Help me with Track Times?

[Tim Lester]

The Reaction Time(R/T) is the time from when the last yellow bulb on the tree goes out and the driver begins to move down the track (or activate the timing system). For example, in our E.T. bracket classes, the tree flashes the yellow lights for 5/10th's of a second before turning green. A perfect reaction time, therefore would be a .500, meaning that 5/10th's of a second after the yellow went out, the driver took off. The higher the number the slower the reaction time for the driver. For instance a driver with a reaction time of .600 would be a tenth of a second slower on the starting line than a driver with the aforementioned .500. One thing that should be noted is the fact that the actual time for a quarter-mile run includes the reaction time plus the actual time on the track.

The 60FT time tells you how long it takes from the starting line to 60FT out on the drag strip.