Coolant overflow, battery hold down, seat belt, and all lug nuts.
I would suggest watching a few cars go down and see what they do. And I mean street cars, not full on drag cars.
When it's your time to run, go around the water box, and straighten up facing down the track. I would suggest no burnout your first time, because as I recall, you're car really isn't that pumped up and has street tires. But if you do a burnout, back up, but don't use water with street tires. Do a quick spin to get the tires warm and the rocks out.
After you're done, start rolling forward, watch the tree, when the top two sets of bulbs come on, stop. When the lights on the tree begin to drop, leave on the third yellow.
On that third yellow, floor it. And go all the way down the track until the finish line and let off.
That's basically it. There are different thing you can do as well.
You can stall the motor up at the starting line. When you're holding the brake with your left foot, give it some gas.
If you lose traction, don't ride it out, just feather the throttle until you hook up.
Manually shifting is good, but unless you have a ratcheting shifter, I wouldn't do it. I personally used to manually shift my column shifter, but I would put in into neutral so many times, that I stopped doing it.
Again, I would watch a few rounds and see what the other people do. I'm sure you won't be the only first-timer out there. If you have any questions, the track staff should be nice enough to give out tips.
