[Michael Beard]

There's +/- to everything, and results will vary greatly between drivers. Everyone's brain works a little different, and that means what works for you may not for the next guy, and vice versa. If you're a good top bulb racer, you'll probably be good blocking, but it requires a fast-reacting car (and driver). In my opinion, it's a bandaid fix. It eliminates distractions, but if there *are* any distractions that get past it (glare, camera flashes, people moving in your peripheral vision), I think it makes it that much worse. I feel that if you train yourself to mentally block out the distractions instead of physically blocking, you're better off in the long run.

Not only am I mediocre at best when leaving off a flash, but also most of the cars I've driven don't have a rollout quick enough to block. Deep-staging and blocking with the Turismo at bracket races last year yielded very spotty results, and even when it was overcast, I could catch glare from the 2nd bulb. It was red, double-oh, or smokin' late. Surprisingly, I'm more consistent taking multiple bumps on the starting line and hitting the 2nd bulb going out than I am blocking... something that shouldn't make any sense! Personally, I'm more comfortable being able to see the whole tree, even though I don't follow it down. You have to find what works for you and your combination.

There's an in-depth analysis that I wrote concerning bottom-bulb reaction times and how to adjust, available on ThisIsBracketRacing.