Wednesday, May 4, 2011

Day Four (Interesting Facts)

Woody pointed out to me that I had not included a couple pieces of in my last post.  I'll also briefly discuss the drag races.  Here it goes.

As it turned out, adding the extra fuel just before going out on Daytona was key as I went through a 1/4 + tank in the session.  We would have had fuel starvation.
 Next, when I was brave enough to look at the speedometer coming through the tri-oval it read a smidge over 160 MPH.  Factoring in the discrepancy in gage to actual, I believe the speed to be an adjusted 155 MPH.  Still damn fast if you ask me.  The new photo at the top of the blog page is in the tri-oval area.....no way you can tell from that photo that the speed is 155 MPH.

After leaving Daytona, we had a short 116 mile drive to Gainesville and the drag race track.  Pulling in we quickly unloaded the car and had our tech sheet completed and signed.  I suited up once again and then staged the car with all the other competitors.  A brief lesson on drag racing timing lights and safety issues and it was time to run our ET (elapsed time).  We score overall points in the ET based on time...pretty simple concept.

I line up and stage.  The lights on the christmas tree (a pole between the two lanes with position stage lights, yellow count down lights, and then green lights - GO) begin their sequence.  Green lights up and I let out the clutch and press the right foot pedal - hard.  It is worth noting here that the lights or jumping the green lights do not matter for the ET pass, BUT they will in the next event.  Four shifts later and 13.665 seconds and I have gone a 1/4 mile and reached a speed of 104+ MPH.  Slow for sure as the M3 in "official" testing has ripped off a 12 second 1/4 mile.  My guess is we are down slightly on power as it is hot and the car only had 40 minutes to cool off from the drive prior to the ET.  The ET pass is 32nd fastest and the second fastest BMW.

After the ET comes bracket racing.  Based on your ET you select a time that you believe you personally will not beat.  Usually you put down a number slightly lower/faster than your ET time.  You want to be as close to your ET as possible.  Other competitors are doing the same thing.  You come to the line again and the difference between the two cars is dialed in to the christmas tree sequencing.  So for example, if I  dial in 13 seconds and the car next to me is at 15 seconds, he will start 2 seconds before I will.  The start is dictated by the lights so you must be sure to concentrate on your lights and not the car next to you.  Now if you jump the green light you are out.  You are also out if you beat (are faster than) your own dialed in time.  If everything goes off perfectly (no jumped lights and no one "breaks out" of their dialed in time, then it is a true drag race.  There is a winner and a loser.  The loser packs up and heads to the next event.

Now there are not a lot of points available in the bracket racing portion of the event.  As there are 597 miles to drive to No Problem Raceway in Donaldson, LA, I am all about losing on purpose so we can start our long drive.  I lose straight up, so no worries.

We were on the road in 20 minutes with the GPS showing an arrival time of 4:30 am EST.  We will gain  an hour, but big deal.

Cheers!!!!

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