Drag Racing Question

[beam]

In drag racing...do the cars have to start at the line? Or could a car start back a few yards and lay on the gas at the right time so as to cross the start line at the green light?

Sort of like football players on a kick off. Some start back (at different distances depending on their speed) and cross the line right as the kicker kicks the ball.

I would think there is a rule against this since nobody does it. But if there isn't, couldn't you pull this off? The tree is pretty consistent, so you could easily time it.

I don't know...just a random thought that popped into my mind today.

[Archangel Damien]

they both have to start at the chrismas tree because if they aren`t lined up they won`t get the green light to go plus if one does not line up it gets red lighted

[animal]

STAGING!!!

It's called staging. There are two light beams in front of the tree. The further back one is called pre-stage, and the front is called stage. When you break the pre-stage beam, one light on the tree is illuminated, then you have to inch forward until the stage light turns on as well. The pre-stage may or may not be lit at this point, but the stage light has to be lit for the tree to count down.

There's also a technique called a shallow and deep stage. Basically, you have to be between the two beams (prestage and stage, but there's a little play in there to compensate for different tires. If you're closer to the back beam, you'll have more time to roll before you break the 3rd light beam that starts the clock. This delay between the 3rd yellow light on the tree and you breaking the time-start beam is called the reaction time. If your reaction time is less than .5 seconds (on a standard tree) you'll be redlighted and automatically lose the race. (this is because the delay between the last yellow and green is .5 seconds, so any less and you're before the green, thus making a .500 reaction "a perfect cut") A deeper stage makes reaction time harder, but you're already moving just a bit when you break the beam that starts the timer, hence leading to a better elapsed time. A more shallow stage gives you a better chance for a good reaction time, but you no longer have that extra bit of velocity when breaking the timer beam.

Hope that helps.

[FactsOfLife]

Setting up in the lihgts to get the best reaction time takes a lot of practice.

Watching the bulbs for when they come on is a trick that I learned from a crusty old dragbiker. Bulbs have three stages to being lit, coming on, all on, and going off.

While there is supposed to be a half second between lights on the tree, depending on how fast the filament is turnin on and off, it'll play hell with your reaction times.

You have to watch rollout too. Rollout is the time between the first point on your vehicle that breaks the stage beam, and that same point breaking the first timing beam.
If you learn how much rollout you have, you'll be a lot more consistent in the lights.

Staging further back in the lights does give you a longer shot at the tree. It also gives you a longer ET if you're bracket racing.

No matter how you stage, you need to do it the exact same way every time. Being consistent on the tree will give you a lot of wins. And they don't all need to be 500 lights either. If you're always cutting 520 lights or better, that'll win a lot of races.

I won't even get into delay boxes.... he he heeeeeee