Serious fun at UMTR event

[Guest Bucknik]

I learned about the "United Manual Transmission Racers organization this summer and I just had the opportunity to participate in their event yesterday at Dragway 42.

 

Aside from the disadvantages of Dragway 42 itself, I had a great time! I competed in both the Street Stick UMTR class and the local street class. The biggest difficulty was that the UMTR class was 1/8 mile wile the local class ran the entire 1/4. Dial-ins and strategy got a little confusing, since the classes ran back-to-back.

 

I won three rounds in the local street class, but I made it all the way to the final in the UMTR class.

 

I had a really funny win in the local class.... funny for me, anyway. I was racing a slowish 4-cylinder car and gave it a 3-second head start. We get roughly equal R/Ts, so I'm reeling this guy in the entire time. By the end of the 1/4, I'm traveling a good 35mph faster than him. He looks back and sees that I'm still well behind him, not realizing how fast I'm closing! He hits the brakes shortly before the line and I go screaming past him at 113mph, getting the .01 sec. win! I couldn't believe he hit the brakes. I laughed for 10 minutes.

 

I lost in the local class in a very classic way: I got treed. In the UMTR final, my dial in was 1.5 seconds behind the other finalist, so they left first. She gets a very poor .21 light and I pull at .01! Woohoo! Unfortunately, as I go screaming past her, I realize that this is only an 1/8th mile race and I hit the brakes way too late, breaking out by .05sec! I had two difficulties on that run: 1. I pulled my best 60' time of the night, and 2. I didn't realize how close the 1/8 mile mark was. I should have easily won, but my inexperience with 1/8 mile races cost me the win. I still walked away with $125.

 

The bottom line is, if you have a manual transmission, it is really a blast to compete against other manuals. We all know automatics have an advantage in bracket racing, but this organization plays with a level field. You can read about the organization and their schedule of events here:

 

UNITED MANUAL TRANSMISSION RACERS

 

I hope to make their event at National Trail on August 18. I'm pretty sure they have the track all to themselves that day, and the races are the full 1/4 mile. I'm also considering heading down to Edgewater on August 4th for the Stick Shift Nationals.

 

If you run with a manual transmission, this organization adds a lot of enjoyment to bracket racing! I highly recommend their events.

[lawnman]

How many cars were there?

[Guest Bucknik]

How many cars were there?

 

In the UMTR classes, I think there were 21 cars in the "Street Stick" class, and a lot more, maybe close to 40, in the Pro Stick class. There were more cars than that in the local street class. Most people got 4 time trials before eliminations started. There may have been more, but there were two oil-downs on the track and Dragway 42 isn't very good at cleaning that stuff very quickly.

[muscless]

Your GTO looks badass.

[lawnman]

looks like fun.