TOP GUN RACEWAY: Bracket Racing and Elapsed Time explained

The whole point of hot rodding is to become involved. It’s infinitely more fun to play the game than to merely watch. While racing at any level is not cheap, drag racing offers a class called bracket racing, in which any car can compete regardless of its performance. All you need is a car and the desire.

DIALING FOR ET
In most forms of racing, winning means getting to the finish line first. But in bracket racing that’s not always true. Handicap racing may be a better description of what happens. Typically, the elapsed time (e.t.) Categories are separated into four brackets: Super Pro is 7.50 to 10.99 seconds. Pro is 11.00 to 11.99 seconds, Sportsman is 12.00 to 13.99 seconds, and Street is 14.00 seconds and slower. Each of these brackets offers a wide range of e.t.’s so to level the playing field the cars are handicapped based on the e.t. you choose. This is called your dial-in. Choose your dial-in carefully, because if your car runs quicker than your dial-in, you automatically lose. This is called breaking out.

Form Example, let’s say that you choose a 14.20 e.t. for your dial-in, and your opponent chooses a 13.80. Since you have the slower car, you will get a .40 second head start. Theoretically, if both cars run exactly on their dial-in, the finish would be a tie. But this never happen because of the variables of both cars’ e.t.’s and reaction times.

The lights that shine across the starting line also serve to electronically measure the amount of time it take for your front to clear the beams when the car leaves the line. This is called a reaction time. Most tracks use an interval of .500 second between each yellow bulb on a three-amber Sportsman Christmas Tree. Reaction time is then expressed as a number greater than .500 (the amount of time between the last amber and the green light), which would be a "perfect" reaction time. For example, a reasonable reaction time would be a .532. Leaving too soon will create a red light, which means you automatically lose. Red lights are expressed as a number less than .500, such as .496. Some tracks give reaction time based on .000 as a perfect reaction time, so the above .532 example would be shown as .032 reaction time. In this case red lights are given as a negative number such as -.004. Quicker e.t. classes such as Super Gas and Super Comp use a Pro Tree, where all three amber lights flash simultaneously .400 second before the green light. In this case, a perfect light on a Pro Tree would then be a .400 light.

The Christmas Tree controls the starting line. As you approach the starting line, the Pre Stage lights will light up in your lane. Carefully inching the car forward will light the State bulbs. With both sets of lights on, you are now fully staged and ready to race. When both cars are fully staged, the starting line official will trigger the lights to sequence from top to bottom. A Sportsman Tree lights each large yellow bulb exactly .500 second apart. The illustration shows what a handicap start would look like when the lights in the right lane have begun while the left lane is still staged, waiting for that side of the Tree to come down.