worst red light debate, again!

[Jeff Lee]

A long time ago, the powers-that-be were sitting around and trying to plan a path for drag racing involving the Sportsman racers and the time delay start. The starting system was in discussion, about the same time they were discussing "how can we continuously promote the sport, feed our advertisers, and keep the fans interested". They realized advertisers made money on speed equipment and there would be no money spent on speed equipment if everybody drove a car that never evolved into a continuously faster car. And if the speed equipment industry faltered, the advertising revenue would dry up and there goes a significant amount of income earned.
And if the status quo on race cars was "slow is good enough", then the fans would be bored to death, never to return.
So NHRA ingeniously merged all these concepts into one. Slower cars could still race but there was a carrot to going faster and faster as his budget grew. The racer figured out he might have an advantage by leaving second with a faster car than the other guy. He found that not only was leaving second an advantage but his faster car reacted on the starting line differently. Word spread and others wanted faster cars. Speed equipment flourished, advertising budgets increased and fans had something to marvel at. Everybody was happy except the slow guy. Too bad.

Now maybe this isn't really what happened or why we have the red light rule, but it may offer some reasonable ideas to Bill and others as to why it is the way it is.

Drag racing on any level is entered into based on a rule book. When I read and understand a rule book, I build a car to win. If my perception is that the first to leave is better, I might build a slower car than if my perception were reversed. Everybody has that option when they enter racing.