April 19, 2023
A dragster travels 1,320 feet, a quarter mile, in about 5.2 seconds. During that time, everything happening on the car is monitored and measured, from the wheel speed to the clutch to the way the car flexes.
“Without knowing what those components are doing in the course of that five seconds, you don’t know what to tune to get that extra speed and that extra little bit that’s going to help you get over the hump and win,” says Brent Hickman, senior manager of equipment maintenance and sales for Pilot Company, explaining how he applies his racing-team experience to running a more efficient trucking fleet. “A slight adjustment makes the difference of winning or losing.”