Drag Illustrated Issue 145, June 2019 | Page 56

D.I. COLUMNIST Tuned Up with Will Hanna RACING SMART A part of winning races is not just having a fast and/or consistent hot rod, but rac- ing smart. Whether it’s drag rac- ing, chess, poker, pool, etc., winners are usually carefully plotting their moves trying to think a couple steps ahead of where they are. You can look too far ahead and lose the here and now, but lack of planning will often bite you in the ass. The first part is playing weather- man (or woman) a few days before the event. Studies show that rain forecasts (what we check first) out- side of 36 hours are very unreliable. However, you can get a pretty good idea of what the weather for a week- end is going to be usually a week out. Be sure to check the Monday/Tues- day forecast to see if there is a big weather change that could end up getting to your event quicker than originally forecasted. Depending on your combination, this is where you may need to make combination changes such as head gaskets, gear ratio, or chassis changes to suit an- ticipated conditions. If you are running a multi-day event, you really need to have an idea for the conditions you are scheduled to run in and come up with a plan. The U.S. Nationals are notorious for big weather swings. Indy that time of year can be 90- plus degrees at the start of the event and jacket weather by the end. One year, we had very warm conditions on Friday for the first qualifying runs, with a pretty good cold front moving through on Saturday. We only had one run scheduled Sat- urday and one final qualifying run Sunday morning. First round Sun- day evening and Monday elimina- tions were also forecasted to be cool. So a killer run Friday would be a middle-of-the-pack run Sunday, at best. It also would not give any use- ful data for eliminations. So with that in mind, we knew we needed to be in position to be aggressive in that final qualifier. So on Friday we dialed up some fairly conservative A-to-B runs that put us middle top half or so. Nothing special. I think we lost the Saturday run to weather and were in good position to swing at it Sunday morning. The track was tight, the air was cool and we let it rip. We qualified No. 3 that year. Eliminations did not follow script, but we executed a plan based on looking at the weather. Sometimes there is a lot of rain in the forecast, so you may only get one or two shots to qualify. This is im- portant not only to consider as the tuner, but also the driver. In most instances if it shakes or smokes the tires, you would just coast down the track. However, if there’s a chance that’s your only qualifying shot, the driver needs to be ready to “do some of that driver shit,” as I like to tell them. Regardless of the conditions, it is very imperative to go A to B in your first run. I always tell people, and myself, to dial up whatever your best tune-up is that you know will go down the track in that first run. Even a slow run or run that may be close to the bump is way better than smoking the tires or shaking the tires out of the trailer. It just puts you behind the eight ball. The cars that got down the track, even if it was slow, have some data and firm ground to try to get quicker. If you smoke the tires or shake them, you’re usually forced to take a step back and make that A-to-B run you should have the first run. Some tun- ers can make that shot and bounce back. It’s risky because if you miss on two shots, you may not qualify. Having a plan is good, but don’t get married to one plan. “Everybody has a plan until they are punched in the mouth.” I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had it all planned out in my mind – the weather is going to be this, the track temp is going to be this, and we’re going to do this with the tune-up, only to have the track end up 10-15 degrees warmer than I expected. You have to have contingency plans. If they are scripted to a degree, it really aids in decision making. OK, the track is 121 instead of 110 like I planned, so I will make changes to X, Y and Z. That tends to work better than “now what” type decisions. Looking ahead and trying to keep lane choice is important, and could be the difference in winning and los- ing at some tracks. However, lane choice is irrelevant if you don’t win the round. Trust me, I’ve learned that lesson more times than I care to admit. DI DI DI DI DI DI DI Will Hanna is a tuner/consultant- DI DI DI for-hire offering services from run evaluation to trackside consulting. He can be reached via email at will.hanna@insidetopalcohol.com. TRACKSIDE CONSULTING • REMOTE TUNING • RUN EVALUATION / “Monday Morning Crew Chief Service” Available will.hanna@insidetopalcohol.com • 979.415.4959 56 | D r a g I l l u s t r a t e d | DragIllustrated.com Issue 145