[Daytona]

Let me ask you question... Has Spilner321 been drag racing for literally 20 years? And has he won a track points championship and an NHRA National Event? I won the Raceway Park track points championship in a RWD Camaro and the National Event in a FWD Daytona, and then came 2 points away from a 2nd Points Title using the Daytona.

Either his "advice" lost something in the translation to you or he's totally misunderstanding the entire launch process. If you accelerate slowly you waste a significant amount of torque and lose quite a bit of ET. Every successful bracket class racer on the planet launches hard off the start. At what RPM they pre-stage their launch at will vary depending on their car's set-up (amt of HP/torque, stall convertor rpm, FWD vs. RWD, weight of car, Radials vs. Slicks, etc.).

You can look to Redog's and my tips on drag racing elsewhere in the Racing forum, but essentially, you want to footbrake your car at 200-300 rpm less than your stall speed of your convertor (I don't bracket race manual trans cars so that advice will need to come from another stick driver with actual successful experience). Launching above your stall speed hurts the transmission and doesn't utilize the whole reason for your convertor. Launching too low and you end up shocking the convertor too harshly and the result is wheel spin.

When you see the 3rd amber light up on the tree, release the brake and slam your gas pedal the rest of the way to the floor either simulatenously or, at least, as the brake pedal completely disengages. By the time the light turns green, the momentum will begin to carry your car through the timing light and your reaction times should be decent. Wait until the green to go and your reaction times will suffer.

You will need to practice your launches to find out precisely what the ideal amount of tire pressure AND gas is in the car. Since our cars are FWD, too much gas shifting in the back tank will actually be counter-productive to you keeping a solid enough foot print with the fronts on launch. I race with no more than 3/8 of a tank of gas, preferably less if I can guesstimate correctly when I fill up on the way down to the track. For the Camaro she always launched best with between 1/2 and 3/4 tank of gas to force more pressure on the rear tires but not overweigh the car (race weight was already 3,850 lbs.with driver). Tire pressure is also important for launch as too much pressure will cause the tires to spin and not hook properly. Too little pressure will bog and slow the car. Practice with different set-ups.