False Start

[turbo=good]

So my friend raced his pretty much stock Laser. He took off .041 seconds to soon. His time came back as 15.2 and his competition was 14.7. But the Laser crossed the beat him at the end. Did they mix up the times? What do they do with the time you false started with? Add it on or what?

[Fast16G]

Reaction time has NOTHING to do with the ET. It's never added or subtracted. When you stage and the lights come down, the R/T timer starts when the last amber bulb goes off and STOPS when your tires leave the electric beam. The ET timer STARTS when your tires leave the same beam. The two never meet. You could have a 20-second reaction time and still run a 15.2.

Of course your friend beat him to the line, he left first!! Their ETs are close (.5) Do you know what the other person's R/T was? If you do, you can figure out the margin of victory (MOV on the slip if your track uses it)with simple math.

Let's say your friend ran 15.200 with a .410 light. Let's say the other guy ran a 14.700 with a .985 light. So, your friend basically had a .575 second head start on the line (.985-.410). The other guy ran faster by .500 second so your friend still had a .075 second edge on him. If the time slip has MOV on it, it would read "LEFT or RIGHT FIRST (which ever lane your friend was in)--MOV .075"

I have had MOVs as close as .001 second and THIS is why R/T is important. Of course, if that had been an actual event, your friend would have lost that race from the redlight.