four wide

[whistlin six]

It's not just for nascar anymore.

The innagural four wide nationals air today on ESPN2.
Four fuel cars abreast, 32000 horsepower unleashed at the same time.

That's got to be amazing to see and feel in person:wooo

[TheRX7Project]

I can only imagine the sound shockwaves from 4 top fuel funny cars pounding against me...

[VroomPshhTsi]

I'm not a huge NHRA fan but I think I have to check this out.

[MoCkiN U]

^4pm.

I tell ya. that is one of the coolest experiences I have had was being there for local races going 4 wide. Just kicking and screaming today wanting to be home for these.

[Smokey1226]

the only problem with the 4 wide, and ive been wanting to build my own 4 wide track for years now.....is the staging/lights process. They were talking about it a lot of ESPN today and i seen Numerous cases of guys jumping the gun because 3 of the guys already full stages and 1 was taking their time. Call that racing.....but id be pissed!

[MoCkiN U]

Maybe Mike D can answer this one but I was watching a Tim Wilkerson interview and he was talking about runs from the previous day. He said something like he was watching his clutch cam after his run and it was at like 8 seconds and knew force was longer than him staging up and was close to being timed out.

Whats that about? Is there a time limit to being staged up? Or is it something else?


Also, as for the lights. There was a lot of talk about it and I see it as a bunch of purists who dont want to adjust to change. If this was just something thrown together and the drivers didnt have time to adjust I could totally see it as their reactions are fudged with blue lights for all lanes, white lights for them, and so on but I gotta think they had plenty of practice on that system but maybe not?????

[pw_cc_runner]

Whats that about? Is there a time limit to being staged up? Or is it something else?

They said that after everyone is pre-staged once someone goes into the final stage there is a seven second timer for everyone else to get in before the lights go.

[whistlin six]

They said that after everyone is pre-staged once someone goes into the final stage there is a seven second timer for everyone else to get in before the lights go.

^yep^ if you didn't get staged within 7 seconds of the other cars you would be "timed out" and DQ'd.

Once a fuel car is pre staged, they grab the brake and let the clutch out, and also turn on the high side fuel (2nd pump). This is why you hear the idle drop down a bit in pre stage mode. The car is now ready for the hit.

If you leave a car hanging too long with the clutch out and high side fuel on, bad things will happen, which is the reason for the 7 second rule.

[u_say_go]

I thought the 4-wide racing was cool to watch, would love to hear/feel that in person for sure!
Matt Hagen's explosion was pretty gnarly, glad he's ok.

Mike, when you guys stage the cars there's always one guy standing next to the car with his hand close to the supercharger....they look at the other lane and give a nod then remove something or switch something......What are they doing?

[whistlin six]

Mike, when you guys stage the cars there's always one guy standing next to the car with his hand close to the supercharger....they look at the other lane and give a nod then remove something or switch something......What are they doing?[/QUOTE]

I just asked our crew chief about that recently.

He's opening a valve that restricts fuel flow to the engine during the whole burnout/backup/pull forward process, when there is no load on the engine.

Delivering max fuel flow during that time would flood the engine with unneccesary fuel, and cause it to put holes out at the hit.

[Reverend Cooper]

i watched most of it,im all for it