Someone explain the reasoning behind pulling thru water bax,pulling forward a good ways and backing into box.While there is a car backing up from burnout,come towards your car and you know dude doesn't have rearview mirrors.
I have watched a ton of cars almos get backed on top of because they where moving forward while guy backing up was still rolling back.How the hell does that make good sense?

If reason is to speed the show up.Noway in hell its going to make much difference if you wait till he starts forward to pull up much more than to point of straddling box,back tires in water or just out.If need to pull forward and back into water fo alignment then when he is in beams seems to make lot more sense.

Bored today Chris?

Some people are not too smart.

nope just watching world series and noticing more and more cars doing this. Seems stupid too me.

They want to drag that water up as close to the line as they can so they can do a burn out down to at least the 330 to get the water off their tires

it's called "DUMBAZZ's

think thats the disease,which I guess could be a reason

Because they saw someone do it that went to the next round.. Monkey see, Monkey do.

How about the 8 second 1/8 cars that have to go back and forth through the water before doing their burnout! Pull through back up then through water a second time. Sometimes I think they need to deepen the water box to 12” and only one time through it.

People don't seem to understand that if you roll through the water and then back through the water, the exact same points on the tire contact the exact same points in the burnout box.

It's ridiculous to see some people pull 10'-20' out of the water. Burnout box guys need to "direct traffic", and the racers need to listen to them. This would keep the track better for everyone.

I believe the rules say you are allowed one backup so to me if you use your one backup in the water box then burnout across the starting line you are screw because you aren’t allowed to back up a second time.

The first time you attempt the burnout and basically do a "dry hop" then you will understand why you roll thru then back up, and then roll forward to the edge.
Yes some are ridiculous with this procedure, some tracks put way to much water down, some not enough. Also depends what type of surface the water is actually on. Some tracks spray the water on a very "porous" which will result in not very much water on the tires, some tracks spray where the surface is smooth. Either way, Im pulling to the edge, no matter where that is, I will NOT start the burnout in a puddle or lake, thats where the burnout box workers have to be paying attention.

Shane Carr

I don't know how dragster guys do it, except for having good help, but the best accessory I ever put on my car was a mirror on the inside of the door. I could open the door, look in the mirror and see exactly where my rear tire was in the water. That way I wasn't sitting in a puddle, and wasn't on dry track. Before the mirror I'd occasionally be trying to do a burnout on dry pavement(hard to do with 53% weight on the rear) or have water dripping from my wheel wells after the burnout.

24 years of no issues doing burnouts myself. If the tire is wet then that’s all that matters. Take a look in front of a tire when a doorcar starts his burnout and you will see a small puddle form where the water comes off the tire.

Somehow, I manage to do a burnout with a 104HP FWD Turismo, with no line lock...

I was watching a race in the last week or two, and there was a dragster that was the very first car down the track for the day, who proceeded to drag water a FULL dragster length out past the burnout box before starting his burnout. Absolutely ridiculous.

Has anyone actually ever asked a tire manufacturer what the proper procedure would be for the optimal burnout in a dragster?

Monkey see monkey do. Nothing more

Myself however if i pull through water to end of water box and say its hot out of the guy in front of me takes a long time to stage the tire dries off and i basically do a dry hop. So now all o do is wait at the back of the water box and when he is staged i roll forward and do a burnout like a fueler. Much easier.

I hate when guys drag the water out more than a full dragster length.

With the dragster I have always just waited behind the water box and when its time to do my burn out I just roll thru and when I know my tires are out of the water, have a spot where my front is at, I just deck it, never had any issue with a dry burn out that way. Always off the gas by the time I get to the tree

I don’t understand why some of the tracks spray a 3’ Long patch of water when the circumference of our tires is 9’. I think that’s the main reason why people do goofy crap in the water.

Here is my .02, take it for what its worth.

Back in the late 90's, some tracks used to spray the burnout box with traction compound and have you drag it up to the starting line. Also, back then, you really only had 2 tires to choose from, Hoosier or Goodyears. Imagine Hoosiers and traction compound in the burnout box, we used to break alot of parts. You would shake the **** out of the car no matter what you tried. Someone started dragging water up to keep from breaking parts and it just caught on from there.

Now, you all have the empties that don't rattle and most tracks have changed their prep procedures too. Old habits are hard to break.

As far as the original post, why they do it while someone is backing up, they'll stop once someone runs into them. Its like standing in the middle of the track while someone is backing up, common sense tells you not to do it.