LED vs Incandescant

[SpeedThrills]

I haven't raced competitively since christmas trees had incandescent bulbs. I used to be able to see the light coming on, being on, and going out, as lots of racers did.

Always foot braked, .500 tree. One car ran mid 14's, the other 11.60's. This was in the 80's and 90's.

Since then, I have run test n tunes with toys, but have never been concerned with reaction times, until recently. I have a foot-braked auto that stalls about 3200 rpm. Runs 11.80's. I may race it. But, I see stuff about packages that are near perfect. I used to go rounds running a couple hundreths over my dial, and averaging roughly .530-.540 lights. (Back when .500 was perfect.) And sure, I won a few with worse packages, and lost some with great packages. "That's racing."

Do I stand a chance? And, how do you cut a light when that LED is suddenly "on"?

 

[71Demon528]

Seat time my friend. Footbraking is hard. Deep staging is a popular thing in the footbrake class especially with cars that don’t react as fast. Anyone stands a chance. Although it may have been some years since you competitively raced, I’d say go race and see how it goes. Guys aren’t always perfect, no matter what class. Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. I’d go for it.

Only advice I have is shoot for consistency first, then after you can be somewhat consistent on lights, play with RPM, front tire pressure, rear tire pressure (often overlooked when it comes to R/T), shock settings, carb adjustments to make your lights better. But first things first, get consistent and I feel that the rest will come.

 

[Dana67Dart]

But first things first, get consistent and I feel that the rest will come

My very first time bracket racing (I was 58 or so)

I got to the 3rd round of eliminations

My reaction time was as expected all over the place from 0.500 to 0.050 but my ET and speed were super consistent. I lost because I wanted to go home before I broke my stock 273 with 150,000 miles on the last engine and trans rebuild and 320,000 on the rest of the car.

And I did not know I could change my dial in each round.

 

[SpeedThrills]

Seat time my friend. Footbraking is hard. Deep staging is a popular thing in the footbrake class especially with cars that don’t react as fast. Anyone stands a chance. Although it may have been some years since you competitively raced, I’d say go race and see how it goes. Guys aren’t always perfect, no matter what class. Sometimes you get the bear and sometimes the bear gets you. I’d go for it.

Only advice I have is shoot for consistency first, then after you can be somewhat consistent on lights, play with RPM, front tire pressure, rear tire pressure (often overlooked when it comes to R/T), shock settings, carb adjustments to make your lights better. But first things first, get consistent and I feel that the rest will come.

Thank you. Nothing you said there that wasn't said when I was racing. And that's exactly what I wanted to hear!

I'm still not sure I'm going to do it, but since I do the test n tune thing, I may as well.

From what I understand, bracket racing is not as common as it once was. I go to Cecil now, since Atco closed. It's a 2 1/2 hour tow. It can be a long day. But my wife has been encouraging me. I've told her to be careful what she wishes for! She doesn't like it, but she'll go if her girlfriend, who loves it, can make it. She didn't know me when I raced before.

I only have maybe a dozen runs on the current car (avatar). It has some issues, nothing that can't be worked out, but it's been within a tenth or so.