Ah! So you noticed that some folks tend to launch sorta early. Reaction time makes a lot of difference in this type of racing. Without a Red light and a tree it is impossible to tell if someone jumps the gun a bit.

In some of the Belt sander racing events they went to a Big contactor or solenoid launch system so both racers get power at the same time when the launch button is pressed. Of course that takes alot of the fun out of competing.

Another thing to consider is having the Flag Girls adds to the fun of the event and kinda makes the event feel like an outlaw street race.

Of course it is possible to have the flag Girl trigger the starting tree with her arm or flag movements or she could just step on a switch.

So it is possible to have a starting tree and a flag Girl to keep the fun in the event and control Red lighting.

Could we perhaps compromise... and have the flag-girl hold count-down cards (as the AFM does in starting motorcycle races)? A yellow-light or something to signify "it's about to happen" is very nice- and I think could tone-down on the false starts to credit with jumpy nerves. I've raced with both light-trees and the count-down cards... and like the cards a lot.

For those unfamilliar with the system: the starter-chick holds-up a stack of 5 letter-sized cards with numbers on them. She counts-down starting by holding-up the ":90", then ":60", then ":45", then ":30", then at :15 the ":30" goes sideways, and then at :00 she throws her arms down with the cards in them, the same ways she throws a flag. It doesn't carry with it the tears of Natalie Wood, and in writing it sounds much more complicated than it is. It's nice, because it gives the racers a better system with which to prepare themselves to punch the button, calms jittery nerves, and crystal-clearly avoids protest confusions.

If we are gonna stick with the human-starter theme... could we also get a hot guy in leather shorts throw the flag? I think the ladies would like some cheap eye-candy playing to the cliché, too!!!