It was a moment that triggered a landslide of opinion, screaming, yelling, crying, and entertainment on the internet. When “Cali Chris” Poncia used his mental clock to leave the starting line a nano-second before the instant green flashed at the Street Outlaws No Prep Kings event at GALOT motorsports part, he stunned the no-prep world. This was a massive upset as James “Birdman” Finney is one of the, if not the premier no-prep racer in the country and arguably has been for some time. The guy just does not lose in situations like this…until now. Poncia admitted to guessing at the light to give himself an advantage and frankly we’re not sure what everyone is so pissed about. We get why Finney is annoyed as Poncia’s spider-sense cost him $40,000 but there’s only one real response to that. Be better next time.
There’s always been some controversy regarding the christmas tree and no-prep racing. Some series discourage guessing at the tree by using a self-imposed reaction time “limit” that if you are better than, your run is disqualified. The idea is apparently to stop people from guessing at the tree, but again, we’re not sure why taking a human’s natural abilities out of the equation is a good thing. There are multiple timing systems out there like Compulink and Accutime to name some big ones. While they both operate differently, our understanding is that you can put some variation in the length of time that the green takes to come on to prevent this type of stuff. There’s a far easier solution, though.
Just use the damned tree! All of this goes away if you put the guys on a .400 pro-tree and leave all the bulbs in. While we understand that it’s perhaps too traditional for the no-prep crowd, it takes all of this screaming, yelling, and guessing business out, right?
What we see below is a guy using every tool in his pocket to win a $40,000 race. What other see is someone cheating their way to a win. What do you see?
It never fails, someone always has to complain when they lose! Face it, Cali Chris just down right beat him. NO CHEATING THERE! End of story!
What’s there to argue about? Cali Chris nails it and everybody is bitchin?! Say great job to the man and go home and get some tissues! LOL
I my book, double bulb, hang him out too dry is all good. if you really know how to drive a race car you’ll know how to deal with all these tricks and beat them at their own game!!!
No red light ,no issue.Just got beat at the light.Thats good drag racing that’s all .
I see the issue. All the street racing shows preach that if you are moving before the light then it’s a foul. But when you have staging beams and a Christmas tree the car can be moving, squatting, loading up…whatever – without registering a foul. You can’t have it both ways folks. By the definition of the timing system being used there was no foul.
Gate Job, Hole Shot, Caught’m Snoozing, No red light… all good !!
Cut a perfect light! That is not cheating, thats skill…or a damn fine guess!
There would be no crying if it was a .399 RED Light
^^^^FACT^^^^
What do I see—-HOLESHOT to $40K—WINNER
“Cali” Chris’s new name should e “triple oh yea”! Nice work at the tree!
WINNING!
Great run
Fwd. To L. Larson
Live by the sword, die by the sword. Use the whole pro tree like the article says, and you eliminate all the guessing and this conversation never happens. You can\’t have your cake (instant green) and eat it too (not have arguments about people guessing the tree with instant green)