This is going to be a bit long-winded, so I hope I'm not using up too much bandwidth, lol.
It was just an interesting race weekend, armed with much new information from all of you. So if you have time for a story........

On Saturday afternoon I bought a No-Box card. At my 'home' track on Saturdays we generally have the luxury of at least an hour and a half or so of open test and tune time, before qualifications start.

I made one test pass for a baseline, then bolted 3 x 10 lb. barbell plates into the back of my truck bed, and made test passes with the usual 13 PSI in my Hoosier 28 x 10's.
The time slips were unflattering, with variations of .05 to .10 seconds between passes.

It wasn't until I added two more plates, for a total of 50# of weight, and increased that tire pressure to 17 PSI that things started to get interesting. It was time to race by then, and in the qualifications and my one elimination round I had an extreme ET variance of about .03 seconds. Still too much, though the afternoon was fading and air was just starting to cool.

On Sunday morning I double-entered in both Pro Trophy (my main points race. It's like Sportsman) and Mod ET. I wanted the extra passes and practice at the tree.

Waiting in the staging lanes to qualify, one the very top racers at this track, "F.H.", came up to me out of the blue and said "Cut your burnouts in half. You're spinning". F.H. is not one to blow smoke up my butt, and he offers advice I think at least partly due to altruism.

So I took his advise...... and later beat one of his good friends. ;^)
BTW, he also said "Get rid of those Hoosiers and get Mickey Thompsons!".

I had in fact been roasting my slicks some, partly due to a colder track surface and also I just wanted to get the tires 'used up'. They were about half used when I got them cheap last year, from a racer who said they spun on him. I felt safe to run them as I'm a foot-brake racer who's nearly two seconds slower than him.

Sigh. I'll never buy used slicks again. False economy. Not when I've lost so many races when I was in the first money round. But you've all been there, no doubt.

After starting to roast my tires less, I made a couple time trials of 11.763 and 11.759. Nice. But then I won 7 rounds between the two classes, with E.T.s of 11.773, 11.763, 11.762, 11.762, 11.765, 11.757 and 11.758.
I was stunned.

I was paired up in the semi-finals of Mod ET with another of the very, very best racers at my track; "D.S.". He had me by a hundreth at the tree and ran right on his dial-in. I was off-dial by about a hundreth. Lol, I won $100 at least!

Later I spoke with F.H. and his buddy J.S., and was asked why I was running 17 PSI in my slicks now. I told F.H. because the guys on the internet suggested that.
He responded "Don't listen to anyone on the internet!".

"Well, how come you guys only run 7 or 8 pounds in your tires?".
"Our tires are much bigger and need less pressure". Interesting.

I didn't get a chance to weigh my truck, front and back, as Stock/Super Stock was running this weekend and had the scale tied up.

A buddy of mine who's been racing for 30 years watched me launch. He said "your truck does not pitch, lift, squat, or separate. It just leaves, like it always has.".

One very important benefit I've noticed is that my vehicle reaction time seems to have improved and I can cut better average lights.

I'm thinking of maybe adding perhaps 20# more weight, and maybe another pound or so of air pressure. I've just been using a Milton 20# pencil gauge though and I plan to upgrade.

It probably wouldn't hurt to start shopping for shocks, too, though I'm hesitant to change much more at this point. Stuff may be working now.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Bad Nusz,

Here's my story. Many moons ago I was running a po-dunk track where they didn't prep anything. That means rocks, stones, boogers, whatever is on the track. Didn't even sweep it. Anyway, I made a pass and of course the car was all over the place. Another time trial after some adjustment to the 4 link & shocks, a lot better (goes straight) but still loose. No other car in the class was as fast, and after a couple eliminations I understood why-I simply had more power than the track could handle, and mind you...LOL....I ain't nowhere near fast. Well E4 rolls around and I hop in to start the car, guess what? Dead battery. Tried charging, no dice. It was getting weak the whole time I was there, so it wasn't a surprise. Well I had a bright idea. Pull one of the batteries out of the truck and use it. I had little time, so I just ran a ratchet strap around the the battery from the frame rails and ran the cables to it and ran with it. Guess what? Car hooked-and picked up a solid .09 on a breakout run. Other guy went red so it was another time trial for me. Won that day. I thought it was odd that adding 57 lbs to the other side of the trunk would make the car faster but I learned something that day. Well a lot of things and one was....don't go back there.

If you have a stock tank, there is a significant amount of ballast to be gained by running with it full of fuel. Take care. Tom Worthington

quote:

Originally posted by Tom396:
If you have a stock tank, there is a significant amount of ballast to be gained by running with it full of fuel. Take care. Tom Worthington

Thanks, Tom; I have in fact a large fuel cell of I think 15 or so gallons? The previous owner put it in there (for what reason, I have no clue. It was only street-driven before I got it) and it is in the far rear of the truck box, under the tonneau cover.
Last weekend I kept it nearly full, and filled regularly to try to keep the weight more uniform throughout a race.

Well I am glad you made some progress and heading in right direction. That was the reason I wanted you to video it so you could see what it was doing. Your friend that watched you was able to see some of what was going on and give you good advice.
I prefer to get chassis right to where ballast is not needed and only use it as a last resort.

Thx Curly1; the ballast is helping me out alot now, but I concur it would be best to tune the chassis without additional weight. I'm going to work towards that, probably starting with adjustable shocks.