Bummer of a night at the track

[JET]

I went to Atco Raceway tonight expecting to blow my previous best ¼ miles time away. I recently installed an Accufab throttle body and my car feels almost too quick for the street. I know that it is hot as hell out tonight but this single blade throttle body is unlike anything I’ve ever experienced before, so I was expecting to see some great results at the track. To my dismay the complete opposite occurred.

I got to the track around 5pm. I had ½ a tank of 94 octane in my car. I adjusted the front tire pressure to 45psi and the rears to 22psi. My first run was at 5:44pm. Temperature was 85 degrees, Humidity was 64% and the barometer read 29.15. I started my burnout in 1st gear and immediately watched my rpms shoot up over 7000. Not a good thing and this led to a very short burnout. I was quite shaken as I pulled up to the tree but at least my motor was still running. Once the tree turned green I floored it and then the tires spun and spun as I went sideways. I laid off the pedal and then laid back into it once I regained control. I hadn’t raced since March 1st and as I flew down the track I felt like I was doing a 10 second quarter mile. I knew I wasn’t but the combination of not being on the track for so long and new feel of the throttle body made me feel like I was flying. Well I wasn’t and I ended up with a 2.446-60’ time and a 14.286-¼ at 105.25-mph. I was not happy but a least I didn’t blow up during my burnout. I had 3 more passes in the next ½ hour. That included one bad burnout after another followed by more terrible launches each time. I never got the tires to give off a respectable amount of smoke. Each time the car got sideways while attempting a burnout. Looking out my driver’s side view mirror I couldn’t detect any smoke out of the left tire but smoke did appear out of the right rear tire. A few people told me there was only one tire was spinning. Thank god at least I can blame a bum posi. I have an Eaton posi on order from Lidio. This followed by either a great deal of spin & twisting off the line which led to me laying off the accelerator to avoid hitting the wall. Expect for the one time which I walked the car out. I got faster each run but I could never muster a sub 2 second 60’ time. My 4th run at 6:16pm was a 2.019-60’ with a 13.288-¼ at 106.02-mph. I was sweating like pig and pissed off at myself for my poor racing skills.

I took a break for 2 hours then resumed racing at 8:21pm. Crying for help I called Mr. 1.6’ himself BillyGman and he told me how he does a burnout and gave me a pep talk. By that time the temperature had dropped to 80 degrees but the humidity went up to 77% as did the barometer to 29.15. I lowered my rear tire pressure to 18psi. I tried but my burnout results were the same as were my launches. Resulting in a worse than last time 2.070-60’ but slightly improved 13.246-¼ at 106.6. By my next and last run at 9:24pm the humidity levels went up by 11% to 88%. Results were more or less the same. I finished the night with 2.025-60’, 13.168-¼ at 106.84-mph.

I am stunned that I couldn’t at least break into the 12’s as I had done consistently since I had the super-charger installed last November. I’m planning on racing at Indy and now I have no confidence. I hope that there really is trouble with my posi or else I might have to attend burnout school.

The good news is that I blew the doors off everything I raced. I even chased down a bunch of cars that got a lead o my do to the fact that I was spinning in place out of the gate. I’ve chased down cars before but this time I was really eating up them after the 1st 60’. The car was just waxed and looked beautiful. Everyone couldn’t believe how fast I was but I couldn’t believe how slow I was. Little do they know what our cars are really capable of.
:lol: :cry: :mad2: :bigcry: :mad: :( :mad2: :puke:

[Constable]

I went to ATCO last month and it sucked. I have an NA car and I couldn't get traction there. It really stunned me because ATCO has been hailed as the unofficial "Traction Capitol of the World". Sorry you had a bad night.

[BillyGman]

I wish I had been there w/you John to get a firsthand look at what was going on. I'm sorry that I don't have any definate explanations for your experience in Atco. The only thing that I know is that I was there 5 weeks ago, and w/my 4.56 gears and the 3,000 stall speed, I was hooking up great at that track, and I have the same rear tires as you. However, it was around 70 degres that day. But even if that can account for a couple tenths in the ET, the fact still remains that w/a 60' time of 1.6 seconds in two consecutive races, my Nitto drag radials were hooking up great, and that was at 22 PSI.


The only thing that I can possibly think of that might have helped you is to have your Drag radials "Heat cycled" like I did when I bought them. Discount tire direct does this for an extra $15 per tire. I'm not positive if this really makes a difference, although my tires are simply working great on and off the track, and my 60' times don't lie. But this something that has to be done before you use the tires. You can read about this procedure here......

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/brochure/tire/HeatCycleInfo.jsp

here's more.... http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/brochure/info/tmpInfoHeatCycling.jsp


and here's the place where I bought the tires that offers that service....

http://www.discounttiredirect.com/direct/home.jsp

[martyo]

Oddly enough John, I felt like I was right there with you.....

:lol:

[Krytin]

I just had my posi replaced under waranty. While looking @ the burned up clutches, the tech and I both agreed that the unit in the 8.8" rear is too small for a 4000+ lb car. One of the locker type units would be a better choise for replacement. Just my $.02.

[sailsmen]

"2.025-60’, 13.168-¼ at 106.84-mph"

A 13.168 time with a 2.025 60' is excellent. Look at some of the time slips and a 1.75 60' would result in a 12.893.

Like you said it's not a question of power or high air temps but solely a lack of traction. When I run at the track after I finish I always go to the grandstands and watch how the other cars are running. What I look for are they having traction problems or is there dew on the track causing traction probelms on the 1-2 shift, what 1/4 times and trap speeds are they running.

This always puts things in perspective.

I also do not hesitate to ask the track officials in the staging lanes, in a nice courteous way, to try to improve the traction or to prep the track.

Don't worry you will get your traction issue resolved wether it's the posi, track conditions or technique or a combination. :up:

[Dan]

On the brighter side, a one wheei grabbing traction issue is relatviely easy to fix and the repair it typically an upgrade that will give you better off-line traction than when the car was new. :)

Best,

Dan

[stumpy]

Friday night at Atco is only for grudge racing. I don't know of a single track on the East coast that EVER really preps the track on a Friday night or any night when there is grudge racing. So, to begin with it was a bad night for breaking records.

As for the burnout, it sounds like you're only doing a 1st gear burnout. That's not good. I alway go into second almost immediately and sometimes I shift into 3rd if I really want to heat them up. You can't spin them very fast if you only use 1st gear. Likewise, part of the reason to do a burnout is to heat up the 2nd and 3rd gear clutch packs in the transmission. Otherwise, you're only trying to get the temp of the tires to match the track temp to get good traction.

Lastly, heat drastically affects DA. Humidity does as well but to a less extent than heat, except when it's both hot and humid. Go to this web site and check what the DA would have been from last Friday compared to in March when the DA was likely below sea level. --> DA Calculator (http://wahiduddin.net/calc/calc_da.htm). Atco is at 33' altitude. :D Sea level pressure is 29.92. I'd say that if the pressure was 29.15 then it was definitely above 2000' DA, oof!

[JET]

Thanks All, I'll keep plug'in away till I get it right

[BillyGman]

LOL.....John continues to have fun with those BIG letters now that he's learned how to use them. :D