[750hp]

Is the race decided by who gets the win light, or who posts the fastest time of the run? I might have missed this in the mountain of replies so far, but it seems to me that someone with little or no experience with staging and how the tree works could either:
Redlight (instant win to the opponent), or
Wait for the lights to turn green, THEN start to accelerate. This would give someone with more experience and a better reaction time a car length right from the start.

Remember, the time that shows on the timeslip is the actual time from when you start to accelerate through to the finish. The reaction time isn't included in this time.
I'd LOVE to hear the excuses if one guy runs a quicker time but gets to the end of the track second and loses the race because he was slower in the reaction time!