How to Practice Seat Time in NHRA Racing

Video Transcript

TINA STULL: Hi, I'm Tina Stull and I drive the Top Dragster for Interstate Batteries. On behalf of Expert Village, today, we're going to talk about the basics of racing. The best way to work on your tree is literally seat time. The most frustrating thing I ever had as a new driver was, you'd say: "How do I get a better reaction time? How do I work on it?" And they'll say: "Seat time, seat time, seat time." One of the best ways to practice at home is on a practice tree. And that allows you to just--it's--as you can see it's a box and it's got the tree. You can set it for whatever tree you're running off of. You could set it for two people, so they can play against each other, or that you could practice by yourself and the computer will run the other one. And it's just seeing the light, and, you know, getting your hand to let go. Most of the accomplished drivers will say that their hand leaves the button without them ever seeing the light. It would happen you just need to ingrain your thumb to your brain, just like--it's like similar to a reaction that if you touch something hot, it's almost a reflex. Where they'll just sit there and a thousand times a day and go off of that practice tree. You can sit in your car and practice. Like at Frank Hawley's School, they taught us to go through the run from the water box all the way through the finish line mentally. And you sit there and you close your eyes and you just physically will go through, and, you know, even if the car is not there, you can practice hitting the buttons, doing that so that it becomes routine. So that when you get that adrenalin rush, you're not having to think about what needs to be done and your less likely to forget a step, because if you forget to check and make sure it's in first, and you try to take off in second, you're going to be down the track before the tree is even been activated. And it happens to everybody. Mistakes are going to happen and this is all part of the learning curve. If you're afraid of making mistakes, this is probably not your sport, because you have to make them to learn them. Nobody can warn you about all the things that can go wrong. It would just be way too overwhelming. So you kind of like, learn along the way, you know, put fuel in the car, don't set off your parachute at the starting line, watch out--don't run over a crew member. All these things are just a part of learning and I found it--at the beginning it was really difficult, but then I found accomplished drivers and they'd always take me aside and say, "Don't worry, we've all done it." So don't think you're going to ever invent a new way to lose a race. I think they've all been done.

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