The whole point of hot rodding is to become involved. It’s infinitely more fun to play the game than to merely watch. While racing at any level is not cheap, drag racing offers a class called bracket racing, in which any car can compete regardless of its performance. All you need is a car and the desire.
But before you turn your first tire in competition, it’s always best to know how the game is played. Getting started is the focus of this story. The best place to start is to hang out with a racer who wins. Offer to help in the pits in exchange for his input on how to race intelligently. This works especially well for younger hot rodders, but it can work for anyone. Generally, these experienced racers are flattered by your interest and can be a tremendous help in getting you started.

DIALING FOR E.T.
In most forms of racing, winning means getting to the finish line first. But in bracket racing that’s not always true. Handicap racing may be a better description of what happens. Typically, the elapsed time (e.t.) categories are separated into four brackets: Super Pro is 7.50 to 10.99 seconds, Pro is 11.00 to 11.99 seconds, Sportsman is 12.00 to 13.99 seconds, and Street is 14.00 seconds and slower. Each of these brackets offers a wide range of e.t.’s, so to level the playing field, the cars are handicapped based on the e.t. you choose. This is called your dial-in. Choose your dial-in carefully, because if your car runs quicker than your dial-in, you automatically lose. This is called breaking out.

For example, let’s say that you choose a 14.20 e.t. for your dial-in, and your opponent chooses a 13.80. Since you have the slower car, you will get a .40-second head start. Theoretically, if both cars run exactly on their dial-in, the finish would be a tie. But this never happens because of the variables of both cars’ e.t.’s and reaction times.

The lights that shine across the starting line also serve to electronically measure the amount of time it takes for your front tires to clear the beams when the car leaves the line. This is called a reaction time. Most tracks use an interval of .500 second between each yellow bulb on a three-amber Sportsman Christmas Tree. Reaction time is then expressed as a number greater than .500 (the amount of time between the last amber and the green light), which would be a “perfect” reaction time. For example, a reasonable reaction time would be a .532. Leaving too soon will create a red light, which means you automatically lose. Red lights are expressed as a number less than .500, such as .496. Some tracks give reaction time based on .000 as a perfect reaction time, so the above .532 example would be shown as a .032 reaction time. In this case red lights are given as a negative number, such as –.004. Quicker e.t. classes such as Super Gas and Super Comp use a Pro Tree, where all three amber lights flash simultaneously .400 second before the green light. In this case, a perfect light on a Pro Tree would then be a .400 light.


STAGING GAMES
Now that you know what all those flashing lights mean, let’s move to the all-important action of staging the car to start the race. Staging is one of the most important aspects of drag racing. All dragstrips use the standard Pre-Stage and Stage lights that appear as two sets of small yellow lights positioned at the very top of the Tree. These sets of lights are directly tied to two light beams that cross the track and make up the starting line. The Pre-Stage lights at the very top of the Tree will light up as the front tires of your car interrupt the Pre-Stage beam. This informs you that your car is approaching the starting line. The Stage lights will turn on when your front tires have interrupted the second starting line beam. When both sets of Pre-Stage and Stage lights are lit, your car is staged. This is your signal to the dragstrip starter that you are fully prepared to race.

RACING TO WIN
The key to winning in any type of drag racing is to pull off a consistent and quick reaction time. This is also true for bracket racing. Running consistent e.t.’s makes winning easy, but the best place to win races is right at the starting line. Getting a better jump off the starting line than your opponent will win a majority of races. This is where bracket racing can get confusing. Using the example of a 14.20 car racing a 13.80 car, let’s say that you leave with a .532 light and run a 14.22 while your opponent runs a 13.81 but was slower on the Tree with a .550 light. While his car ran closer to his dial-in by .01-second, he was slower than you in reaction time by .018. This means that you would win by .008 second due to your quicker reaction time. In other words, even though you ran slower, you still won the race! It seems as if there are a million ways to lose and only one way to win, and nowhere is that truer than in bracket racing. As mentioned before, if you run quicker than your dial-in, you will probably lose. Sometimes, however, both cars will break out trying to beat the other to the finish line. In the case of a double-breakout, where both cars run under their dial-in, the car closest to its original dial-in will be the winner.

CONSISTENCY WINS
If there is one axiom to success in bracket racing, it is that consistency wins. To eliminate variables, you should strive to make a ritual out of every pass. Everything you and your car do should be exactly the same, meaning your burnout, staging procedure, reaction time, shift points and a hundred other operations that get the car down the track should be as close to the same as possible each round. Learn to compensate for changing track conditions by altering your dial-in rather than modifying the car. This will give you more time to study the conditions while avoiding the distraction of wrenching on the car between rounds. This is especially helpful during the final rounds when the cars are often required to hot-lap between the finish of one race and the start of another.

The beauty of bracket racing is that any car can win. Since slower cars are often more consistent, your mom’s Monte Carlo would probably make a killer bracket car. Either way, the idea is to compete. At first you’ll discover all the ways to lose. But if you stick with it, you’ll find that the best part of racing is competing rather than spectating. As the ad says, “Just Do It.” But don’t forget to ask your mom’s permission before you use her car. Tell her she can have the trophies!