When the Club organises a Drag Day, it is most often on a weekend and involves the private hiring of the entire track and staff for the day. The benefits are that entrants can enjoy many more runs with much less waiting than during Wednesday night off street meetings when it is usual to only get 3 runs the entire night.

The day is run under ANDRA regulations that have been structured to ensure competitor, spectator and track staff safety.

Drag Racing Basics Explained

The following has been written for those who are not experienced in this very popular form of motor sport. It will not cover all aspects of Drag racing, and will focus just on the events and classes that may be relevant to HSV/HDT vehicles.Drag racing in Australia is controlled by the Australian National Drag Racing Association (ANDRA) which is recognised by both CAMS in Australia and the FIA internationally. Drivers of cars that run under 12.0 seconds in the quarter mile must have an ANDRA licence.There are two basic types of drag racing, Off Street Meetings and Competition Events.

This is where the majority of people get their first taste of Drag Racing. Off Street meetings are held at the Western Sydney International Dragway (WSID), Eastern Creek, each and every Wednesday night all year round (Except Australia Day).

The cost is $50 to race, $20 to spectate with children under 12 FREE. The race cost includes access for one driver and 2 vehicles, the race vehicle and one other.Competitor and spectator gates opening at 5pm with racing from 6pm until 10pm. Scrutineering is from 5pm until 7.30pm (unless the 200 car quota is filled before 7.30pm)

You will need to have a current driver’s licence and a muffled car in street trim. You will also need to have an approved crash helmet (marked AS/NZS 1698 or equivalent), long pants and sleeves, shoes and socks.

Once you have paid your entry fee at the gate you will be directed to park in the paddock area. From there you will need to walk over to the scrutineering shed to have your licence checked, your wrist band attached and your racing and lane numbers issued.

Once you have your wrist band and documentation processed, return with it to your car and drive around the other side of the scrutineering shed and join the queue for scrutineering. When your turn comes, you will be directed into the shed and asked to raise your bonnet and unlock your boot.

You will then have your vehicle and crash helmet checked, and when passed, your racing and lane numbers will be applied to both your windscreen and rear window.Once this has been completed, you can go straight to the starting lanes and line up to go to the starting line.

Your lane number will be written on your front windscreen, ensure that you are queued in the correct lane number as this will match you against similar cars. Lanes are usually called in a “run”. That is cars from one lane at a time will be moved to the starting line. Once your lane begins to move, it should advance at a progressive rate so you don’t have to keep switching your motor on and off all the time.

As your lane approaches the starting area, you will be directed to line up behind one of the two staging lanes. Keep closely watching the ANDRA officials for their directions. Upon being directed, your first move from out of the “tunnel” will be into a staging bay marked on the track where you will wait while the car in front of you completes their burnout procedure.

Once the car in front has moved on to the start line, you will be directed to move onto the burnout pad and wait. Once the car in front has left the start line, you will be directed to start your burnout and proceed to stage yourself at the starting line.

There will be water on the track where your rear wheels are, so it will be fairly easy to break traction for your burnout. You do not need to do monster, smoking burnouts. If you have street tyres, just do a short burnout to clean and dry the tyres and move on towards the “Christmas Tree” for staging.

The starting lights system, or “Christmas Tree”, is divided into two identical halves, one for each lane. The top light is the “Pre-Stage” light, and will come on when your front wheel is around 20cm from the staging beam – so continue forward from your burnout until the top light comes on.

The next light down is the “Staging” light. Creep slowly forward until the second light comes on and then put your foot firmly on the brake. You’re now ready to race!

If you make a mistake and go too far through the staging beam so that the Staging light goes off, simply reverse back behind the Pre-Stage light (making sure both Pre-Staging and Staging lights are now out) and then drive forward and repeat the staging process again.

When both cars are staged, the three amber lights will flash down in sequence before the green light comes on. On the Green, you drive as quickly as you can to the finish line.

It’s important to remember that each lane is timed independently of the other and that the timers do not start when the green light comes on. The time between when the green light comes on and the timers are started by the front wheel breaking the light beam is called your “Reaction Time”.

The Green light comes on four tenths of a second after the last amber flashes. If you leave any sooner, the red light at the bottom of the Christmas Tree will come on to show that you have jumped the start.

Most newcomers to racing leave when the green light comes on. This results in a reaction time of around one second. Try leaving as soon as you see the last amber light come on. You’ll probably be surprised to find you don’t red light! Why? It’s a combination of human reaction time and the time the vehicle takes to start the front wheel travelling forward.

Keep your run straight and clean. If you cross the centre line or tag the wall, you will be instantly disqualified; even if the other car red lighted, you still lose.The finish line is marked on the track by diagonal lines, which also denote the finish line beams and speed traps. These stop the timers the moment you cross the finish line, and they also measure your speed over the last 66 feet of the quarter mile. Don’t lift off until you clear the finish line, but once you have, slow down and carefully take the exit road at the end of the strip, remembering the car in the other lane and observing the 20 kph speed limit.

Drive slowly back toward the paddock area along the return road. This road will take you past the Scrutineering shed, where you will pick up your time slip from the drive-past window.Your time slip will show the times and speeds of both cars in your race. Your lane will be highlighted, and it will be headed by your car number that is on your windscreen.

Your reaction time is shown as “R/T” and the “ET” (Elapsed Time) is shown for the first 60ft, 330ft, 1000ft and 1320ft (quarter mile). Speeds are also shown at the 660ft and 1320ft points.

After picking up their time slip, most people then simply drive through the paddock area and line up again in their starting lane so they can do it all over again! Note that it is illegal to remove your helmet before you are on the return road, or to use a mobile phone or portable radio while the vehicle is in motion. You run the risk of disqualification from the event if you are caught.

Usually there are two photographers at each Wednesday night meeting. Go to their websites, look at the pics they took of you, and order the ones you like!

Super Street and Super Sedan classes outlined below are run in a DYO format. Not everyone can afford the big budgets of the professional race teams, so this is where DYO racing comes into play. It doesn’t matter what budget you have – if you own a car you can afford to go DYO racing!

The trick is in nominating your ET before you make your pass; this is called your “dial-in”. For example, if you had a car that ran 12.34, 12.37 and 12.35 seconds in qualifying, you might nominate a dial-in time of 12.30 seconds for eliminations. The main aim is to run as close to that time as possible without running quicker.

Running quicker than your dial-in is called a “breakout” and means an instant loss, while running slower than your dial-in gives your opponent a chance to run closer to their particular dial-in. Closest to the dial-in wins in most cases but it’s still possible to run exactly on your dial in and lose. That’s because reaction times count in DYO.

It works like this: starts are staggered according to the dial-ins, with the slower car leaving first. Both cars should reach the finish line at the same time but if one driver is slower to react, they’ll reach the finish line behind their opponent and lose even though the slower-reacting driver might have run exactly on their dial-in. Skilled dial-in racers react quickly on the start line and run very close to their dial ins.

When it comes to being disqualified, they use the “first or worst” rule. What this means is that if you red light first, then you lose even if the other lane red lights too. Quicker cars have a slight advantage here because slower cars leave the line first. That’s the “first” part of the rule.

You can’t lose by breaking out if your opponent red lighted, but you can lose in a double break out situation by being the worst offender – that is the one who breaks out by the bigger amount. That’s the “worst” part of the rule.

This is where most street machines start their championship careers. Super Street is for cars running between 11.00 and 12.99 seconds down the quarter.

This class was introduced to give off-street racers an event to enter at National levels.There are no restrictions on what engine, transmission or body style you can use because the class is run on the “Dial Your Own” (DYO) format. Cars need not be registered to race in Super Street.Driver electronic aids such as delay boxes and throttle stops are not allowed, but apart from that, if a car stays within the ET goalposts, it can race forever.

Another DYO bracket, Super Sedan is the next progression point for Super Street racers. While all cars run in the same bracket, a class is allocated for the sake of national records, for example SS/A for naturally aspirated V8 or SS/AA for a supercharged V8. There are similar designations for sixes and fours as well.

Racers need to run quicker than 10.99 seconds to qualify, but there is no lower ET limit, which is why sometimes we see cars at the head of the field touching the six second zone at more than 200 mph.

Electronic driver’s aids such as throttle stops and delay boxes are commonplace in the Super Sedan class. This is a highly competitive bracket and some racers at the sharp end have well over $100,000 invested in their race machinery.

There are several classes within the Super Stock Eliminator that may be relevant to drag HSV/HDT vehicles. They are “Modified Sedan” and “Modified Production”. This group of cars are for the serious drag racer, and the classes are defined by power to weight ratios, all cars must contain specified safety equipment including a roll cage.

Owners of cars in these categories would be fully aware of the rules that they race under, but broadly, “Modified Sedan” is for street appearing naturally aspirated V8 production sedans that were available to the general public. Only a single carburettor and flat tappet camshaft can be used. Liberal rear suspension modifications are allowed, and a roll cage is required. “Modified Production” has similar requirements, but for vehicles other than sedans.

Cars in Super Stock Eliminator race each other, equalised by handicaps based on the national performance of the class. Qualifying is based on time closest to, or better than their ANDRA Class Indexes, while handicaps are used by qualifiers for racing based on the same Indexes. The field is limited to the best 16 qualifiers and a full Christmas Tree start is used.

Sources: ANDRA Official Drag Racing Rule Book, Australian Drag Racing Association Inc 2008/2009; ANDRA For

Dummies, by Scott Taylor, Street Machine Magazine December 2006; www.wsid.com.au.