Some very good points have been brought up allready on temps, and fuel pressure. The only thing I can say is quit racing the other guy and race your own dial in. If you do the things the same way every round, and your car is consistant, it doesn't matter what the other guy is dialed in at as long as you can run your dial in. Once your procedure and consistency is establised the only thing left to work on is reaction time and staging. Try to get "into the beams" the same amount every time you stage the car, this will make your 60 foot times more consistent, and after a lot of passes you will learn how much you can "crowd" the light and your reaction times will improve. Get a "practice tree" and work on it. If you can run on your dial in and get good on the tree, you then become the car the others have to beat. Leave the cheap tricks home, they don't work anyway when you are up against experienced bracket racers, cause they don't watch your car. Practice, practice, practice. Run as often as you can, brackets, gamblers race, grudge night, time trials, the more passes you make the more methodical you will become and the better bracket racer you are.