what's the deal with the reaction time? i heard .500 is the best. what does that stand for? it seems like all i have to do to get a good R/T (.500) is to go on the 3rd yellow. i don't understand it.:confused::confused::confused: please excuse my ignorance. can someone elaborate?

It means the car is moving exactly when the green light comes on. The tree uses .5 second intervals for the sportsman classes. Just a couple of years ago they stopped using the .500 basis to quote reaction time, and just quote the time from 0 based on when the green light lights. And, if you think it's easy, just give this a try

Reaction Time Test Link (http://www.hotroddersauctions.com/trees/ONLINE_PRACTICE_TREE_ROLLOUT.html)

Try it again, I didn't insert the URL properly

shoot. link's not working. any idea where it moved to?

what's the deal with the reaction time? i heard .500 is the best. what does that stand for? it seems like all i have to do to get a good R/T (.500) is to go on the 3rd yellow. i don't understand it.:confused::confused::confused: please excuse my ignorance. can someone elaborate?


When the front tire uncovers the front of the two staging beams, the clock starts ticking for your ET. So you could run a 9.00 ET with a 10 minute reaction time if you were really sleeping...:boring:

When you stage and have both sets of staging lights lit, you are "staged" or "shallow staged" it is sometimes called. So the idea is to get rolling so your front wheel uncovers both beams as soon as possible after the green is on.

"Deep" staging is when you roll forward enough to uncover the rear staging beam so the top staging lights go off. The result is that there is less distance to travel to uncover the forward staging beam. This works well for slower cars or slow reacting drivers. In my Monte, I never even see the green light.

For example I shallow stage with my Monte because it reacts very quickly, but when I race my Tundra on street night, I deep stage it and leave at the same yelloe light as I do with the Monte. Since the Tundra reacts much slower, my reaction times are very consistent between the two vehicles. I won some decent money last year with the Tundra..LOL..

Your ET will be slower typically .1 to .15 when deep staging because you get less of a head-start rolling through the staging beams than you do shallow staged.

.500 or now most tracks use .000 is when you have moved forward enough to uncover the front staging beam with your front tire at exactly the same time the light went green.


I hope this helps...

shoot. link's not working. any idea where it moved to?

Link works now.

so if i'm not mistaken, the car starts rolling before the clock actaully starts? or is the difference marginal? it's all starting to make sense.

Yes, it better be rolling before the clock starts or you'll have a bad light. My car is like Toms, reacts quick, so I stage as shallow as possible and leave just above idle or I'll go red.

wow. tried the link. that is hard. thanks!:beers:

Thanks for the link (timewaster, but it's a good thing). Already got a .491 w/in 8 tries. Kinda different from mashing the gas, though.