Every term on the starting line, defined the way racers actually use them.
Terms link to the guide, or the part of the simulator, where you can see them in action.
Releasing on a prediction of the green instead of a reaction to it. Anticipation produces occasional great lights and a lot of red ones, the tree's built-in random stage-to-start delay exists specifically to punish it. Consistent racers react; they don't guess.
The timing-system mode that starts the tree automatically once both cars are staged, instead of a starter pushing the button. It runs on three numbers, Stage On-Stage-to-Start, and Timeout, plus a small random delay nobody can time. RacePTL's practice tree runs a faithful Auto Start model.
The light beams across each lane at the starting line. Blocking the first beam lights pre-stage; blocking the second lights stage. Your reaction time stops counting when your front tire clears the stage beam, which is why rollout matters.
Racing by reacting to the last amber before green, no delay box. This is footbrake/no-box style: your own reaction, no electronics holding the launch. Compare top bulb.
Handicap drag racing: each car predicts its own elapsed time (the dial-in), the slower car gets a head start equal to the difference, and the win goes to whoever best combines a good light with running closest to their dial without going under. It makes a 10-second car and a 17-second car a fair fight, which is why the light decides so many rounds.
Running quicker than your dial-in. In bracket racing that's a loss (unless your opponent breaks out by more, or fouls). "First or worst" decides double breakouts: the car that broke out least wins.
A mid-run correction on a delay box: each press subtracts a preset amount (typically .005) from the dialed delay after you've already reacted, salvaging a slightly late release while the box is still counting. On RacePTL it's the amber button beside the trans-brake.
The starting-line light stack: pre-stage and stage bulbs on top, three ambers, green, and red per lane. Named for the obvious reason. The sequence it fires, and how you react to it, is the entire game. Full guide →
The etiquette (and often the rule) that neither driver fully stages until both are pre-staged. It prevents one car from rushing the other's routine. RacePTL bots stage with courtesy; so should you.
Rolling forward until the pre-stage bulb goes out, the car sits deeper in the beams, shortening rollout and effectively making your light quicker (and riskier). Some classes ban it; where legal, drivers announce it ("deep stage" written on the window).
An onboard timer for top-bulb racing: you react to the first amber and hold the button; the box counts your dialed delay, then releases the launch for you. It doesn't react for you, it moves which bulb you react to. Full guide →
Your predicted elapsed time for the run, written on the car and fed to the timing system to set the handicap. Run slower and you gave up performance; run quicker and you broke out.
The sportsman sequence: three ambers light one at a time, half a second apart, then green .500 after the last. The rhythm is learnable, which is exactly why it rewards practice. Compare pro tree.
Go. Your reaction time measures from the green illuminating to your tire clearing the stage beam. On a practice tree, from green to your release (plus simulated rollout).
The staggered start in bracket racing: the tree fires for the slower car first, by exactly the difference in dial-ins. Done right, both cars reach the stripe together, and the better light wins.
Both cars leave on the same green, no handicap. Practice tree competition (including RacePTL head-to-head) is heads-up reaction racing: same tree, same green, best light wins.
Winning on reaction time, crossing the stripe first (or taking the round) against a car that outran you, because you left first. A "holeshot win" is the purest proof that lights win races.
Reaction time plus how close you ran to your dial, taken together, the round's total performance. A .010 light with a run .01 over the dial is a ".020 package." Small packages win championships.
A training device that replicates the Christmas tree's staging and sequence so you can train reaction time anywhere. Hardware boxes have done this for decades; RacePTL is the online practice tree, same sequence, same math, plus opponents, contests, and a record of every light you cut.
The first pair of small bulbs at the top of the tree, lit when your front tire blocks the first beam, about seven inches before full stage. It means "almost there," and in courtesy staging it's where you wait for your opponent.
The time from the green light to your car clearing the stage beam. It is not how fast your hand moves, it's your human reaction plus the car's rollout (or on a top-bulb setup, the whole delay-box equation). Full guide →
The bottom bulb, lit when you leave before green, a negative reaction time and an automatic loss. In a double red, the first to leave is the loser ("first or worst").
The time it takes your front tire to travel out of the stage beam after the car starts moving, the physical gap between "you reacted" and "the clock saw it." Deep staging shrinks it; tire size and staging depth change it. Practice trees simulate it so the numbers mean something.
Dialing slower than the car's true pace to bank a cushion, then riding the brakes at the stripe. Legal in most brackets, policed by breakout rules, and a whole art of its own.
Staging with the tire barely into the second beam (both bulbs lit, car as far back as legal). Maximum rollout, most forgiving light. The opposite of deep stage.
The second pair of small bulbs, lit when your tire blocks the stage beam. Both cars staged is what arms the Auto Start. Where your tire sits within the beam is the deep/shallow decision.
An Auto Start setting: how long you must be continuously staged before the system arms, it debounces the bulb flicker of a car creeping in the beams. On RacePTL practice it's one of the three timeslip numbers you can set.
The Auto Start's base delay from armed to tree activation, plus a small random amount the system adds so nobody can time it. That randomness is why anticipation loses eventually.
The Auto Start's hard cap: stage within it or the system acts (in competition, a red for the straggler; typical values are 7 seconds pro, 10 sportsman, 15 junior).
Racing by reacting to the first amber with a delay box holding the launch. Moves the reaction earlier in the sequence and turns consistency into a numbers game. Compare bottom bulb.
A transmission lock that holds the car at full launch readiness while a button is pressed; release the button, the car leaves, instantly and identically every time. It's why the button, not the throttle, is the reaction instrument. RacePTL's red dome is a trans-brake.
The bulb at the finish line (and atop RacePTL's scoreboards) that tells you, before anything else can, that the round was yours. The whole sport, reduced to one light.
