Growing up 9.00 seconds at a time
When you’re a car crazy 14 year old it’s hard to find an outlet for your enthusiasm, even when your father has an old Camaro in the garage. You’re too young to drive and too poor to buy a car even if you could. And when you’re a parent, it can be hard to find a good way to connect with a teenager rapidly finding his own way in life and to do things together while there’s still time to do them in that fleeting window of father-son comradery. Meet my friend Ken Longacre, former engineering job officemate, and his son David. Last year they decided to try to scratch those itches and see what might be available in the world of youth motorsports.
They quickly learned that there are a number of outlets for this sort of thing including quarter midget racing, karting, and junior dragsters. Drag racing appealed to David but even in junior dragster form, half-scale versions of top fuel cars with small single cylinder engines, the cost would be a challenge. The NHRA says a basic car will cost about $5000, not bad, but then you need a trailer to get it to and from the track, maybe a golf cart to pull it through the pits and to the staging area, safety equipment, and so on. Lots of families do it but it’s a pretty big financial hill to climb, especially when you’re not sure if this is going to be a long term thing or not. Plus, at 14 years old David would soon age out of the equipment when he turned 17.
But then came the discovery of a new NHRA program, just a few years old, called Jr. Street. An article in National Dragster, the NHRA’s magazine, quotes Josh Peterson, NHRA vice president of racing administration, describing it as “An inexpensive program to help meet the demand for teenagers wanting to drive fast.” Drivers, age 13 through 16, go through an orientation and licensing procedure and then bracket race pretty much any street legal car, even the family minivan. An adult co-driver rides in the passenger seat and although street clothing is permitted with long pants and sleeves both occupants must wear helmets. Race distance is 1/8 mile with a minimum Elapsed Time (ET) of 9.0 seconds. That keeps the speed down and concerned parents happy. It looked like a good fit so David signed up and, after some old school empty parking lot driving practice, was NHRA licensed in his dad’s GMC Sierra pickup.
Bracket racing is mad genius. On the surface, it’s a simple way to handicap two cars of unequal performance so the best driver, and not the fastest car, wins the race. Each driver tries to get an ET as close as possible but not less than a predetermined “dial time,” so called because it gets set into the track’s timing equipment. “Breaking out,” having an ET less than your dial, is an automatic loss. The difference between your actual ET and dial time is added to your Reaction Time (RT), the time between the green light and when your car exits the start line, to compute your “package.” The driver with the smallest package wins the race. So it’s a simple matter of reacting quickly to the green light and setting your dial just slightly below what you think you’ll run, right? Well, no.
In practice the time differences are so small that tiny, tiny factors make a huge difference. Drivers practice when to punch it just before the light turns green, typically on the last yellow Christmas tree light a half-second earlier, so that by the time they react and the car gets moving they exit the start zone just barely after the green light is commanded on. Serious drivers will be measuring atmospheric conditions to predict their car’s performance minutes before the start. The whole business has fractal complexity in that the better you get the more previously insignificant factors have to be taken into account to creep ever closer to your dial time without breaking out. Like playing go, the conceptual simplicity of the activity obscures extremely complex emergent behavior.
Ken and David raced the Sierra a few times, long enough to know that they were both serious and willing to spend some money. They pooled cash, David had some savings from the usual kid stuff like mowing lawns, and bought a 2000 Pontiac Firebird Formula with an LS1 V8 and automatic transmission for $5500. The automatic turns out to be important for really consistent runs because it takes the human variation out of shifting. The previous owner installed a slightly lower rear-end gear ratio but the car was otherwise stock. Even so, it had plenty of performance. Too much, In fact. The Firebird would easily bust through the nine second ET maximum performance limit. Still, the car had appeal in that, if they stopped racing, it could easily become David’s daily driver once he earned his street license. On the other hand, if they kept racing it could easily be upgraded into a pure race car once he aged out of Jr. Street. Plus, unlike Jr. Dragster, they could easily drive it to and from the track and save the expense of a trailer.
The track’s Instagram account features David’s Firebird.
To address the Firebird’s excessive performance problem they secured about 250 lb of sand ballast in the cargo area, plus they installed a simple airflow restrictor made of cardboard behind the air filter. With these changes it became about a 9.0 second car and that became their standard dial time. Performance on the day can be adjusted by adding or removing small amounts of ballast or adjusting the intake restrictor. Ken functions as crew chief and advisor but David, as driver, makes the final decisions. It’s a deliberate choice on Ken’s part to help his son assume responsibility.
Buckets of sand ballast keep the car’s performance low enough for the class.
And so it came to pass that, having accepted an invitation to come watch the fun, I found myself at Houston Raceway Park on a warm Saturday afternoon in August for the last race of the track’s 2019 season.
I arrived just after they had run their first time trial of the day. These are the practice runs to get the car dialed in for the day and have a little practice driving. The car ran a 9.1 second ET, a little slow but close to where they wanted to be, and David had an excellent reaction time of 0.053 seconds.
The pit setup is modest.
Looking around the pits I took in the scene. Probably a couple hundred race cars were parked, all waiting to get called to the staging lanes by racing class. Most of them aren’t street legal so trailers, typically enclosed, were everywhere. Maybe half of the drivers had motorhomes and staying in them for the whole weekend is apparently pretty common. In the distance you hear the roar of open exhausts over and over from the track. The grandstands were basically empty, this was a pure participation event. Ken and David took a more minimalist approach, setting up some lawn chairs in the shade under a sun canopy. It was going to be at least an hour, probably more, until their next run.
You could feel the tension. It was the last race of the season and although David had done respectably he had never won his class for the night. Today though, things were looking good. His reaction time was excellent and the car was good, but could they make it better? And should they even try? It would be easy to overshoot, breaking out with an 8.98 or whatever, and that would be it for the night and the season. Sometimes they got a second time trial but tonight it was looking like they’d have no opportunity to revise any adjustment they made before the first elimination. More conversation, more waiting. Things were going slow for some reason and hours went by as we waited and debated making any changes to the car.
An OBD-2 adapter and tablet gives insight into what the car is doing.
As we waited, Ken showed me his data logging setup. A bluetooth transmitter plugged into the OBD-2 port sent telemetry to an Android tablet running plotting and logging software. He doesn’t tune the car at all, but the data gives insight into what’s happening during the run.
Finally a decision just before their class was called to the staging lanes. David decided to pull a little ballast and open the restriction just a little bit. They drove off to the staging lanes and I walked to the bleachers to wait and watch.
A little while later I got a text from Ken as they sat in the staging lanes: “They are telling us this is another tt.” It turned out to be a lucky break because they broke out with an 8.959 second run. If it had been an elimination they’d be out of the competition. Reaction time was 0.176, a little slow but not outrageous. Back in the pits the decision making was easy: put back the ballast and restrictor. And then more waiting as the track worked its way through all the other classes.
Finally, around 10:30pm, Jr. Street was called to the staging lanes to start the eliminations. Six drivers were racing that day so there would be three eliminations to decide the overall winner. David and Ken drove off for the first elimination run and I headed to the stands. About ten minutes later David’s Firebird lined up against an orange Dodge Charger with a 9.31 dial. The start is staggered by the difference in dial times. In theory, if both cars hit their dial times they should cross the finish line together. It’s super important to stay focused on your side of the tree and not get distracted by the slower car starting first. Yellow-yellow-yellow-GREEN.
Heading to the start.
Two-thousandths of a second can be a long time. The Charger launched and proceeded to run 9.315, an amazingly slim margin of just 0.005 seconds slower than dial. Meanwhile, David’s Firebird ran a 9.031, giving a respectable margin of 0.031 seconds. It looked like David had lost, but had he? His reaction time was 0.054 second, fast for him. And the Charger? His reaction time was -0.002 seconds, just barely fouling the start. Had he been a mere two-thousandths of a second slower David would have been out for the night instead of advancing to the next round.
Back in the pits Ken and David were thrilled. They stood in the dark, facing away from the Firebird. Ken smiled and said, “The car is perfect. I don’t want to touch it, I don’t even want to LOOK AT IT!”
An hour is a long time to wait between elimination runs. The excitement of winning the first round wore off a bit as we listened from the pits to roar after roar as the various classes took the track. Finally, near 11:30pm, word came over the PA system and low power radio for Jr. Street to report to the staging lanes. Once again I was off to the stands.
A little while later another text from Ken: “We got the bye.” Sometimes you have an odd number of racers and somebody has to go solo, that’s the “bye run” and is pretty much an automatic advancement to the next round. After the first round there were three Jr. Street racers left and track officials had them draw cards. David got lucky and pulled the best one from the deck meaning an automatic advancement to the final. All the same he pulled to the line as usual and ripped a 0.03 second reaction time on his way to a 9.05 second ET. The result didn’t matter but it’s always good to get practice and see how the car is performing. In this case, everything was spot on.
Staging alone for the bye run.
Back to the pits for more waiting. It was after midnight now. Ken was tired but David, just recently 15 and with a teenager’s energy, was visibly stressed as he alternated between being quietly moody with “Leave me alone” body language and being too excited to hold still. Roar after roar from the track ripped through the night air. Finally, FINALLY came the call to proceed to the staging lanes. This was for the win.
The Firebird and Silverado drive under the tower to race for the win.
David and Ken were up against a white Chevrolet Silverado pickup with a dial of 10.76 seconds. “Why do you need a fast car?” I had asked earlier in the evening. “You’ve got a handicapping system, so why can’t I show up with some ancient car that does 20 or 30 second runs and beat everybody?” Ken put me right. “It’s all about consistency. The slower your car the longer the time any variation has to propagate. So a faster car is more consistent.” Still, the Firebird’s 9.00 second dial is a long time. A lot can happen in those nine seconds.
At the start, David’s reaction time was 0.216 seconds, the slowest of the night. The Silverado’s RT was a very quick 0.033 seconds. These would be added to the ET margins so it wasn’t looking good for David as they left the line. 660 feet later the Silverado crossed the finish with an ET of 11.016, missing his dial by a wide 0.256 seconds. That made his package total 0.289 seconds. In the other lane David’s Firebird ripped down the track turning in the best run of the night, 9.011 seconds versus his 9.0 second dial, making his total package 0.227 seconds.
That was it! David won the heat by 0.029 seconds and, for the first time, the entire night too. Huge smiles all around and, also for the first time, a trophy and an official track photo. For the season he finished in second place, a respectable but still frustrating result for anybody with a competitive streak.
Happy times with the winner’s trophy.
David has one more year in Jr. Street before he ages out. After that, who knows? For now he’s having a great time, is looking forward to next season, and has started an Instragram account for his racing exploits. Ken is having fun too, I can see it when he talks about the work he has planned for the car and about doing things with his son. After all, 0.029 seconds might be a long time but 18 years of parenthood isn’t long at all.
As for Jr. Street, it appears to be doing what it set out to do. Young people get to scratch that racing itch, even before they’re licensed for street driving, and they’re doing it in the safest environment I can imagine. Parents are involved by design, making it a family activity. And, as motorsports go, the cost couldn’t be lower. David and Ken bought a cheap car but you could easily race the family grocery getter if you wanted. Technically speaking all you really need to buy are a pair of helmets. You can learn more about Jr. Street from the NHRA.
