obviously I lifted on him but my closing rate on him is stupid scary thinking about racing him and possibly getting out of shape. I run 117 in the 1/8.

How often does anybody get out of shape?

Let's ban the street cars for making racing too dangerous! LOL!

I do hate racing them though.

Occasionally. I guess you have never seen it happen.

I really don't give a crap if you want to make fun of what I posted. I actually enjoy racing cars with a huge spot but what I posted is still valid. Hitting the back of his dually at speed would not be pretty.

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:

quote:

Originally posted by Lenny5160:

quote:

Originally posted by CURTIS REED:
Our footbrake et break is 9.99 1/8 mile. Our sportsman class is 10.00 and slower. I would be okay with maybe 10.50 seconds in our 1/8 class but any more than that the mph difference gets crazy unsafe. I already race guys all the time and have 40 mph on them.

I had a race recently that we didn't have enough cars to pay full purse. We needed one more car so we made a deal among ourselves to buy in one of the sportsman cars and the winner cover the tech card. The guy who did it races a Ford diesel all the time. He only runs 72 in the 1/4. I had to run him first round. He had to dial 9.99 by the rules but only ran 11.42 in the 1/8. Obviously I lifted on him but my closing rate on him is stupid scary thinking about racing him and possibly getting out of shape. I run 117 in the 1/8.

How often does anybody get out of shape?

Let's ban the street cars for making racing too dangerous! LOL!

I do hate racing them though.

Occasionally. I guess you have never seen it happen.

I really don't give a crap if you want to make fun of what I posted. I actually enjoy racing cars with a huge spot but what I posted is still valid. Hitting the back of his dually at speed would not be pretty.

Well the easy solution in this particular race would have been to dial up a bunch and then just put a wheel on him. You knew he couldn’t run close to the dial. I have dialed up a whole second when I had issue with my car and didn’t want to run it all out and did just that. I made it to the fifth round before I lost and had fun doing it. I was chasing every time.

quote:

Originally posted by TORQIN:

In the end the tracks and mgmt make their decisions and sometimes we get to race...sometimes obviously not.

This is my point. It is one thing to have ET breaks. It's another not to offer an eliminator for those ET that don't fit in your footbrake eliminator. A vehicle can now be too slow to bracket race? Who would have thunk it? Take care. Tom Worthington

I have always wondered why the big speed gap is more dangerous? Who is it dangerous for? the slow car or the fast car?

If speed differential is going to be a legitimate safety concern, how about those places that allow cars and motorcycles to run side by side? That seems like a much more deadly situation, if the two were to tangle. So much so, I'd never run against a motorcycle, myself. Take care. Tom Worthington

I've been paired against a mini bike one time and a atv 4 wheeler another. Many tracks run motorcycles vs cars.

quote:

Originally posted by 1leg:
I have always wondered why the big speed gap is more dangerous? Who is it dangerous for? the slow car or the fast car?

Slow car--get rear ended by car going 75. Fast car-- hit a parked car doing 75

So I thought about this more while I was mowing last night. Maybe I was wrong. Kenny Koretsky drove right through Bruce Allen's car and they run the same speed. All these cars have a lot of energy stored in them and while I agree what we do is dangerous I have always felt there is no need to make it more dangerous.

It is fun chasing down a huge spot and I would still hate to hit another car but I would hate hitting any car slower or not.

Curtis

P.S. Green1 I've been racing long enough to know I could have done that but I wasn't willing to give up the front half data because it had been a while since anyone went down the track.

quote:

Originally posted by Tom396:
If speed differential is going to be a legitimate safety concern, how about those places that allow cars and motorcycles to run side by side? That seems like a much more deadly situation, if the two were to tangle. So much so, I'd never run against a motorcycle, myself.

A couple friends and I have a drag bike that we bought cheap to use when one of our cars is broken, or just for fun. It has made quite a few laps, and I don't know if there has ever been a bike in the other lane.

It's not a problem. If it is one day, it is racing and racing can be dangerous. We understand that.

If speed disparity was such a concern in drag racing why would the NHRA have super classes and allow throttle stops?
I worry a lot more towing to and from the track than I ever worried in a racecar. At least on the track we're all going the same direction.