Given the car's 60' times and et's my opinion is you're anticipating the last amber. Your R/T with the 5/10 pro tree somewhat confirms this. (With a higher staging RPM and a few shots at the pro tree you will improve that time somewhat)
I went from racing the full tree for many years to blocking the tree. The benefit was zero red lights unless I caught the flash from the second amber, such as night racing. The negative was now I needed to bump in to catch a light. I footbrake with a 2 step on the brake pedal. First year with the blinder, 5500 on the playback tach on the launch, 3800 staging RPM, 4.10 gears, low 1.5 60's, small bump in after lighting the stage bulb, block the top 2 ambers, I was pretty consistant with teens to low .030 lights. Obviously the variable here is the "bump in". Car ran 10.9's. 60's were a little inconsistant for my tastes, partly due to the bumping in, partly due to a fair amount of driveline preload on the 2 step.
Last year racing with the car, 4.56 gears to get the trap RPM to match the shift point (6800) as well as lowering the stage RPM to allow maximum suspension effectiveness. The Pro's? 60' times always 1.44x (good fun) and the car would ET within a hundredth discounting environmental variables. The con(s)? I lost my ability at the tree. R/T's with the blinder were in the .070 to .080 range, forcing me into a big "bump in" position and basically rendering me uncompetitive other than the car would repeat. That was 2 years ago. I tried shorter front tires, no luck there but then again the car pulled the front wheels pretty good. This issue and money made me decide to quit racing until I can make the required changes.
For me to hit a blocked (pro .500) tree I need staging RPM. That means one thing, I need a trans brake. Then I can stage at 4500 to 5000 and hammer the tree, plus have 2 step adjustability from there to "tune" my R/T.
I was given the opportunity to race a much quicker/faster car a few weeks back. After a shakedown pass, I tried the blinder and fell in love with the car/combo. My worst light was a .039, and in competition I handed out a .001 light first round of the gamblers, got the bye for second round, and hit a .005 light. I am far from what could be called an expert, but I will say that the car and my R/T matched up pretty nicely.
You just need to figure out a way to adjust the car to suit you. Dark sunglasses was what I used to use (not much help with LED's) and you can try a very shallow stage. Although it would be expensive to try, a higher stall torque converter can help slow the car's R/T with your very low staging RPM.
Keep at it and best of luck to you.
