All right, here's the real basic principles of bracket racing. At a race, you are given several time trials, which are used just as practice, and to see what times your car runs. In eliminations, which are single elimination tournament style, it's you against one other racer. You select a time that you think your car will run. That's called your dial-in. When two cars compete, they subtract the dial-ins, and the slower car gets that much of a head start. The theory is that if both drivers get identical reaction times, and both run what they predicted, they will meet right at the finish line... a tie. In practicality, this never happens. Reaction times will differ, and the car may run quicker or slower than predicted.

Reaction times are a huge part of winning (or losing!) races. They are also perhaps the most difficult part of drag racing, although it seems deceptively simple. We'll cover the basics of the starting system and reaction times in The Reaction Time Clinic.©Michael Beard

Now you say, "Why don't I just dial-in at 18 seconds, and I'll get a big head start and win?" There's the trick. If you run quicker than your dial, you lose! This is called a breakout. Basically, this means that you want to guess exactly what the car will run. If you guess far quicker than what the car can run, you won't be able to run fast enough, and your opponent can easily beat you to the finish. If you guess far slower, a practice called sandbagging, it is very likely that you will break out and lose.

There are many complex situations that arise from these handicapping rules. What happens if both cars break out? In this case, the car that runs out the least wins. How can someone win if they didn't cross the finish line first? If the other car breaks out more than you do, or he runs out and you don't, you win, no matter how much he beat you to the line by. Because of the possibility of breaking out, there are actually many instances where you will hit the brakes to win! This is covered in what we call Top-end Tactics.©Michael Beard

Originally posted by SMX
A manual will be quicker, but an auto will be more consistent. If you're bracket racing, you more than likely will want an auto. For heads up racing, get a stick. Bracket racing is all about consistency...