On Mon, 20 Jul 1998, Rhyner, Mark wrote:
> Hey guys, back when I was racing (the Billster hadn't become a
> billionaire yet) we didn't have this reaction time stuff.
>
> It looks to me that if you have a reaction time faster than .5 you red
> light. Is this an arbitrary figure the NHRA or whoever decided on?
>
> Looking for enlightenment.
>
Basically, the reaction time is the time from when the last
yellow lights to when your tire leaves the staging beams.
On the "normal" .500 tree, the first yellow lights, there
is a .5 second delay, the second yellow lights, there is a
.5 second delay, the third yellow lights, there is a .5 second
delay, and then the green lights. The R/T timer starts
when the last yellow lights. You're obviously disqualified if
you leave the line before the green light comes on, so if you do
it perfectly and leave exactly when the green lights, the R/T
clock will be stopped at .500. I suspect that the reason
they don't start the R/T timer when the green lights is
because then if you were to leave early, you wouldn't know how
early since there is no timer to tell you, so it wouldn't
help you to work on your reaction times.
On a "pro" .400 tree, all three yellows light at once
and then the green lights up .4 seconds later. The
R/T timer starts when the yellows light and stops when your
tires leave the staging beam. So a perfect R/T
on a pro tree is .400.
-Jon-
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