I know what you've been thinking. "My
friends drag race, but I don't know how to". Many people don't drag race for a
variety of reasons. Some don't go to the drags because they think their car is too slow to
race, or because they don't know what their doing and they don't want to make fools of
themselves in front of a big crowd of people. Fear not! We're going to try to
explain drag racing to you as easily as possible. In this article we are going to start
with the basics. We are going to tell you where you need to be, and what you have to do.
Although the drag racing track is a big place and it can be very confusing, once you know
what you're doing its very simple.
We're going to start by showing you the basic parts of a drag racing track, and what each
place is, and why it's there.
Staging Lanes- The staging lanes is basically put, the place where you wait in line to race. After you "teched" in, they'll tell you what lane to go in. At some tracks you are in the lanes for a matter of minutes, and at other (overcrowded) tracks you might be there an hour. Whatever you do, DON'T leave your car once you're in the lanes. It's very frowned upon by the track officials.
Time Slip booth- This is where you get your time slip. It's usually right at the end of the track after you make your turn off. If you don't know yet, your time slip is a piece of paper you get that tells you how fast you went.
Christmas Tree- The "christmas tree" is the thing that has the green/yellow/red lights on it which tell you when to start.
Burnout Box- The burnout box is the place where you do your burnout (duh!). Some tracks don't actually have a box painted on the ground, so the way you know where the burnout box is by looking for the water. Track officials spray water in the burnout box area so its easier to get those tires spinning.
Stage beam / Pre-stage beam- The stage beams aren't visible on the track. They are light beams that run across the track which let you know when you are on the starting line. How do they let you know that you're on the starting line? When your front tire cross's one of the beams it lights one of the staging light on the christmas tree. When both rows of lights are lit on the tree you're all set to race.
Mph beam / speed trap- The MPH beam is where the computer starts timing you for your trap speed.
Tech inspection line- Although its not on the drawing above the tech inspection line is where you start your day. Before you can race you have to get your car "teched" in. Basically there will be a track official there who will take a quick look over your car to make sure everything is safe.
Above is a drawing of what a christmas tree looks like. (Edit: Sorry but this image was lost due to a hard drive failure) As you can see, the pre-stage and stage lights are on the top of the tree. As your car's front tires go over the pre-stage line (beam) the top lights will illuminate. Then the same goes for the stage lights. Once you have both sets (rows) of lights illuminated on your side of the christmas tree you are ready to go!
In the next part of "Drag racing 101" we're going to go through a day at the tracks. From what you will have to do when you arrive at the track in the morning to the last run of the day. Stay tuned.
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