Back in the good old days, we ran heads up, no handicap. I hated the Xmas tree and still do today. It took the driver out of the race. What I mean is reflexes. What you have now is every start is predictable or anticipated. A conditioned response every time. The mention of cutting a perfect light is nothing more than almost a RED light start. When a start is predictable it takes the reflex out of the picture. THE only way to get the driver back into the race is to have an unpredictable start that is random, not the same. If they did that, then you would really see which driver was better than the other. All the cars are running nearly the same times. 

A random timed start would allow a slower car with a better driver to win these races. It would require a driver to win the race with greater ability to release and not an automatic start where any dummy can guess because it’s the same every time. Anywhere between a half second to three seconds random start and you would see real racing because the driver would have to win the race, not a robot. 

The flagmen used to have contests at the Nationals. Some of those guys pulled the flag between their legs; others would hide the flag behind their back. It was always a contest between the drivers and the flagman waving them off. If you had never experienced this type of start, you missed part of the race. That was really fun. The only was to get that experience back is to have random starts with the lights, not predictable starts. Well now, you have heard me bitch about something that I bitched about when the first tree was used...