Paul,
> This is what I don't understand about drag racing at all. I can see why
> you want stage and pre stage lights. But why do you get the yellow
> countdown lights? Why not just turn on a green and some arbitrary and
> secret interval? That would be a true measure of reaction time, how
> quickly one can react to an unknown event.
This is basically how it is in the 'heads-up' classes. This thread
originally started out wondering if a 'pro tree' should be implemented
to make the racing more professional feeling. What happens on a pro
tree is all the amber bulbs flash at once and then the green is active
.400 seconds later. This is fine for a drag race where the cars can
launch at full throttle with adequate traction. I suspect that very few
of the cars that show up at a Pro Solo event could launch quickly enough
to make this system useable. Even my mid-8 second bracket car is only
capable of a .520 light and that is a tube chassis car with 15" slicks.
I got caught with a pro tree in my street car one time (10 second
Chevelle) and found that I was good for about .650 lights in that car.
My guess is that if they even TRIED such a thing, it would be protested
right out of existence in 2 or fewer runs <G>.
The 'full tree' is and will likely be the starting method of choice for
the foreseeable future. This is what is used in bracket racing and
works very well for the simple reason that it gives every driver the
opportunity to cut a good light depending on his/her personal ability.
Since the lights are all .500 apart, you can use the first two get a
rhythm to time your trigger and possibly cut a very good light with a
slow reacting vehicle.
I agree that reaction times are necessary and am amazed that they are
not part of the program already. It would be a strange and frustrating
world if they were excluded from drag racing. FWIW, there was a time
when state of the art timing systems for drag racing didn't give any
time prior to the green light and that was a terrible thing. You never
knew HOW red that light was...it could have been .001 as well as .100
and you had no way of tuning once it lit up. now all systems are run
such that the timer actually starts at zero when the last amber is
activated. This way, a .500 light is perfect on a full tree and .400 on
a pro tree.
Hope this helps. Sorry to use up so much bandwidth on a questionably
relevant topic.
Later dates.
--
Scott Knight mailto:sknight@mich.com
http://www.mich.com/~sknight IRC:SS396man
'95 Black Impala SS
'94 Ducati 900SS CR
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