Had a decent day at New England Dragway this past saturday. Tons of cars there, but the vast majority were in the car show. Fortunately, this meant before racing began the track officials just kept the lanes open, and I got seven time trial runs before racing began (and believe me, I NEEDED the practice!) and I took an hour break, took it easy here and there. I could have easily gotten 10 runs before time trials.

So, I signed up for the street tire class instead of the slick class. And my first race was a lesson in bracket racing "top-end" tactics.

Also, before I run every race in the bracket competition I repeat to myself this one phrase which saves me more often than I can count (and it did this race) which is "just run your race." (By which I mean: you know what you are doing, you know your car better than anyone, you know your car better than the other person knows their car, you know your dial in, you know how your car is running today, just run the race all the way through like you should, don't second guess anything, do what you do well and RUN YOUR RACE)

First run was against a chick in a modded up early 90s civic. Fast car, mid 14s potential. I get the launch first because my dial in was a miserable 15.5 (cold day, mist/fog all day, no traction, poor power too, just not a good day for fast times) and I hit a good reaction time and a so-so 60'.

Her dial in is 14.75, but by the 1/8 mile she is already passing me so she was going to break out big time! Now, this girl has been there plenty of times and knows how to race and what's going on, so she knows she's breaking out and lets up and tries to keep her nose just ahead of me.

So, I am thinking for a moment of letting off because if she breaks out, I REALLY want to make sure I do NOT break out, basically a guaranteed win.

BUT, you would only do that if the other person is WAY ahead of you or a good deal ahead, and she was only a nose ahead. So, I stayed in it full throttle because I knew I was probably a running just a little slower than my dial in (by about a tenth, which I was). So this is where I stuck to my advice: "Run your race."

She might have won by keeping her nose ahead, or might have broken out at this point, I'm not sure. I did have a better reaction time so that gave me an advantage. But (this makes sense if you know bracket racing) if I was slower than my dial in by a greater amount than she was slower than my reaction time, I would have lost. But what she did was second guess herself and give me the race.

She second guesses slows down even more, allowing me to get my nose ahead. I ran my race and kept on the throttle. She couldn't catch back up before the finish line giving me the win. And all this happened in the second 1/8th mile, about oh, 5 and a half seconds.

Second race I line up against a guy who has been racing a lot as well in an SRT Neon. I have actually talked to him on several occations before (I don't remember his name, he is a regular there). This race I have the slower dial in so I launch first, and he messed up his launch and just wasn't catching up fast enough.

So, since I was well ahead, I slowed down before the finish line (more top end tactics) to make sure I did not break out and give him the win.

Third race, only three people left and I don't get the bye (damn!)

I line up against a subaru SVX (those older mid 90s coupes with the odd windows). I messed up when I lined up and rolled up too far, basically deep staging, which will make your reaction time faster, which explains why I red lighted and lost the race.

All day during the time trials and the competition I was trying to be consistent and not cut the light too close, which is what I was doing by running 0.06 to 0.1 sec above a perfect light. (The track switched from listing a perfect light as 0.000 sec instead of 0.500 sec) But when you stage too deep your tire is further forward and it takes less time to break past and trigger the beam, making your reaction time faster. So I think that is why I red lighted instead of me being too jumpy or trying to cut it too close (which was my downfall on many occations in the past, like the last shootout)

Overall, it was my second day back racing this year, the first sport compact/import wars competition for me this year (I missed the first one) and I took 3rd place. No trophy for third, just 1st and 2nd which kind of sucks but overall not a bad day.

"Tutto fa brodo."

Todd Scungio
98 RS
15.173 @ 90.70 MPH

And also a 2011 Ralliart