Sum,...... and they must also maintain a load on the transmission or it will automatically pop into neutral........
The newest transmission in Hooley's Stude is a G-Force and we had the option of a drag type like you mentioned that can pop into neutral or the non-drag type. We chose the latter for just the reason you mentioned. With a high power car or almost any car you can get into and out of the gas on the run and we didn't want Hooley having to hold it in gear. It has been a great choice.
Last year after our first day fiasco that resulted in 4 days of work before we could run again we got close to finally starting and found out a couple cars back that the clutch wasn't working. Well it was working you just couldn't disengage it with the peddle. It looked non-fixable at least in line so we went ahead and ran. Hooley left it in neutral and I pushed him to about 60 mph and there he pulled it into gear and pulled away and made the rest of the shifts without the clutch and popped it into neutral once the chute was out. It was good enough to get us in impound. We did the same thing the next day and all was good until the car broke loose and started to spin and he had to pull the chute and the chance at a new record was put on hold until this year
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uSrGmZC2M1M&eurl=Listen for the 2-3 shift about the one mile and the shift into 4th about the 2 1/4 mile. 3rd is 1 to 1 and 4th is just a 7% overdrive. Then you can hear him pop it out of gear after the chute is out.
The point I was trying to make in the other post is that some, not all, cars have enough engine braking even in 4th gear that if you get out of the gas to quick you can get enough engine braking to upset the car, guess I didn't do a very good job.
c ya,
Sum