What You Should Know Before Racing Your Car

So you want to run your car at the drag strip? Driving your car at the drag strip can be a lot of fun and a great adrenaline rush, but it can also be very dangerous and even deadly if something goes wrong. Below are some helpful tips for first time drag racers.

**Make sure you have a car that's ready to go to the drag strip, no leaking fluids (other drag racers hate this because when you leave oil or transmission fluid on the track it not only makes it dangerous, but takes a long time to clean up), all suspension components are tight, the car is running correctly, you have good tires, all your lug nuts on, and those brakes are good. If you do, your ready to go to the drag strip.

**When going to the drag strip to race you'll have to pay a generally small fee and you'll get a wrist band that allows you to be in the pits and have your car in line to the strip itself.

**Even if you're car is completely stock you should have AAA just in case something breaks and you need a tow, there's nothing like being hard on cash and having a broken car at the drag strip.

**Before you get a tech inspection or race into line you should hopefully have a decent idea of how your vehicle will perform at the drag strip. If you don't there are drag strip time calculators online where you enter vehicle weight and engine power. This is a good idea if you've never been to the drag strip.

**Now when you use that drag strip calculator you need to pay close attention to the bracket of time it told you and you need to either go by the drags trip before the day of your testing or look them up online to make sure that you have all the required safety equipment you need to race those times, they include and are not limited to: safety restraints, helmet, roll cage, fire suit, fire suppression system, flywheel scatter shield, safety glass (plexi-glass), and a safety driveshaft loop. Most street cars will not fall in the category of needing these things, but you might; so, get informed first before you waste your time showing up at the drag strip with a car you can't drive.

**Before you drive up into that waiting line you need to go to the pits and stand back behind the burnout box (where the cars do the burnouts before staging) and watch how the tree (the sequence of lights that tells you when to go) works, there are more than one way a tree works anything from what street cars use to promods. So if you have a street car you want to go on a test and tune night for street cars at the drag strip.

**Get a feel for what's going on at the drag strip while you're in the stand, if you see a bunch of guys drinking alcohol and get in their car and tear off to be in line, make sure you don't line up with that guy. Also, watch for cars and drivers that are reckless or out of control. A poor driver or another poorly built car can ruin your day at the drag strip, maybe even get you killed.

**Now that you've watched the cars and the drivers pay attention to drag strip etiquette, if two really hot cars want to race each other and you're next in line just let one of them pass you in line, you want to make friends at the drag strip not enemies.

**Pay attention to the visual commands the staging director is making before it's your turn so you know what his hand signals are.

**If your on street tires and not on drag radials or slicks do not do a massive burnout, not only will it make you look like a fool to the other drivers it will also make your tires very slick and cause you to run a poor time. When in the burnout box do a quick little tire spin without any smoke just to get the water and the rocks off your tires.

**When the green flag drops, the bull---- stops. Make sure to pay close attention to what you're doing on not if the other car is ahead or behind you. Focus on your driving (and do not fishtail if you can help it, and you know what I'm talking about...There's nothing more embarrassing than wrecking by yourself at the drag strip). You'll find in order to run a good time at the drag strip you'll have to drive it like you're trying to kill it or drive it like you stole it.

**If you run a slow time just simply ask other drivers with cars that are similar what they're doing to be fast. If you drive a Honda you're not going to go up to the guy in the fox body Mustang what he's doing to run good. Only similar engines and similar drive train configurations.

If you follow these simple tips and keep your eyes and ears oopen at the dragstrip it can be a night of enjoyment and adrenaline rushes.