I don't think reaction time in any drag strip is related to "skill". I thought most people just start releasing the brake at the last yellow light (right before the green light). So that when the car starts moving, it would roughly match the green light time. A true test of reaction time is when there are no indication on when the green lights will come, and it just pop up suddenly.
Reaction time, timing your start most certainly involves skill.
If you are not good at cutting a good light, then you will have very limited success in drag racing.
And you certainly will not win many heads up races against cars which are just as powerful and just as fast, if not more powerful and fast, as your own.
Indeed, you may even struggle against cars which are slower than yours if you are not skilled at cutting a good light.
Lastly, all drag strip time already accounted for reaction time anyway. Having a super fast or super slow reaction time won't affect your car's time in any shape or form.
Yes, I'm fully aware of that, and I never said that it would.
What I said was that reaction time can and does often times influence the outcome of a drag race.
"... while it doesn't effect ET, can and often times does affect the outcome."
When people run for records, or are running time trials, as has already been mentioned in here, that is quite different from racing.
If you're competing against another car, well then you'd best believe that your reaction time matters.......and a big part of the reason why it does is
because it doesn't influence your ET.
So because it doesn't, any advantage you can get against your competitor in the form of reaction time, preferably a good reaction time, preferably one which is better than his, which yes, does involve skill,.. will in effect give you a head start against him.
Fail to do so, i.e. possess poor skills at cutting a good light, and have a slow reaction time, and you will at some point in the race, end up chasing him.
However if you're running a time trial, or trying for a new record, you can sit at the light until the cows come home........because you're not racing anyone else, and because again, doing so will not influence your ET.
Hope that explains it.
.... You definitely won't get that claimed 0-60 number yourself. ..
Huh????
There are plenty of people right in here who have run the 0-60 spec.