Yes it’s festive but what do all these lights mean?If you’re a beginner in drag racing just pay attention to the lights in your lane. Let’s go from top to bottom.

PRE-STAGE

The first two yellow lights side by side are PRE-STAGE. The PRE-STAGE light is lit when you trip the first light beam (There are 2 light beams separated by about 7 inches at the start of the strip.) You are NOT staged yet if ONLY the PRE-STAGE light is on. The actual yellow and green lights will only start dropping after you’ve tripped the STAGE light.

STAGE

When your car, truck, or motorcycle breaks the second beam of light at the line then the STAGE light is lit. IF you roll past the PRE-STAGE light then it will turn off and only the STAGE light will be lit. This is called “Deep-Staging” and it is OK. You don’t have to roll back and turn the PRE-STAGE light on. Now you have just seconds before the tree drops if your opponent has also STAGED. If your opponent has not staged then the tree will not drop. Basically the computer will drop the light about a second or so after both of you are staged regardless of the PRE-STAGE light.

YELLOW LIGHTS

These three lights drop in descending order from top to bottom at .5 second intervals. Leave before the GREEN and you will get a RED light (you lose.)

GREEN LIGHT

What are you waiting for? It ain’t gonna get any greener.

RED LIGHT

If you see this then you lost already. This can only happen if your car rolled out of the STAGE beam before the tree turned GREEN. Some people will pull their ebrake at the line to keep from rolling around. You may want to do this at Sears Point / Infineon Raceway as some people claim that it’s not level at the starting line.

Cool Christmas Tree Simulator