AMI QUALIFYING

[wfh126]

Wondering how the qualifying works for the AMI Index series.
In the NMRA/NMCA Series you usually make 3 passes and they take your best et & give you a 1/10
breakout.Does the AMI Series run the same way?
Say you have a 9.90 car,I ASSUME you would be in the 9.50 class(A/AMI)...is that correct?
Any information would be greatly appreciated!!

Bill

[Richard Maitre]

Qualifying goes as follows:
2 passes to try and get as close to his/her index without going under. If best is still under, you are still in the show, just at the bottom of qualifying. AMI is run off of a sportsman ladder. You can run any index you like regardless of how fast your car is. But.....whatever index you start the day with you will have the entire day, there are NO changing of indexes, so be ready when you come thru the gate to run THAT index.

Rich

[wfh126]

Rich...so as I understand it,if I elect to be in the 9.50 index,you have to run as close to 9.50 without going
 under.But if my car runs a best of 9.90,wouldn't I be better off to add the weight and choose the 10.00
index,since it would be easier to get close to that index??

[fastfairmont]

yes

[pokadot1]

yes

Lee are you giving away all the good secrets?

[shadow41246]

  so if you can hit a perfect 10.00. you better add another 50 lbs. so you do not drop into the 9.9o's on that "perfect" day  [ stradle the fence you will eventually fall off !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[fastfairmont]

what secret? he still has to figure out how much. i went 9.82 at Atco Sunday and when i took out the 90#'s it went 9.85.

[shadow41246]

 you guys didn't mention the handicap part , in the index.

[shadow41246]

 fast, i take it you're index was a 9.50 thus the reason for dropping the 90lbs. and not a 10.00.

[REDGAR]

Rich...so as I understand it,if I elect to be in the 9.50 index,you have to run as close to 9.50 without going
 under.But if my car runs a best of 9.90,wouldn't I be better off to add the weight and choose the 10.00
index,since it would be easier to get close to that index??

Just a clarification here as some of the replies strayed away from one key point Rich made.

You cannot change you index on race day at all.

When you sign up at the reg table, you have to provide an index and that is it.  So if you are heading to a track you have never raced at, you might want to error on the slower side.   Using your example, if you think you can run 9.9 you might want to go in the 10.0 index but if you have never raced at the track you are going to and have no idea if the elevation, air condition or track condition will cause you to go 10.10 instead, you may opt to enter 10.50 index and slow way down.

This is slightly different from other mixed index classes that run over two days.  We run in one day and change indexes in the past has created some laddering issues so we pick an index and stick with it.

[shadow41246]

the only track that most of the members don't like is beaver springs? ihave heard the rest are pretty good, if you do your homework, you can get track info online & keep a log of the tracks on the schedule, and prepare according for the track!   

[pokadot1]

   I  liked Beaver Spring's ! It was a nice frendly, fun track  My car just would not run the number. I was about .15 to slow in the afternoon. I could run fast enought to Qualify 2nd or so, in the morining from a shallow stage. I need to go nearly deep to get something less then 600 lite on a 500 pro light.  Qualifying is one of the strong points to making AMI fun and challenging. You need extra HP or removeable weight to be a killer car. Redger has the one key that is the hardest to do  You have to declaire your index before first round of Qualifying. Know your car, keep some in your pocket, you will be great.
Cliff

[shadow41246]

 cliff, thanks for the info, since my last post did some checking[my job on the race team] & beaver springs has an elevation of 632ft asl  could be reason tuning is more difficult, but if you keep records of all the variables you can go back & review them for the upcoming race.  the pro's have all their info recorded so they can tune accordingly  .   you can check out the different tracks on www.1320.com   shadow

[shadow41246]

 i take it the majority of the cars in ami are carburator equipped?  our car [wfh's car] is efi & the tuner has it running extremely consistant.  not a whole lot adjustments needed .  the car has a few one of kind features. [parts that normally don't go together have been made to work]  plus the car runs on reg 93 octane pumpgas.  the intent was to have a car thats competitive &  easy to tune. & economical as possible .    shadow   

[Richard Maitre]

Running those numbers....sounds like job well done!!

Rich

[REDGAR]

Hey Shadow, if I missed it sorry, what car are you running?  Any pics.

I run EFI cause that is what the car came with.  '99 Vette.

[fastfairmont]

fast, i take it you're index was a 9.50 thus the reason for dropping the 90lbs. and not a 10.00.

i was running O/C on Sunday, the only game in town. my index was 9.72

[wfh126]

REDGAR:

We're running a 1988 Mustang with a 428 Windsor,C-4,EFI...ALL MOTOR...93 octane pump gas.
At ATCO NMRA event in AUGUST it ran a best of 9.90 @ 135 in 95 degree heat.

[REDGAR]

That is awesome.  In 95 degree heat no less.

Great showing.

[shadow41246]

 redgar, the person that gave you the info on the car is my brother, bill, owner & driver of the car, we been going to the drags since the early 60's with our dad . he would be proud of the way we have the car running, miss not having him here in body, but his spirit defintly is !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! shadow   

[shadow41246]

redgar, shadow again, you can see the car run a early qualifying pass on the nmra website[www.nmraracing.com] go to nmra tv ,then click on 2007 events [atco,nj ]  after big daddy's interviews, they'll play the qualifying, were in the near lane running against the newsoms green/silver mustang. only ran a 10.08 @ 133.  did some chassis tuning to get it to run the 9.90 @ 135 [ that pass was against larry geddes we both had 9.95 dial ins]  we broke out with the 9.90, geddes ran a 9.96.     shadow 

[shadow41246]

 rich, thanks for the kudos,  the tuner [kevin, wicked motorsports does an awesome job of tuning & putting together components that are exclusive to this car. can't wait for you to get a first hand look at the combo the race has come up with .      shadow 

[shadow41246]

cliff, you didn't mention what ami class you decided to run?  if you ran there more than once , could you have choosen the next slower class[ if there is one] for this track . this is the highest elevation track on the 2008 schedule, with us-13 being yhe lowest at only 15ft asl  so you should definitly should run your numbers here with no problem! difficult tracks pick a slower class, the best tracks your best class. next are capable of adding weight via the rules? looks like the 2008 rules kept the13.00 & added the 9.50 . that is a preety wide range. only you know what the car is capable of running & keeping a log of what you did will help remember ,so you can pick the best class for the conditions for that day as redgar says when you sign up  good luck in 2008, any questions just ask will see i can help    shadow.

[pokadot1]

cliff, you didn't mention what ami class you decided to run?  if you ran there more than once , could you have choosen the next slower class[ if there is one] for this track . this is the highest elevation track on the 2008 schedule, with us-13 being yhe lowest at only 15ft asl  so you should definitly should run your numbers here with no problem! difficult tracks pick a slower class, the best tracks your best class. next are capable of adding weight via the rules? looks like the 2008 rules kept the13.00 & added the 9.50 . that is a preety wide range. only you know what the car is capable of running & keeping a log of what you did will help remember ,so you can pick the best class for the conditions for that day as redgar says when you sign up  good luck in 2008, any questions just ask will see i can help    shadow.

 Shadow  I run 12.00. When I arived at Beaver, Dan {mr #1} said it was real slow but I have no tune up for 12.50 and I had ran 11.70's at Cecil the week before so I thought I was ok.  I ran/run NSCA and NMCA with the wagon for 7 years I can hit the number almost anywhere,  Beaver caught me, I will not make that mistake again, Yha right.

[Matt Jewell]

Well, with an All Run Field for next season (which I am all for), qualifying will be for additonal points and to set a ladder. But you would be better off qualifying 3 tenths under your index and running someone in the Middle of the ladder (a tenth slower than their index) in the 1st round, and play the finish line game then show up and be 2 tenths off your chosen Index do to heat or track conditions. When you had to worry about making the field, qualifying was more important.Now, it will be important for bonus points only.

[McCloud Motorsport]

Right on the money Matt!!!! That's why I was hoping for a Pro ladder.

[shadow41246]

  matt, are you sure its under &  not over ?   if you're index is 10.00,  going under would place in the 9.50 index class & put at the end of the qualifying list if i understand it right?    shadow

[Matt Jewell]

You pick your index before qualifying. So if you pick 10.50, and then run 10.10 twice, you're qualified at the back of the ladder with a 10.10 (4 tenths under your index).  But in a 32 car field, number 16 would run number 32. number 16 qualifier may be a tenth slower ( or more) than his chosen Index. So you cut a light, play the finish line and hopefully advance to round 2. Obviously it gets harder past the 1st round, and chances of breaking out get better when running against a car that runs the number. Not complaining, just making sure everyone sees the same thing ( or if I'm wrong, I'm sure I'll get corrected ).

[shadow41246]

 matt, shadow again, say you can run a 9.80 on a bad day ,car capable running faster on a good day would you weight down the car for the 10.00 index or choose the 9.50 index and run the car balls out . most people think the car will go slower but what if goes faster than you think ?    shadow 

[McCloud Motorsport]

    K, I'm lost now!

[badbee]

eat a bunch of cheesburgers

[REDGAR]

Marc don't be lost...lemme "'splain sumsing to Joo" (what movie is that from)

Shadow is asking if Matt would rather run balls out which is a noble thing to do because we are racing.  However, not the desired thing to do if your are trying to go rounds and are not within a tenth of your index or better if you struggle at the tree.

Matt is saying he would rather force himself to the bottom of the ladder in the hopes that he races someone in the middle of the pack that is running balls out but off his index.  Pretty Genious I think....if you can hold your car back and don't get treed. 

Two different points of view;  Shadow from not having run this type of index and Matt from running this type of index before.

Matt, your strategy is a good one if you are coming in with a car going under by a little.  I you run 9.98 and 9.97 on 10.0 index....you got it made.  If you run under by a lot more, there may not be enough room there to slow yourself down enough.  I see exactly what you are getting at and would like to see the numbers to see if it really is an advantage.

Don't take this the wrong way, but I am not sure coming in with a car running under a large margin for that purpose alone is in the spirit of the class.  I tight runner and decent tree cutter will eat you alive.

[Matt Jewell]

I think everyone knows how I feel about sandbagging. I'm just pointing out that if you pick your own Index, and if it's an All Run Field, definately pick an Index that you can run under VS. one that everything needs to be perfect for you to run close to. For those that had their combos dialed in last season, this doesn't apply. For those that haven't ran AMI before, don't think everyone runs flat out and track/weather are on your side.

[fastfairmont]

the games people play  

[McCloud Motorsport]

I see now Edgar, I thought Shadow was thinking if you ran under your index you got booted down to the next index . I'm not lost now, I'm found!