The origins of burnouts can be traced to drag racing, where they have a practical purpose: drag racing slicks perform better at higher temperatures, and a burnout is the quickest way to raise tire temperature immediately prior to a race. They also clean the tire of any debris and lay down a layer of rubber by the starting line for better traction. Drag race tracks sometimes use a specially-reserved wet-surface area known as the "water box", because water is poured onto a certain area to reduce the friction to initiate the burnout. This was once called a "bleach box", when bleach was used instead of water; this began in 1969, the year the first burnout was done in NHRA, at the Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Races in Riverside, California. Don Garlits was the first to do burnouts across the starting line, which is now standard practise. Water, bleach and resin were used, and water is said to work as well as bleach. Early on, traction compound RFI also produced the spectacular flame burnouts. The hazard of using flammable traction compound led NHRA to mandate use of water, instead.