As a consultant, I have helped many teams on short-term deals to help them figure out a problem. It shocks me how little records some teams take. One team hired me to come in and try to help them figure out why they couldn’ t make it down the track. They told me they had run a 3.66 a few races back. OK, where’ s the notes from that run?“ Um, well, yeah, that’ s one of our problems.” Recordkeeping goes beyond the basics of time slip data, weather data, and track data. Essentially, the more records you can keep, the better.

With a clutch car, it’ s critical to keep notes on the thickness of the discs and floaters. I try to keep a pack thickness as close as possible to a target number. Just putting a pack together and“ zeroing” it is not a path to consistency or success. As I told one team that was new to Top Alcohol Dragster, when it comes to doing the clutch, the first step is to have a“ program.” Make an operating procedure and try to religiously stick to that program. Take notes and try to duplicate things from run to run. You can have a fair amount of success with most any“ program” if you are able to consistently replicate

what you do and how you do things. In the case of Top Alcohol Dragster, you can get into the 5.30s with just about any“ program.” When you try to make the jump into the 5.20s and better, that’ s when you start getting into whose program is better and what it may take to get to that next level.

While m a n y cars today utilize a torque converter, it’ s still very important to keep track of how many runs are on your trans fluid. Fluid going away will definitely affect performance. It may also lead to parts failure.

I also like to log measurements from rod bearings when we change them. The bearings have a story to tell on what is going on in the motor. What I have found over the years is that detonation of any kind will try to close the bearing up. So, if you were looking at the bearing from the side as a“ U,” it would start closing the top of the U together. For

instance, a Hemi rod bearing will come out of the box measuring 2.52- 2.53” across the top of the U. If the bearing measures 2.499 or less after a run, it is either detonating or may just have too many runs on the bearing. Not only will I try to address the issue with the tuneup, I will discard any bearing that measures below that.

When things are going good and smooth, it is tempting

to slack off on recordkeeping. More than once, recordkeeping has helped me quickly fix a problem when it arises. One time we had a bearing issue out of nowhere. By having logged measurements of every run, I was able to go back and look at that cylinder to see if it had been picking on the bearing in previous runs. Since it hadn’ t, I was able to look into other areas. Without detailed records, it may have been tempting to blame it on the tune up.

Not only is it very important to

keep track of tune-up data, it is as important, if not more, to keep detailed notes on the amount of runs parts have on them. Without detailed notes of how many runs parts have on them, it’ s very easy to lose track and have a parts failure that likely could have been prevented. I usually try to do this after the race is done before the car is loaded up. This helps in knowing what parts may need to be replaced and / or ordered for the next race. The weekend is fresh on your mind, so better notes can be made.

While many people keep track of their tune-up data on paper, I prefer to use an Excel spreadsheet. This allows me to look at more runs sideby-side rather than flipping back and forth on paper. It also isn’ t that hard to create formulas to automatically populate split times. Most data loggers have options to log info, as do some weather station programs. I prefer to look at several things on one sheet, so I use Excel. When it comes to parts, I prefer to take written notes in a binder while working on the car.

Smartphones can help as well. When racing a dial-in class like Top Dragster, I will write the weather on a time slip and take a picture of it. This gives me a“ quick reference” log book for making the dial-in call in the staging lanes.

When someone buys one of my Top Alcohol crew manuals, I supply them with my log book templates and an Excel file. As a courtesy to DRAG ILLUSTRATED readers, I will make these files available for download on DragIllustrated. com. DI