[GarysZ24]

No Bill,

I can't let this dog lay down without adding my extra .02. You and Casey, plus Mark get it, but I'll offer another take on it...right now, the first car to cross the finish line on a break out run doesn't automatically lose the race (and no lights are displayed), until the second car crosses the line...thus allowing the least breakout to produce the round winner, right??? So why not do for the starting line the same thing with regards to the possibility of a redlight...as you said the second car should have the same pressure applied to him/her as the first leaver does (thus to level out the playing field)...i.e. as Casey suggested, a "No Red" adjustment to the Christmas Tree, that would delay the display of the redeye until after the second car launched from the line, and the timers would then give the redlight to the worse of the two...I don't understand the difficulty in comprehending that ideal either, but I tell you what I sure can think of two recent year races that I could've possibly benefitted from a No Red First Leave display:

1. Quarterfinals at the LODRS DIV. VII #2 race at Tucson, Az. I wasted a right on the Dial in run on a redeye that was only -.013. Wes McGann would've had a chance to redlight too if he wouldn't have seen my redeye displayed while he waited just over 4.0sec's for his lights to come down after mine started to. I ran right on my dial-in too (15.940 on a 15.94 dial-in), which added more salt to the wound. If my red light wouldn't have been shown, then he would've had the same pressure I had to make his light good but quicker than the .092 that he carded in that run, and even though he broke out(11.555 on a 11.59 dial), it didn't matter, because the 46yr old first or worse rule applied. Some might say that my redlight was worse than his breakout, however if he had a chance to redlight because of the "NO RED FIRST LEAVE" display, then he could've redlighted too, and his could've been a -0.14 (or more)??? Even the "Drag Race Central" commentator said it proper by adding the caption "McGann gets an easy win as Hampton red lights"! Why should he and other faster cars get easy wins at our slower car expenses?

Why do you think guys such as Peter Biondo enjoy the perks of having one of the fastest cars wherever he goes now? Because under the current format (and in most of his races), he's going to be the second person to leave the line. He didn't need it before, but he sure is enjoying the perks of it now huh...Ohh and lest I forget other racers such as Dan Fletcher who made his Camaro faster so that he now gets to be a chaser more often than a chasee, and even Lee Zane has a faster car now than the one that gave him his claim to fame!

2. I had a similar race against Brad Burton last year in the LODRS DIV. VII RACE #1, where I redbulbed by -.022. Brads light was a .023, so if your ideal Bill would've applied here, then Brad would've had a chance to redlight as well since he was only safe from doing so by .024 (and he also gave up an over 4sec head start to me), but if he'd have done so his could've been worse than mine!? I just wish my light would've been green since we don't have that rule, because my breakout was just -.025, as opposed to his -.039.

Heck, the (now SS/AH) cars who used to rule Super Stock are getting a dose of their own medicine with the expansion of Super Stock to include Modified Production & Modified Stock cars (plus some of the GT classes), which are now faster than the DREADED HEMI used to be in both the SS/AA & SS/BA (plus SS/A & SS/B) classes...you sure don't see them as dominating as they used to be back in the 70's to late 80's huh???

Thanks to Drag Race Central for the stats on both races! Bill, I know I would benefit from your ideal, and I also know not to hold my breath, but isn't rather interesting how quickly numerous A/SA & A/S cars made the upgrades to AA/SA & AA/S...I wonder if this thread didn't touch on the primary reason why??? Heck, it almost reminds me of the pro classes, the people with the most money generally do most of the winning, because the rules seem to favor the have's over the have not's...the faster over the slower!!! Oh, and one more thing, Casey you hit another nail on the head by noting that the faster car has an easier judgement of the finish line over the slower car racer, because everything is in front of him/her (opponent/finish line), thus benefit number two of upgrading to AA/SA & AA/S...just my extra .02