been racing for about 8 months now and im comfortable enough that im not crashing every other race but i consistently lose like 2-3 positions at the start before we even hit the second gate. i think its a throttle problem but im not entirely sure. the guys who are beating me seem to just carry more speed through the opening section and i either overshoot the first gate or i back off too early and lose momentum.

running a 5inch with 2306 2450kv motors on 6s, rates are probably in the middle somewhere, not super aggressive. on betaflight im using actual rates if that matters. i watch my dvr back and honestly it just looks like everyone else is on a different level in those first 3 seconds

is this just a practice thing or is there something specific about race starts i should be working on. feels like ive hit a wall

race starts are genuinely a separate skill from just flying fast, a lot of people dont realize that. the main thing is staging position and anticipating the tone rather than reacting to it, by the time you hear the beep and your brain processes it youve already lost a tenth or two. the fast guys are basically pre-loading throttle slightly before the last beep, not enough to move but enough that the response is instant.

also for the first gate specifically ? in practice just do starts over and over, like 20 in a row just focusing on that one gate. no full laps, just launch and hit the first gate, land, repeat. gets boring fast but its the only way to really dial it in. your body needs to just know where that gate is without you consciously aiming for it

the throttle smoothness stuff will come with time but id bet your staging habits are the bigger issue right now honestly

im in pretty much the same boat so ill be watching this thread. one thing someone told me that helped a little was to pick one reference point on the ceiling or wall and use that to judge when to start rolling throttle back down before the first turn. kind of like a braking marker in car racing. might be totally obvious to faster pilots but i had no idea i was supposed to be doing that