Once the Third Light is lit, no matter what the order (no Courtesy Stage included) the Autostart system takes over and you have 7 seconds.

This happened to me at Indy 2005 in Q-2 against Ron Krisher. We had a one of the guys on the Team pull me up to the Pre-Stage who had never done it before. He put his foot in the beam, set his distance where he wanted the front tire with his other foot. He pulled his foot from the Pre-Stage Beam, Krisher bumped into his Pre-Stage and when Mike turned towards me his ankle spun into the Pre-Stage Beam. I looked up and said "Oh ____" because I knew I was at least a foot away from Pre-Stage but my light was on. Krisher saw my Pre-Stage Light went in and at that point all 3 were lit, the clock started and as Mike walked off my light went off. I tried to get in but without the Brake Pressure where it needed to be and no Line-Lock set Krisher got the Green and I got the Red. Rick politely pointed at his watch and signaled my guys to push me out. I was upset but we learned something and moved on.

Lesson learned: Cross Training when Testing (practice other jobs) and have Crewmembers where shorter shoes or get smaller feet.

When we are testing I have had other cars play with my mind in the lights. Double Bulb me, leave me sit with my Pre-Stage on, leave before the tree is activated...you never know what might happen.

He can delay the start, which I believe is what happened with Greg. Saw it somewhere, I thought he had about 9+ seconds total.

Rick can and did delay the start in Norwalk, I believe the total time was 9.5 seconds from when Greg lit the top bulb until the tree activated. That deal with Pat was a bad thing because I don't think Rick realized what had happened, I saw it and thought D*** that ain't good.

Michael

Stop the insanity!!!

How can something this simple go one for 7 pages of posts?

As I noted in my post on the previous page...

The starter has to activate the Autostart system. Once he/she has activated the system the only control they have is to override it.

In most cases, the starters don't activate the Autostart system until both pre-stage lights are lit.

According to what has been reported, Rick Stewart delayed activating the Autostart system 2-2.5 seconds after Greg Anderson lit his pre-stage bulb.

I've been wondering that myself!!

I guess you have to be a sportsman racer to totally get it!

Just waiting for you to start another interesting thread Jim so that we have something to move on to!

Some of these threads take on a life of their own!

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a.k.a. Megadeth

One of the most infamous DQ/timed out happened during qualifing. One year @ Atlanta,all Darrell Alderman had to do was qualify to make the P/S Duel. He ran his teammate,Mark Osborne in the Friday night session. Mark mistakingly double bulbed Darrell and Darrell got timed out and the rest is history. This is correct if my memory isn't gone,ANYBODY?

...and this all happened at the Summit Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park. Ouch.

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StockersRock

You can still have 1/4 mile racing if you don't go get a hot dog after the fuel classes.

They certainly do!!

Hey!! This is post #101!!

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AKA DrRocket

I personally don't like the courtesy stage thing in sportsman racing because it takes away a little of the gamesmanship that can go on. Just last year they implemented the courtesy stage rule in Comp, and again, I was pretty bummed about it, because I feel it's part of the game. I think this was a result of faster cars getting staged on, and then being "hurried" into stage as a result. Enough complaining, and the rule was changed.

With all the comments on this thread predicting that we will see a rush of this in the coming races, I tend to agree. Unfortunately I will predict that it will have the same result. People will whine, and we'll be watching courtesy staging in some (if not all) the pro classes. I really hope this doesn't happen, but it could be inevitible.

I feel that no matter what, it is the driver's responsibility to understand the rules. He let his team and his sponsors down because he didn't do his job. Even for the argument that "in Prostock, it's an understanding that if someone double bulbs, that the starter will give the other driver all the time needed," thank god that didn't happen. That's crap! Why would anyone ever take the chance on getting a break from the starter? Know the rules, play by the rules, and win or lose by the rules.

It hardly looked to me like KB was in his face. KB was just standing close so they could hear each otther and looked pretty damn calm. Stewart just kept repeating "I waited" over and over...he was acting like a little kid with his fingers in his ears going "la la la la...I can't hear you."

As for Erica's comment ... a 1.387 second reaction time ain't nothing to brag about. If Greg hadn't miscued it was Erica that would have had her ass tree'd real good.

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"I got a fever, and the only prescription... is more cowbell!"

Buell's and Hardley's suck!

Not defending Erica...believe me..., but it's a good bet she saw Greg's red light and just left when ever.

How is she going to cut a light when she doesn't have the motor up? You can't even look at her light on that pass. Any driver with an ounce of experience will never bring the R's up until it's pretty obvious (sounds like and looks like) their competition is ready to turn on the second bulb!