Gary also has a great knowledge of what it takes to make a car "run the number." There were a few simple rules he told me I needed to follow if I wanted to be successful at 8.90 racing.

1. Get the car to run consistent before you even try the throttle stop.

2. Unhook the timer, shut the stop to about 10 turns, engage transbrake and see where the converter flashes. In my car he said to shoot for about 4500 rpm. I tried 10 turns and it hit 4800. Changed setting to 12 turns and it labored to get to 4200. I hit 4500 almost exactly at 11 turns. Every car is different you just have to be patient and keep records of changes.

3. You want enough wide open throttle time in your first timer stage to be sure you can get your car off the line fast enough to get your car out of the stage beam for good reaction time. On Project 4-Link we set the timer for .2 of a second. If you can't get the reaction time you want try a little more time, maybe .3 to .4 of a second.

4. The next thing you need is a fairly steady rpm while the car is "on the stop." The Digital Delay Mega 400 playback tach feature makes it possible to replay the run and what you can learn from that is very important.

5. The next timer setting is the "second stage," (how long the throttle stop will be shut). The key is to get a "ratio" you can manage. Gary had me start at 2.00 seconds (off). The Project 4-Link normally runs 8.30-8.40 wide open. My very first pass with this setting was 8.902. Thanks Gary! He instructed me to make two runs with that setting then make a big change to the timer and see what change it made to the ET. I added .5 to the timer setting (now 2.500). It changed the ET to 8.997. That means .5 in timer means .1 in ET. This is a 5:1 ratio. Gary said 4:1 to 5:1 is a good setting to work with. A bigger ratio will probably put you to close to the shift point and to small of a ratio makes getting it dialed in is difficult.

6. He proved he knew what he was talking about as I was within a .01 of the 8.90 all day Saturday and Sunday. I am sure it is not always that easy to stay on the 8.90 but Number One's Gary Heuer gave me a great plan and we stuck to it.

A Number One Stop in a piece by piece view. Precision machine work and hand-fitted parts assure top quality.

If you are interested in doing some IHRA or NHRA heads-up index racing get a plan together and stick with it.

The next edition of "Project 4-Link" will be a fun one to write. We are "hitting the road" with the dragracingonline.com Project 4- Link dragster. We will go to the B&M Racer Appreciation Series at Tri-State Raceway in Earlville, IA and during that three-day race we will hop over to Cedar Falls Raceway for their first "Night of Fire." The following week we leave for Mid-Michigan Motorplex for the Super Pro World Challenge $50,000 to win four day event. A short three day vacation in the Mackinaw Island area of Michigan and it is back to Mid-Michigan for the IHRA Northern Nationals. Three days after we get back we head to Eddyville for the IHRA HCS race and then about three weeks off. If I can keep Barb and myself from "burning out" and the dog happy for those three weeks, the summer will be rated a huge success!