We keep getting questions and comments on the slot car shorts of people showing interest in getting into it, so I decided to put together a little How To video on drag racing basics. These little cars do the same thing big cars do, just smaller. They do react way faster (I'm real good at red lighting) than the real thing, so you better wait to see green before pulling the trigger. the timing beams are picked up by the plastic fin that sticks down in the groove to locate the car on the track. That is known as the flag. There is a sensor to light the Pre-Stage beam and, just a bit further, the Stage lights. If your reaction is slow you can creep it forward to deep stage. Once you launch the timer records your reaction time and instantly starts the timer as you race down the track. Your reaction time DOES NOT go against your ET. It doesn't at any track. Your reaction time is how long it took you to react to the green light. Your ET is how long it took your car from the moment you left the line to when you trip the lights at the end of the track. The timing system also records your scale 60' time as well as your scale 1/8 mile time and real MPH. Now the system that Peachtree Dragway runs can also record your scale 330' time, but it already gives you so much info, like difference off your dial-in, the win margin, and dial-in that John felt it wasn't needed. He's right. If the room allowed it could record 1000' and 1/4 mile times, too. Getting back to reaction time; a .0000 is a perfect light. I have done that once, and only know a couple others who have done that. The cars we run cover the 27.5' of racing surface in about 1.5 to just over .5 seconds and vary from 15mph to almost 50mph. Some guys go crazy and real car money into these 1/24th scale model cars, but we're in it to just have a little fun. The fastest that I know of is 146mph in the scale 1/4, which is 55'. You can get into it and have a competitive bracket racer for $170 or less. That'd give you a car that would run with in our cars' times and MPH. Find a track near you, check it out, try it and have some fun. You'll end up with a few cars too.