Ways of driving a racing car

When you pull up at the line for staging, you can try your luck, or your skill, to stage as far into the staged beam as you can. How you stage has a large effect on things like your reaction time and final time.

Staging "shallow" means that your car takes more time to pass through the staged light and increases your reaction time, assuming all other variables are constant. However, it lowers your final elapsed time, and increases your trap speed. This is because the timer doesn't start the timing until the tyre comes out of the starting line beam. By then, your car is already moving, so you get a slight running start. This only gives you an advantage over your opponent if you are a bit quicker in your reaction time to make up the difference. The thing is, the race is won based on who crosses the finish line first, not your elapsed time. It's possible to have a quicker time and still lose because you were late off the line. Shallow staging also allows for a driver who leaves early or creeps forward a bit before the green light.

"Deep" staging puts you at the edge of disqualification, but also a little closer to the finish line, which is always an advantage. If you find that you can't get your reaction time down enough, either because your car is a little jumpy off the line or you are having trouble leaving on that last yellow, deep staging can help. If the driver has large-diameter front tyres, he probably would want to deep stage to decrease the rollout. But many rally drivers should also be aware that if the car has very little ground clearance, pieces of the front bodywork or suspension can also trigger the lights. The driver also has to be sure that it is really his tyre in the staged beam, and not his front chin spoiler.

So in short, shallow staging increases your reaction time, reduces your elapsed time and increases trap speed, while being the safe choice for beginners. Deep staging decreases your reaction time, increases elapsed time and reduces the final trap speed, putting you at the edge of disqualification, so it should be reserved for experienced racers.

That, I hope, should cover the basics of getting ready for your drag run without heavy modifications to your car. There are more things that people do, like put ices on the air intake and such, but those are touchy subjects. And launching the car is another subject by itself. For now it is just about having fun.