Avoid water and make sure you drop rear tire pressure to about 20 and get it up to about 45 in the front.

 

Reaction Time doesnt effect your ET. The clock doesnt start until you roll out of the staging beam.

Try this:

Bring Rpm to 1200 -4500 rpm (Depends on how much hook the track has).
Now start to release the clutch in a smooth steady motion while rolling into the throttle.
If the tires start to spin to much "hold" on the clutch release while continuing to roll into thethrottle.
Once the tire rpm and clutch rpm "match" the clutch will stop slipping and you can fully release.
Of course if the tires start to hook you resume your clutch release.
Be careful with the hold method as it is tough on the clutch. The next pass try leaving at a lower rpm instead.
What you are doing is using the clutch as a shock absorber to keep the tires from being over taxed.
What you are trying to do is avoid getting tire slip over 30%.
With most tires around 17-23% slip is where you get maximum forward acceleration.

I acually get better 60's with initial tire spin in these cars.
The best I can do with no tire spin is high 1.9's.
With a limited amount of spin I can drop into the 1.8's.
If they hook to hard to soon I bog.
If they spin to much I lose time.

I run 25 PSI Cold Right and 26 PSI Cold Left.
51 psi in the fronts.

I go around the water box. Depending on the temp I will turn the tire over once or twice up to a full 4500 rpm clutch drop.
All tires have an optimum temperature. With All-Seasons (Factory Tires) this is pretty low.

 

Practice makes perfect. My first run ever was a 14.6. With a lot of practice I brought my car down to a 12.87 with the same mods (CAI + tune) on the stock tires, shows you how much experience can change the times of a car. The more you go, the more comfortable you will be at the line which makes a huge difference. I was extremely nervous my first time. Nervousness will definently make you tend to drop the clutch too hard. Your rpms at launch really depends what the track conditions are like and how much slippage of the clutch you allow. Personnal practice is really the best way to figure out what works for you. It sure is fun to learn first hand though!
No waterbox and no burnouts on the stock tires. Just give them a quick spin to clean. I drop my rear tire pressure to 26 in the right, 27/26.5 on the left, haven't messed with the fronts ever.

 

wow impressive