The world famous Sonoma Raceway is available for everyone with cars that pass their tech inspection to race most Wednesday nights from around March through October every year. It’s a safe, legal venue to take your Tesla to it’s limits for quick race down the drag strip.
Tech inspection usually includes ensuring drivers have the proper safety equipment for their car. A Snell rated helmet currently accepted by the NHRA will be required for all Teslas, and a NHRA rated fireproof jacket is necessary for PLAID owners.
Get there by 3 to 3:30pm if you don’t mind waiting around a little to get the most practice runs in. It only costs 35 bucks to drag race. Eliminations start at 7pm.
All Teslas are put in the Comp Rod category. Some cars in this category are purpose built for drag and are not ever driven on the road legally. They are allowed to run full slicks and race electronics including rev limiters and delay boxes to increase their odds of nailing a great reaction time. (If this is your first time general advice is to leave on the 3rd light – the last yellow, not the green, as a guideline. Depending on how you react to the light and how you make your car move some microsecond adjustments will need to be made as you learn how to time your car to get the best reaction time.)
Dial in before eliminations begin at 7pm. Dial in is the Elapsed Time prediction. Run faster than this time and you’ll lose. PLAID racers will need to sandbag to keep Elapsed Times slower than 9.99. Maybe use Chill Mode? 😎
