Reaction times (1 Viewer)

[LasVegas87]

It would be interesting if the timing system would be advanced enough to give us the staging depth vs the reaction time. We know John Force goes in deep on Sundays but it'd be neat to cross reference RT with how far into the beam a driver is.

 

[dr flames]

It would be interesting if the timing system would be advanced enough to give us the staging depth vs the reaction time. We know John Force goes in deep on Sundays but it'd be neat to cross reference RT with how far into the beam a driver is.

Have not raced with led, they are much faster, that being said I always shallow staged to get a running start at my reaction time, if I broke the beam at the same time as someone that dep staged im already moving faster than him at the start line, don’t know how much that is worth in the big picture, the old lites you could read better they were a lot slower

 

[Usual password less 1]

In a fuel car every inch you roll in is about 1/100th. If you put the top light out your reaction time would go from like a .100 to around a .040-.050 but your ET would slow down from a 3.95 to around a 4.00.

 

[dr flames]

In a fuel car every inch you roll in is about 1/100th. If you put the top light out your reaction time would go from like a .100 to around a .040-.050 but your ET would slow down from a 3.95 to around a 4.00.

Thanks for the info, back before reaction times I had a green light lite changed in the tower to red because they said they were sure I red lighted and the tree didn’t catch me, of course we were running the new big diameter funny car tires and the lights were higher off the ground back then, it looked odd on our 105” altered but was great for rollout, really miss those days, really liked push starting

 

[DanTheFan]

In a fuel car every inch you roll in is about 1/100th. If you put the top light out your reaction time would go from like a .100 to around a .040-.050 but your ET would slow down from a 3.95 to around a 4.00.

Math skills are passing me by. So if you consider RT and ET together, is there any way the car with the lower numbers can lose due to staging? Or is it too dependent on how good your running start is if you shallow stage?

 

[Just Paul]

One of the things to pay attention to is the 60' time. I'll use Wilkerson as an example in Vegas. In his 3 qualifying runs he was .888, .883 ,.886 and first round he was .900, and he had a better than average light for him, so I'm thinking he rolled in .015 or so.

Force had trouble in Vegas R1, but I'll back up to Bristol. He had a .875 in Qualifying, .872 First round shallow against a car he should beat, Jim Campbell going for lane choice, then was .902 against JR Todd so he probably rolled it in .025 ish.

 

[TD5023]

Math skills are passing me by. So if you consider RT and ET together, is there any way the car with the lower numbers can lose due to staging? Or is it too dependent on how good your running start is if you shallow stage?

In a legal race, the best package on the track will always be the winner, with a heads-up package simply being ET+RT. The actual racecourse will be the same length for both drivers (for all intents and purposes) because the course begins when the tire clears the starting beam. The only thing staging affects is how much of a running start at the racecourse a car can have.
(Also, since red-lighting isn't a significant factor in nitro cars, staging deeper means you will start physically closer to the finish even though the timed distance is the same. This can be an advantage for slower-reacting cars, but anything that is capable of red-lighting without guessing will always be better off staging as shallowly as possible.)