We rolled up to the tree, and he turned on his top bulb. I turned mine on and brought the rpm up a little as I was preparing to stage second, and wanted to be somewhat ready for the Pro tree. He didn't stage,"One thousand one, one thousand two..WTH!"
I looked over at him, and there he sat, giving me a big ole stinkeye!

Back in my Super Street days, you usually just pulled up and done your thing, time runs, or eliminations, and everyone was pretty respectful. But if it was personal, if there was some "juice" associated with a match up, guys would pre-stage, then wait for you to make eye contact, or make a gesture or point. This was no longer a couple of guys in different classes making time runs to turn in for day 4. He obviously wanted a race, and he was about to get one!
"Oh, heck yeah, it's on now dude!" I felt the rpm creeping up a good 6 or 8 hundred more against the converter than I had planned and my pulse jumped perceptively as I lit the second bulb. He was in, the tree flashed, I was at WOT... and I got treed...bad!

In heads up, pro tree racing, you train yourself to immediately look over at your opponent as soon as you react to the light so you can determine who has the tree, as that may determine how you race the stripe. When I glanced over he had a half car on me, very ugly!