Just thought I'd chime in here on the matter of jumped starts
Ben is copying a lot of his event from my Mirror Khana, which ran its 25th
time this year. We start cars from a drop of a starter's hand, no lights of
any kind. The judges determine if a driver has jumped the start. But
actually, in 25 YEARS of Mirror Khana, I can only recall one jump-start
penalty. The point being that it is a really obvious thing when someone
does. If it is a really close call, it is no call at all. While an NHRA
christmas tree may be able to detect someone who starts 0.399 after the last
yellow and redlight him, we humans are not that good. But as Ben said, there
is no last yellow. So anticipating is virtually impossible. It is truly
reacting. Oh, and the guy we nailed for the jump start (several years ago)?
I seem to recall his foot slipped off the clutch.
In other words, don't worry about it. It sounds like Ben plans to tell his
people the same thing we go by here at Mirror Khana. You call the obvious
jump start (if any), don't worry about the did-he-or-didn't-he calls. If it
is close enough that is the question, the answer is, he didn't.
--Rocky Entriken
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