I always thought it was an advantage to have the slower car. Especially if it's a LOT slower like a second or better. That other guy gets real nervous watching your car go down the track. My dad used to have a 2.0L 4 speed Pinto and CLEANED UP running brackets. It was a great 1/8th mile car so it would leave wheels up and really hustle to the 1/8th and then kind of run out of steam, so they other guy watched it take off like a rocket and normally red lit or broke out trying to catch him. He was consistently under .010 or a .510 as it was called back in the old days. That was with incandescent (sp?) bulbs too. Much easier to launch from. He said the trick with his car was to watch the last amber, see it "turn on", "get bright", and "go out."
the slower car has the advantage of having a clean green light. he gets to go first with no distractions. however he also has the first chance to go red. also the faster car is looking ahead, not having to look in the rear view mirror and judge how fast the car is coming. i prefer being the faster car myself but if you have a car that runs consistently your going to be hard to beat. i had a friend that broke his car and used a 22 second mazda in the electronics class at a big bucks bracket race. drove the other guys crazy since they were using the other guys numbers to dial there car in. they had fits cause there delay box didn't go that slow. he went quite a few rounds before he got beat.
