what are they doing?

[ttocs]

I noticed that on a lot of drag race videos that after the burn out and they line the cars up that often the guy lining it up seems to go to the back portion of the car and flip a switch or something. What are they turning on/off? Line lock or trans brake or do they just want to touch the car one more time before it goes down the track? I am not talking about rails, funny cars or most of the pro cars mainly the DIY stuff I see on youtube.

 

[ttocs]

[video=youtube;oNa4obQo37A]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNa4obQo37A[/video]

 

[g36 monkey]

It's semi-related, but not your answer.

Around here, certain sects of crews have 14 people walk down to the track with them, guide them into the lane properly (because I guess they can't figure it out on their own, like everyone else) then do all sort of weird gestures and such while staging, to include touching the back of the car, kneeling down and praying. I don't know why it's a thing.

 

[ttocs]

I figured it was just to make it easier for the driver or something.

 

[RedTwilight]

They are turning the data logger on. They place it in the back and have a crew member turn it on so the driver can focus on doing his job. Most of the data loggers that are used in drag racing only record around 30 seconds or so of data.