My friend said that if you don't pull up fully to the last staging line and you wait till about 1/2 a second after the last green light goes and then launch, that you will have a good et because you'll hit the line at like 5MPH. So will this work? Does the clock start when you hit the line or after the last light turns on?

I'm not planning on trying this because I'll have a horrible reaction time, I just wanted to know if this is true. Thanks

 

E/T is timed from when the car leaves the line.

 

He means deep staging, it doesn't affect your e/t I don't think but does affect your MPH. Your MPH will be a bit higher e/t should remain the same. I think this is right but don't quote me ;-)

 

Actually he was talking about shallow staging, deep staging is when you keep going after second light comes on until the first light goes out.
The difference between a deep stage and a shallow stage is about 5 inches so you might go 1/10 of a mile faster and take off .05 seconds from your ET but most likely your reaction time will suffer.
You are better off deep staging to get a better reaction time.

 

The ET clocks start as soon as you break the starting line beam. When the green light comes on you can sit there as long as you want without the timer started. I stalled the car once on the starting line during a test and tune and the car didn't roll forward to break the beam. The time it took me to ratchet up to neutral, start the car, ratchet down to first then go got me an 8 second reaction time. ET and MPH were the same as a normal run.

Theoretically if you deep stage you are a few inches closer to the finish line and you should get a quicker ET (very slight) since the distance is less. Shallow staging should give a higher mph because you get a head start getting the mass of the car moving before breaking the beam.

On a test and tune, try doing a single run and ask the starter that you want to take a run at it. After the green light comes on, back out of the beams a few feet then launch from there. I'm not sure if the timing system will let you back out of the beam but if it does, you'll get a good ET and MPH because of the running start up to the starting beam.

 

If you shallow stage, wouldn't that also lower your ET, because instead of starting from a dead stop you are now starting from maybe 5 mph? I always thought it would get you quicker 60' times, quicker ET's, and quicker mph's. At the track I race at, when you deep stage, they don't even give you a 60' time (unless the clocks were broke that day...) But if what I said is true, what is the point of deepstaging?

 

Deep staging gives you a quicker R/T because the car doesn't have as far to roll before you break the starting beam.

 

Stephen is certainly right about the starting line beam starting the ET timer.
when you prestage, your front tires are blocking the prestage beam and the prestage light comes on. When you move forward about 7 inches or so your front tires break the stage beam and the stage light comes on. You are still breaking the prestage beam so it is still on. If you stop rolling the instant the stage light comes on, you are shallow. If you keep moving forward you are getting deeper. Depending on front tire diameter, you can move forward a given amount before the prestage beem is no longer blocked by the tire and the prestage light goes off but the stage light is still on. This is a full deep stage. Also depending on front tire diameter, you can move forward a certain amount before your front tires leave the stage beam.

Now, the reaction timer starts timing when the last yellow flashes, it reaches 0.500 when the green flashes on (0.500 for a bracket tree. It's 0.400 on a pro tree) and stops timing when your front tire leaves the stage beam. Simultaniously, when your front tire leaves the stage beam the ET timer starts. The ET timer stops when your front tire blocks the finish line beam.

The reaction timer and the ET timers are sepperate timers, with the ET timer starting when the reaction timer stops. The distance you have to move the tires forward to leave the beam is called "rollout" The shallower you stage, the longer your rollout will be. The deeper you stage the shorter your rollout will be.

Since the reaction timer starts when the last yellow flashes. If you just set there, the reaction timer is ticking away but the ET timer has not started timing yet because your tires have not moved from the stage beam.
To get the "true time" for a pass (the total time it takes for you to get to the finish line from the time the green comes on), add your ET and reaction time together, then subtract 0.500 for a bracket tree or 0.400 for a pro tree.


Sorry Stephen but I have to disagree with part of what you say here:
The part I disagree with is that deep staging will (Theoretically) give a quicker ET. Deep staging improves reaction time, but at the cost of a slower ET. Since the reaction timer starts on the last yellow, and stops when the front tires leave the stage beam then the deeper you are, the sooner your tires leave the beam (less rollout). This improves reaction time. The cost of this though, is that since you have little rollout there is no time to get moving before leaving the stage beam. while this means a good reaction time, it also means you have no "rolling start" before the ET timer starts. If you shallow stage, you have more rollout. This means that when the car begins moving it will roll further and get more of a "rolling start" before leaving the staging beam. Since the tire takes longer to leave the beam it takes longer to stop the reaction timer and start the ET timer. You have a rolling start on the ET timer though.

The more shallow you stage, the shorter the ET will be and the reaction time will be longer.

The deeper you stage, the shorter your reaction time will be but your ET will be longer.

Either way, the total time (reaction + ET - 0.500) will usually be about the same.