At most events, drivers were given two free false starts before disqualification on the third. If a driver left the starting line before the flag released the button, a foul start light came on next to the green. Once the starter was sure that both drivers were ready, he would whip the flag up from its position, and the race was on. When the button was depressed, an overhead green light was illuminated (but oddly was not the sign to go). At several events, NHRA kept the flag starter, but instead of him flamboyantly whipping the flag up from various positions, the starter used the tip of his flag to depress and hold a button on the ground that was linked to a beam that ran across the starting line. Improvements were made along the way to limit those indiscretions. Clearly, if NHRA Drag Racing was going to continue to evolve, the human element in the starting-line officiating had to be limited.

There sometimes were charges of favoritism in early tip-offs between flag starters and their driver buddies or, because at the time the starter also was the sole judge of a foul start, of those being overlooked or incorrectly charged. Yes, race fans, it was at the 1963 event where NHRA rolled out its electronic contraption, much to the consternation of many of the racers who had honed their anticipatory and body-language-reading skills for years on acrobatic human flag starters.Īlthough flag starting was an accepted method, because it involved humans, it was fallible, could be gamed, and was sometimes controversial. Nationals was a pretty darned great drag race, with lots of drama, close and exciting racing, Don 'the Snake” Prudhomme as grand marshal, and much more, but through all of the hullabaloo of the annual Big Go, we all somehow forgot that the event marked the 50th anniversary of the debut of the now iconic Christmas Tree. There’s no doubt that this year’s newly rechristened Chevrolet Performance U.S.

Happy birthday christmas tree