It’s a controversy that has been brewing for a number of years. Now K&N Spring Fling Million presented by Optima co-promoters Peter Biondo and Kyle Seipel are going to fix it once and for all.
“Kyle and I always ask ourselves ‘how can we bring more fairness to our Spring Fling events?’,” Biondo says. “We strive to maintain a level playing field for all of our competitors who are in fact our customers. So last year, Kyle and I started talking with Bob Brockmeyer from Compulink and that’s when TruSTART was born.”
Biondo and Seipel were passionate about the concept while Brockmeyer of Compulink, the most widely used timing 
system in the world, quickly agreed and started working hard into turning the idea into a reality. Simply put; in a handicapped race where both drivers go red, TruSTART will change the game by giving the win to the racer who red lights by the lesser amount. The worst red-light loses, period, regardless of if a driver leaves first or last.
Quick example: The slower car is dialed a 10.00 and the faster car dials an 8.00. The 10.00 car leaves first but with a red light of -.005 while the 8.00 (faster) car also red-lights but with a worst red of -.015. The 10.00 car loses because he was the first to red-light. The -.005 red driver loses to the -.015 red driver even though the -.005 red driver was closer to the target reaction time. Has always been that way… until now.
“The Compulink name speaks for itself and we can’t thank Brockmeyer enough,” adds Seipel, “The way TruSTART will function will be exactly how we imagined it thanks to all of Bob’s hard work. To keep things fair within TruSTART, the slower car lane will always show a green light until the faster driver launches. At that point Compulink will ‘show’ the worst red where applicable.”
“We actually tried this back in 1986,” says Brockmeyer, “but for whatever reason it didn’t take off. When Peter and Kyle talked to me about it last year, it just made sense now. Prior to TruSTART, the advantage in the red-light department went to the faster car. This helps to make it just that much fairer. Just like whoever breaks-out the most loses, so be it when it comes to a red-light.”
TruSTART, a product of Compulink and the Spring Fling, will be introduced to the bracket racing world at the K&N Spring Fling Million in Las Vegas this year. Undoubtedly, it’s the truest way to determine a winner in a double red-light race, and the fairest as well.
This story was originally published on February 6, 2016. 
