In the most basic terms, your main goals as a bracket racer is to
- First, Choose a Dial-In, which is an estimate of how long it will take you (in seconds) to make the 1/8 mile pass.
- Then, run the pass as close to that estimation as possible (without going any faster).
Example #1: Lets say you made a couple practice passes, and your car took 7 seconds to run the 1/8 mile. You would choose what is called a Dial-In of 7.00. During a race, you will want to run the pass in 7 seconds without going any faster.This is what evens out the playing field for cars of different performance potentials. In bracket drag racing, winning is not about having the fastest car. Instead, winning is about running closer to your dial-in than your opponent ran on his dial-in.
Example #2: Let us say that the car in the left lane is running a 7.00 Dial-In and the car in the right lane is running a 6.62 dial in. Right from the jump, you know that the car in the right lane is actually faster, because his Dial-In is lower. However, this does not mean that the right lane will win. Now let's say that these cars make their pass. The car in the left runs a 7.09 on a 7.00 Dial-In and the car in the right runs a 6.65 on a 6.62 Dial-In. As you can see, the left lane ran .09 seconds off of his Dial-In and the right lane ran .03 seconds off of his dial. Since the right lane ran closest to his dial-in, he would be the winner.Bracket drags are run two cars at a time. Racers line-up for the first round of eliminations and are paired one-on-one with another car. As each pair makes their pass, the driver who runs closest to their dial-in will continue into the next round, and his opponent will be eliminated. This continues, round after round, until there is only one racer left standing.
Now that you understand that the main goal of bracket racing is to run closest to your Dial-In, you need to understand the two main factors that can disqualify you during a round.
- Getting a Red Light: When your car leaves the starting line, the timing system will calculate what is called your Reaction Time. This is the amount of time it took your car to leave the starting line after receiving the green light. If you would, however, leave the starting line too soon (before your lane receives the green light) you will get what is called a Red Light, which disqualifies your car for that round.
- Breaking Out: As mentioned earlier in this article, the main goals of a bracket drag racer is to (1) Choose a Dial-In and then (2) run the pass as close to that Dial-In without going any faster. If you happen to make the pass faster than your Dial-In you will 'Break Out' and be disqualified for the round.
Example #3: Let us say that you chose a Dial-In of 8.16 seconds, but, when you made the pass you actually ran a 8.05. Since you ran the pass faster than your Dial-In, you 'Broke Out' and lost the round.
This article is one of several articles written to better help you understand ET Bracket Racing:
- Anyone Can Become a Drag Racer at Friendship Raceway (the current article).
- Understanding ET Bracket Racing - The Basics
- Test &Tune Info
- Your First Pass as a Bracket Drag Racer
- Racing Your Car at Friendship Raceway
