There is no substitute for practicing in the actual race car you will be competing in and in car should be the ONLY place you practice the tree. The position of your leg, the angle of your foot, the position of your head all matters and effects the drivers reaction time. By practicing in your car you are enforcing good and consistent habits.
When you first get to the staging lanes, pass the tree to the kid and let them get 5-10 hits in before the pass. This ensures that their head is in the right place, they are hitting the spot they need to and can also give them that added confidence boost that they can take down anyone.
The Reaction Time Reader by Computech allows you to finally know exactly what the drivers reaction time was, separate from the car. This is huge for anybody looking to tighten up their starting line consistency or who have aske the time old question, was it the driver, or was it the car. Also NHRA legal.
Knowing whether a bad light was due to the driver or the car allows you to both address the problem correctly and then make the correct tuning choice for the next round. When utilizing the RaceBase software, you are able to get Drivers Adjusted Reaction time which is their light independent of the car and adjusted to their practice tree as well as Track R/T which will tell you, if your driver has a perfect light, this is what we are setup for on the track.
To Portatree Pocket Pal Practice Tree is the best option for drag racers looking to practice their craft. As drag racers, getting “practice” time is hard to come by and expensive, and there are few things we can do to improve, except for the practice tree. The practice tree allows you to improve your reaction time and most importantly your consistency. And for new racers, it’s imperative that they get practice time in at home and in the pits to develop the consistency needed to win.
Computech is the only one that makes a Porta-Tree Pocket Pal compatible micro switch. This micro switch is meant to be installed on a Halfscale Adjustable Pedal and that pedal can also be installed on a Mike Bos chassis using an adapter. The cable itself is a tough braided cable that won’t kink and will survive in the harsh environment of a junior dragster. This cable will go from the pedal, down the chassis and end up on the upper chassis bar where the driver can easily grab it and plug it into their practice tree.
Coming with the Jr. Practice Tree kit and the Jr. Practice Makes Perfection kit is the option for either a flat or butterfly steering wheel. With either of these options the driver is able to stare straight in front of them with their hands on the wheel and hit the tree. This is imperative for consistency and the mounting back allows you to quickly and easily take in and out of the car.
In order to determine drivers reaction time, we need to have a camera mounted on the wing so that we can capture the throttle flag installed on the carburetor as well as seeing the christmas tree. Our aluminum and powder coated GoPro Camera Wing Mounts are made to fit either a Mike Bos or a Halfscale style wing.
To determine the exact second the driver hits the gas, we utilize a throttle flag installed on either your 33mm or 42mm Mikuni carbuerator. The flag installs on the opposite side of the throttle linkage and can also serve as a more convenient way to adjust the throttle as a tuner.
When you utilize the Jr. Practice Tree Kit, the Reaction Time Reader throttle flag and camera mount, and the RaceBase software we are able to determine the Drivers Adjusted Reaction Time. This is a value that tells us what the kids light was independent of the car and then adjusted to his practice tree. So although it may take the kid .145 to react to the third bulb and hit the gas, if a perfect light on his practice tree takes .125 then his adjust R/T that pass was a .020. This data is extremely valuable and can help ensure you make the right decisions between rounds regardless of what the driver might have done.
