Drag Illustrated Issue 150, November 2019 | Page 50
D.I. COLUMNIST
Tuned Up
with Will Hanna
STAY AWAY FROM THE “ADVICE BUFFET”
W
e all reach points in
our racing careers, and
life in general, where we
seek advice to answer a question
or get some direction. More often
than not, good advice will tell you
some things you may not want to
hear. Especially if it involves spend-
ing more money than you planned,
want to, or have to spend.
This is where I see a lot of racers,
and I think we’re all guilty of it at
some point in our career, going to
what I call the “advice buffet.” If you
ask enough people, you may get the
answer you want to hear. Once you
get that answer, you consider it as
the “correct” way to go.
Here are some of the most popu-
lar items on the Advice Buffet:
1. What you have will work or you
can make it work by changing
something else you have.
2. You should be good for another
race on those rods (insert any
other part here).
3. It probably plugged a nozzle.
Definitely wasn’t lean.
4. I run these nozzles with this
much fuel.
5. Weekend Lunch Special: “Just
get after it.”
The buffet is much more expan-
sive, and if you ask the right person
in the kitchen, they’ll cook up what-
ever answer you’re looking for.
They also serve tuning advice at
this buffet. I can’t tell you how many
times I see racers use fuel system
advice from one tuner, gearing from
another tuner, clutch and converter
from another tuner (or the manu-
facturer), chassis from one tuner
and shock advice from another. I
can see the logic behind trying to get
knowledge from multiple gurus, but
all of those areas are key ingredients
to a tune-up, and they have to work
together. You wouldn’t expect a Mike
Leach-run Air Raid offense to work
with a bunch of players better suited
for a Darrell Royal Wishbone. Or
Jack Pardee’s Run-n-Shoot to work
with players from Bill Yeoman’s Veer
(obligatory University of Houston
reference – GO COOGS!).
Everything works together, and
it either complements each other
or it doesn’t. While the advice you
get from multiple tuners may be
proven to work, it may not work
with someone else’s advice. Tuner
A may run very aggressive gear-
ing, but your chassis guy gave you
a setup better suited for a conser-
vative launch. Getting advice from
multiple sources can be especially
detrimental in an engine. While 28
degrees of timing may work for the
guy who told you that, if you got fuel
system advice from a guy who runs
26, look out.
This is why I try to tell new and
experienced racers alike, pick one
guru and go with their advice and
their package. Even if you are ex-
perienced and tune your own stuff,
don’t call guru A one race and take
his advice, then decide to call guru B
after a race or two and try his advice,
unless you are ready to change the
whole setup to guru B’s package.
Learning curve is a very expensive
commodity, yet it gets treated like
it’s free. I guess because we never
cut a check or get a charge on our
card for “learning curve.” At its best,
learning curve is just the amount of
problem-free runs it takes to “figure
it out.” Anything above that “best-
case” scenario can get pretty costly
in a hurry.
Nearly any kind of power adder
car, whether it’s heads up or fast
brackets, is realistically using up at
a minimum $200-$300 in consum-
able parts per run. Top Alcohol and
Pro Mods are closer to $1,000 (and
up). That’s not counting any costs to
get wherever you are running. If you
are going anywhere besides a very
local track, it usually costs $1,000
to pull out of the driveway (4-plus
hours’ drive, entry fees, crew passes,
food, etc.).
A tuner can save a racer quite a
bit of money by speeding up that
learning curve and helping them
avoid costly pitfalls along the way.
It’s hard to put a number on the
money you don’t spend. One of my
favorite poker sayings from Mike
Caro is, “the money you don’t lose
spends just as easy as the money
you win.” A good tuner can get a car
dialed in within a few runs. Maybe
you can match those results yourself
for free, but many good racers have
paid some big tuition checks to the
School of Hard Knocks going down
that path.
Whether it’s ego, not wanting
to be labeled as having a “hired
tuner,” or you just want the pride
and reward of tuning a car, many
racers forget many legendary tun-
ers in the sport got some help from
someone along the way. Take Frank
Manzo, for instance. He got a lot
of help from Tim Richards in his
early years. Also, the greats call each
other, talk shop and get advice from
each other!
Had I took a step back in my early
years of running Top Alcohol and
got some real help, I would have
won a lot more rounds as a driver.
Stay away from the advice and
tuner buffet. And remember, kids,
usually the only advice you can’t af-
ford is free advice.
DI DI DI
DI DI DI DI
DI DI DI
Will Hanna is a tuner/consultant-
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
50 | D r a g
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Issue 150