i have no idea what they put on the tar mack at the start but it should not have been done rather leave it dry and let the rubber build up its grippy AF that way rather than trying whatever that was clearly the front wheel drive cars and heavy power rear wheel drive cars had trouble getting away.
Mybru it's water to make the tyre slip so that once the tyre grips from there you know you're gonna take on dry tar, tyre slip is because of giving more power than needed to pulp immediately, but usually the slip at first is worth the higher acceleration you get sooner than when you do a no slip pull
