racing from one city to another

[little storker]

I recently moved from maryland to georgia and I did what any true racer would do I went racing . only to find out my car was almost a half second slower. I know some tracks are not measured the same but I know they where close because their both NHRA tracks.Can the sea level between the two cities be that far apart.Can anyone tell me how I can find this out.I have no other reason to explain this only if some horsepower fell off the the trailer on the long tow.

[J-BODY]

I know there is a formula for altitude adjustment but not sure where to find it. Just to give you an idea the track I used to race at was 1300 ft and another one was at 900 and my friends and I would generally run a tenth quicker at the 900ft track. So when you hear of people running low elevens and tens at Denver in street cars you're talking about some damn fast cars.

[Jack Z]

little storker:

If you are talking about Cecil County Dragway in Maryland and Atlanta Dragway in Georgia, I can tell you this: Cecil County Dragway is about 300 ft. above sea level and Atlanta Dragway is about 1100 ft. above sea level. I found this out by calling the tracks a few years ago. The general rule of thumb is that 100 ft. in altitude change equals about .01 second E.T. change in a 1/4 mile. This can vary greatly though depending on the car and other factors such as the actual barometer reading, temperature and humidity.

I would also say that a .5 second E.T. difference is more than just due to the 800 ft. track elevation difference. Were the temperature and humidty about the same on the runs you're comparing? Were the barometer readings about 800 ft. apart? I know from talking to people and looking at NHRA qualifying sheets that Cecil County can be extremely fast if the barometer is high and the weather is cool and I know from first hand experience that Atlanta can be not so fast if the weather is hot and humid with a low barometer.

One other thing to consider is that some tracks seem to have "friendly" clocks that show E.T.'s that can't be duplicated elsewhere (although .5 seconds is an awful lot!). I don't think that is the case at the two tracks I mentioned however because both of these places host yearly NHRA events. But if you're talking about some other tracks, maybe that is part of it.

[Christopher]

I'm willing to bet it's the humidity factor.We used to race at Maryland Intl.(Budds Creek) then moved to Florida,courtesy of Uncle Sam's yacht club.We noticed a 2/10ths difference right away,but were able to re-jet and compensate for it.

[Aaron Yates]

Stroker, When are you coming back down to Eatonton ? I got my green and white DartSport running pretty good, it'd be a good race. I'm currious what you're run for jets, mabee I can help you out.

[SubLime440]

Since moving to Denver From Phoenix... Car ran between 12.8 and 13 consistently in Phoenix. Since moving to denver the car runs over 14.1 in the 1/4. Granted the car is not tuned completely yet, but I've been rejetting and changed power valves. This is common considering that Bandimere speedway in Denver is at 5900 ft above sea level. I'm surprised I can even breath up there....

[little storker]

Hey what,s going on Mr.Yates .I may get back down to Eatonton soon I just have been trying to run some big money races around the dirty south.I sometime have a problem having to run a box car for the money which is always the case at eatonton. IF I wanted to run box cars I would put one in my car.I maybe runinnig my car alittle rich to keep it cosistant when it cools down in the evening it doesn,t pickup as much. I run 78's in the front and 83's in the rear with no power valve. I just went into shock when my slowed almost a half second and lost 3 mph in one week.And the tracks where so close together.I may run at twiggs this weekend they are having a nice race or I may run the b&m race at Alanta raceway.And 9/9/2000 there,s a Mopar race at Alanta .I hope to see you at one of these events.How fast is your car running now.