Q: im watchin drag racing and ive never heard the term "holeshot win". im guess it means u had a later jump but still won? im just guessing at it. so who knows?
A: It simply means that the guy that won left the starting line FIRST. When the green light came on, his car was the first car to start moving. He got the Holeshot! A holeshot win means both cars ran close to the exact same time in the overall 1/4 mile but the guy that won reacted the best and got his car moving first giving him the advantage or head-start so he won by a 'hole-shot'. In drag racing, there's TWO timers. When the green light comes on, the first timer starts. Thats the reaction timer. After your car starts to move and the front tires UN-block the laser beam of light then the reaction timer STOPS and the actual 1/4 mile timer STARTS. Example: If you sit at the starting line for 15 minutes after the green light comes on and then take off and run a 14.00 second quarter mile time, your time slip will read that you had a reaction time of 15 minutes and a 1/4 mile time of 14.00 seconds. 2nd example: So, if you have a reaction time of .020 seconds and run a 14.00 second quarter mile time and your competiter has a reaction time of .030 seconds and runs the same time of 14.00 then you would win by a "Holeshot" because you had the best reaction time by getting your car "out of the hole" first. In reality, your car got to the finish line .010 seconds before the other guy even though he ran the exact same quarter mile time as you did. I run into so many first timers that say: "I ran a 14.00 but my reaction time was 1.00 second so my car really runs 13.00" NO......There car runs that 14.00 second time and there reaction time sucks at 1.00 second. 0.00 is a perfect reaction time. Anything faster is called a RED light which is an instant lose meaning you left before the green light ever came on.