My own worst enemy
This is what it looks like when you put a bullet in your own brain at the dragstrip…
The good news is that I didn’t take myself out until the third round at the second PSCA event of the ‘09 season, and that I seem to have my reaction times figured out. After trying to intentionally redlight in the third qualifying session by going deep, bumping a little farther in, then giving it one more nudge for good measure, I pulled a -.030. In eliminations, going deep plus a single bump resulted in a .073, a .089, and a .032, which seems like about as much as I can expect considering I’m using both the foot brake and the parking brake to hold the car against the converter.
I also discovered that just bringing in the nitrous 400 or so RPM earlier is more than enough to give me three or so tenths cushion, so I won’t be on the brakes through the traps in qualifying any more. Going from a best of 15.825 in quals (resulting in a 15.72 index), I got a no-show single in the first round and ran it out to a 15.379 - almost a half-second quicker. Against Carl Gagnon’s much-quicker 3.8 in round 2, it worked out OK - On the brakes hard through the traps, I ran a 15.824 and still crossed first by .338.
Third round, it bit me in the ass. Taking nothing away from Dan Hale as a driver, I had him covered. I was a hundredth quicker at the tree, and by the 1000-foot mark I was wondering why he wasn’t catching me. I was hard on the brakes again in the traps, but I misjudged it and broke out with a 15.702-on-15.72, while still three and a half tenths ahead of him. Live by the sandbag, die by the sandbag, I suppose…
Well, lesson learned. I got three rounds worth of points, made it to the quarter finals, and worked out a bunch of stuff that I’ve been messing around with since the end of last year, so hopefully I’ll be able to do a little better next month in Fontana.