ok, im a newbie, so i can relate.

the things i learned:

drive around the water!
then i would stall and nail the throttle to spin my tires a couple times to clean off the rocks, etc... then let off.

stage. once staged, then id stall to about 1300 rpms or so and once i saw the 3rd yellow and realized it was on, i nailed the pedal and by the time everything reacted, i got a decent reaction time.

so basically as soon as you can see the 3rd yellow is on, nail it!