How-to: Your first Mission Street Legal
 

My suggestion, is sit down and watch for a while first. You will learn alot that way.

Otherwise.

Once you get to mission, take the road on the left, dont go through the front gates. Line up with the other cars. I usually got there around 3:30. You have to wait a while, but you are pretty much one of the first through tech.


BRING A PEN
BRING A PEN
BRING A PEN

Once the gates open, you will roll up to the pay booth. Cash is the fastest way. They will ask you if you have raced before, say no, and you will receive a number. This number is applied to your passenger side windshield along with with the class you are running.

Example.
9999
DOM = Domestic

9999
S/C = Sport Compact (pretty much anything not a muscle car)

9999
O/L = Outlaw (domestics running slicks, or any car with slicks really)

Once you pay, you will also receive a tech card. Head straight and you will pass the track on your right. Take the right turn, then stay to your far left, and follow that road. You will go past a chain link fence, and there should be a sign on the right pointing to tech. It is kind of a Y in the road, and there is a big white garage shed thing. Take the Y to the right, and pull it down all the way to the end. You will be in the tech area.

Tech

Once in tech, get out of the car, pop your hood, and open your truck/hatch. Begin filling out the tech card. You only need to fill out the top part, and the bottom part. All the middle is for the race cars that need chassis certification and what not. This includes name, address, phone #, D/L #, car # (remember the card they gave you at the admission gate with the car #?), class (DOM, S/L, O/L), and some other random crap. Once you have it filled out, put the tech card under your drivers side windshield wiper. This lets the tech guy know you are ready to go. The guy will ask you some usual questions, check under the hood, in the hatch/truck, look under the car, ask what you expect to run, etc. Usually they are pretty good, sometimes they can be ass clowns. Once the guy signs off your tech card, you now head to the time shack, which is to your left from tech. Drive down the curb, take the left, then another left. You will sign a waiver, and get a wrist band. Now you can head to the pit area (pretty much anywhere on the grass.)

Pits

Get your car ready to run, and get some food, because now you get to wait again.

Called to the line

When the annoucer calls your class, hop in your car and get in the traffic. Follow the cars and you will end up facing the way you came in. Line up in one of the 4 lanes near the over pass. Dont bother idling your car, sometimes you are waiting a while. Some people will push their cars, some just start em, move em, and shut them down. What you do is your choice.

Your first pass

Once you get to the front of the line, you will see a guy standing there. He is the guy who picks the cars to go line up. If he points to you, head towards the right or left lane. If you are to the right of the line (i.e. left to right from the wall on the inside)) you are going to be in the right lane. Closest car to the inside wall gets the left lane. Drive around the wooden rubber wall, and around the water if you are running street tires.

The burnout

For street tires, skip this, all you need to do is a quick burn to clean off the tires, nothing more. Do a quick brakestand, or a quick high rpm launch, then stop, and wait for the track beast to tell you to come to the line. DO NOT DO ANYTHING UNTIL THE GUY IN THE HEADSET GIVES YOU THE GO AHEAD.

Slicks/drag radials:
Back into the burnout box, there will be a guy to guide you. Back in, do your burnout, then roll out while spinning the tires to get any water off the tires. Once again, DO NOT GO UP TO THE LINE UNTIL THE TRACK BEAST MOTIONS FOR YOU.

The line

Once the burnout is complete, and the cars that were racing ahead of you have crossed the finish line, track beast will motion for you to pull ahead. There is a white sqaure box on the ground in the middle with 2 holes in the side. This is the box where you trip the lights. Rolling into the first light beam trips the first 2 yellow lights on the tree. Stop, then slowly roll forward to trip the second set. It is nit a big distance, so go SLOW. Once the second set are tripped on both sides of the tree, get ready ASAP. The yellow lights will be flashing before you know it and you will see the green.

The launch

This is not bracket racing, the 3 yellow lights do not go on one at a time. As soon as you see those 3 yellow lights flash, LAUNCH!

Crossing the line

Once you are across the line, start on the brakes. There are 2 or 3 return lanes, I dont remember how many exactly. IMPORTANT RULE!!!!!

THE CAR IN THE LEFT LANE GETS THE RIGHT OF WAY, ALL THE TIME, EVERY TIME.

Wait until he turns off, THEN YOU TURN OFF.

This only applies if you are in the right lane.

Do NOT panic if you miss the first and second return road, there is one at the very end of the track, they are ALL to your left, you can not miss them.

The return road

Once on the return road, you dont have to crawl along, but don't do a repeat of your run. You will end up back at the timing shack. Pull up to it with your window down, and they will hand you a timeslip. Head back to the pits.

Congrats, you just made your first pass.

thanks Ian for writing this up. Stickied for references.

N/P, I think this will help alot of people so they dont have to ask alot of questions, most are answered in the post.

A couple of minor items to add to this. Don't vehicles 5 years and older have to run water-only in the radiator? Meaning you have to drain your coolant before you get to the track and fill with water. Or they have a hose there kinda by the timing shack so you can dump n' fill. I've seen cars there that do that anyway. Also, automatics have to have a working neutral safety switch meaning you shouldn't be able to start your engine when the tranny is in neutral.

After driving around the water box and if you back into it for the burnout, make sure to PUT THE CAR IN DRIVE if you have an automatic. Burnouts in reverse are emabarrasing and a potential accident waiting to happen. Don't ask how I know :p

Maybe a little thing to add, dont let off untill you know you are past the finish line, a common problem with new racers is they let off too soon, usually when tehy are not quite past the line. Also when you turn into the exit lane, dont do anything stupid because people watch and will nail you when you get back to race again.

1995 or newer cars with a factory sealed cooling system are not required to run straight water. Make sure you take all the miscellaneous junk out of your car before you run too. Also bring a long sleeve t shirt and pants, sometimes you can get away without a long sleeve shirt, but sometimes you wont.

good luck and most of all have fun!

Here's the official website:

http://www.missionracewaypark.com/

There you can read the rules, info about the classes, the schedule etc.

nice, good post, learned alot

Is mission pretty strict on windshield cracks?

Not really... As long as it doesn;t affect the structure of the car too much ie Pieces missing/affects the visability then you should be fine (im a tech inspector for NHRA)

quick question for the inspector, in my rwd i dont have a trunk floor pan. just the frame and the cage coming through the aluminum between the tubs. the fuel cell, battery and bottle are mounted off the frame but no trunk floor pan. it doesnt bother me, does it bother tech?

It will... Only because now you dont have a fire break / exhaust break between you and your exhaust / motor. they get mad at this really easy. Most Techs May let you through. but the rulebook (available at the proshop for like 15$) states that you must have a full break from fire. this may be different if your talking a trunk that is enclosed (like a malibu or something like that) vs something like a station wagon or a hatchback, where there is little to differentiate between the trunk and rear pax area.

it does have a trunk, the exhaust is sealed from the passenger compartment. the driver sealed from everything, i would say the trunk open at the bottom is no different than the stuff open under the hood.

ill have to dig up a rulebook.

Should be fine. i would see no reason for that to be the reason you fail tech.... can you post a pic to show me what your talking about? it will be alot easier than you trying to describe it to me

Great thanks!! The crack is on the far passenger side away from my view completely starting from the top right of the glass and extends down about 12"

Put some white masking tape on it, and use that to write you number on.

good stuff

sept 5!!!!!

could someone clarify this

what exactly does a sealed system mean??

honda have the overflow bottle...so do VW's

X2

Does this mean, if you've had to replace a rad hose, or replace a rad hose clamp, that it's no longer 'factory sealed'?

My car is a 1999, but I've since replaced the hoses, and clamps along with it...

On their website http://www.missionracewaypark.com/mr...ridayrules.htm
rule #5 states that "All vehicles must be equipped with mufflers and a functional exhaust system. The maximum allowable noise limit is 90db" - how do they measure the db level and how strictly is it enforced? People have measured the stock exhaust db level on my car (s2000) and it's over 90db at wot but this was measured at a distance of about 0.5 metres. Also, does an exhaust with mufflers but without a cat count as a functional exhaust system?

Its supposed to be 90db at a distance of 1 Meter, 45 Degrees up from the level of the exhaust. they dont really check all that hard. they will from time to time, put a sound meter up at the fence, and listen as your car runs by. if they measure (and this time is about a 20 Degree angle, about 10 meters away) over 90 db.. then they will warn you, possibly telling you not to run again that night.. but its rare right now... there are cars there running open headers.. i dont think you will have a problem

so can anyone else confirm this?

You'll be ok. I passed tech no problem last time. :)

your fine.. its still considered an OEM Sealed System.

It's nice to have people like yourself who are willing to take their own personal time to help others with such detailed instructions. Thank You.