QUALIFYING PASSES

• At our events we first have qualifying passes; a pass is a run down the track to test your vehicle for speed, your reaction to the lights, and for you to get a feel for the track conditions.  The day’s car count, weather and other track occurrences determine the number of qualifying passes permitted at each race.

• These are timed passes but if you have a problem with a run, you are not disqualified.

• Each driver receives a time slip which the driver picks up from the Printer Shack.

• Driver information from you and your opponent is on the Time Slip and includes;
• Driver’s name
• Car number
• Tree Speed; the time it takes for each amber and green to come on after the previous bulb.  It will usually be a Sportsman Tree, which is .500
• Dial in; the time the driver predicts it will take him/her to run the track from the start to the finish line.

• Reaction Time; the time it took the driver to react to the starting lights.  Measured in the thousandths of a second.  A perfect reaction time is .500. 
• 60-foot; the time it takes a vehicle to cover the first 60 feet of the track.  It is the most accurate measure of the launch from the starting line and in most cases determines how quick the rest of the run will be.
• 330-foot; the time from the start line to 330 feet ~ good for comparing to racing in Saratoga or Mission Raceways.
• M.P.H.; the speed the driver ran the track at in miles per hour.  Track length 384 feet. 
• 384-foot - E.T.(Elapsed Time); the actual time it took the driver to get from the start line to the finish line.
• Winner; will be under the Driver/Car who won the race.
• Status; If you red lit, it will be listed as RED

Other racing terminology includes;

• Christmas Tree; refers to the lighting system used for drag racing.
• Breakout; refers to a driver running quicker than his or her “dial-in”.
• Hole shot; reacting quicker to the Christmas Tree starting light to win against a quicker opponent. 
• Burnout; spinning the rear tire in water to heat & clean them prior to a run for better traction.  A burnout precedes every run.  Never do a burnout when cars are on the starting line.
• Prestaged; a car is prestaged when the top small yellow bulbs are on.  It is courtesy for opponents to prestage one at a time by letting the other car prestage before you do.
• Staged; a driver is staged when the front wheels of the car are right in the starting line and both sets of the small yellow bulbs on the driver’s side of the Tree are both glowing.
• Foul Start/Red Light; a foul start is indicated by a red light on the Tree when a car has left the starting line before receiving the green light.

ELIMINATIONS

• Eliminations in layman’s term are when you start your real racing.

• When going into eliminations, you want to look at all your time-slips from qualifying.

• You want to compare your ‘E.T’s’ for all of your qualifying runs, see if your time has improved from your first to your last qualifying run then decide what time you should put on your windows as your ‘dial in’.

• Another part of the time-slip you want to review is the reaction time; if your reaction time has improved, you want to take into consideration why. 

• Too quick of a reaction at the start line may cause you to ‘red light’, if this happens in eliminations you are eliminated and you are out of the race.

•  “Time only’s” are methods of continuing to run passes after you have been eliminated.  Time only passes are a timed pass made with the permission and discretion of the Race Day Director.  Always remember if the race is on a time constraint, T/O’s may be refused.

• If you get the go ahead for a time only, then proceed down the right curb side of the staging lanes, the staging official will wave you into the water box as time is freed up.  Grudge matches can be run as time only’s as well.  Most time only’s will be done between elimination rounds so don’t get upset if you have to wait for a break in the action.