Reaction Time has no impact on Elapsed Time

[m4a1mustang]

It's a bit stunning to see so many people over the last couple of months mistakenly factor reaction time into their RT, so I figured it'd be worthwhile to post this thread in the track section. Sticky, perhaps?

Simply: Reaction Time (RT) has no impact on the Elapsed Time (ET). ET is measured from the moment your car trips the staging lasers to the moment it crosses the finish line, not from the moment the green lights up on the tree.


RT only matters in a race, where the winner is determined by the first one across the line. It's entirely possible for the slower ET to win based on a quicker RT.