Drag Racing Discussions > Drag Racing

Stagging Rules / Etiquette

(1/5) > >>

GlennLever:


I was testing at the local track here.

I was put up against a door car (test and tune).

I did my normal burn out and backed up, the door car did a burn out and pulled up to the line.

He lit the prestage light, and then I lit my prestage light.

I waited for him to stage, once he did I moved forward to light my stage light, as I moved forward my red light came on.

The starter came out held me, ran the other car and then had me back up and restage and I ran my time trial.

After I returned to the pits, while the track was being prepared for racing, I went over to talk with the starter.

He told me what he suspected happened was the door car prestaged, then turned the stage light on, then backed up to turn it back off.

By doing this he started the timer for staging.

This was done while I was working on turning my pre stage light on.

He says the door car driver then counts off six seconds and then stages (stage clock set to 7 to 10 seconds).

This cuts the time I have to stage to 1 to 3 seconds.

The starter says he has seen this trickery at this track before (understand that as soon as I saw his stage light come on I moved to turn my stage light on, but my red light came on right away).

I asked if this had been a race if that would have been a loss for me and he said yes.

Over dinner I was talking this over with my wife.

She says the crew person for the door car was out in front of the door car helping him stage. The thought has crossed my mind that the crew person might have tripped the stage light (by accident or on purpose as a way to win the race).

Up till now I have always curtsey staged (prestage, allow the other racer to prestage then stage and allow the other racer to stage).

This starter suggested I not do that, double bulb and not worry about what the other racer is doing, feels wrong to me.
 
This is the first time this has happened to me, has this happened to any of you?

Is this tripping of the stage light legal?

Your thoughts?


Glenn

JrFuel Hayden:
In my 50 [ yes] years of dragracing I have not run into that, it sure seems illegal. I bet it is in NHRA racing, maybe it's a local door car trick.  NHRA does not allow crew to be near the race cars when staged. I guide my driver  to just before the 1'st beam, then back away, so he can finish staging. I'll check the rule book.
But I will tell you  I saw the 2013 Comp Elim champ [A/AP] have a problem red lighting, against a certain door car racer. I saw the video of his car not even wringle his slick and his red light came on, after the door car left. NHRA checked his video and the staging beams, and tree, but found no issue.  So the thought was since this happend at least twice before with against the same racer, that something fishy was going on. One thought was the door car racer had the photographer stand at the start line and shot flash pictures, and the flash bounced off the front wheel and triggered the red light. NHRA told all photographers to not stand near the start line. Also another  fix was to powder coat both front wheels black and added a bigger wheel disc, no red lights after both of those changes.   

Crazy Heh ?
Jon

Pipe Dreams:
Why do people have to play so many D... games!! Makes me so mad! Just race your race and have fun.

I'll tell you though Glen, If that had happened to me in eliminations, some people would be getting an ear full.


Couple yrs ago at Norwalk the big thing a certain driver would do was do his burnout and stage backing up. He would back up from his burn out, (acrosss the starting line) light the bottom bulb first and the back up to turn on the pre stage bulb. All of this to get in your head and hurry you though your routine.He did this for quite awhile until people began to complain and pointed out the rule that your last staging movement must be forward.

Dumbest one I've ever seen happen though,  was a guy in a ford ranger in one of the gamblers races at the Holloween classic. He dailed a 25 sec. ET for the 1/8 mile against a dragster. Went down the track and STOPPED right before the finish line, waited for the dragster, and then just bumped across the line to win the race then the dragster got close.

masracingtd1167:
Most tracks these days have auto start on the tree . Once 3 stage lights have been lit the last driver to stage has 10 seconds to put the fourth light on . If not you get an automatic red light .

dreracecar:
Once the final stage light is lit (By either tire or crewmembers foot)once the car has gone into the pre-stage beam, that is considered final stage, and by movment (rocking the front tire or Crew moving their foot) the stage beam goes out, then that is considered flickering the bulbs and a instant DQ. If the inadvertant placement of the crews foot was accidental, then he has some explaining to do with his driver as to why he was DQ. Starters are busy and would have taken my complaint to the tower.

  NHRA "Re-staging for a second time is prohibited"

The big problem with the auto-tree is that the starter only has a one button to push and that is pushed when both final stage bulbs are lit and then the computer takes over. In the old days there were other buttons and the starter would have bulbed the guy for flickering/bumping the tree

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page