I have to explain something, for those of you who might have never driven a ladder bar car that does wheelies on a regular basis. I've had three, The 73 Cuda, which sat up high, had no wheelie bars and was an absolute joy to drive, once I put good adjustable shocks on the front. Dale's 100 inch wheelbase AMX, that had wheelie bars, and the Valiant. Usually they go as high as they are going to on the initial hit, and if it's a good one, they may carry it out a ways before they come down, or the horizon of the track might just disappear for a half-second. It's great fun really, but on occasion...exactly three times in my life, the car rotates up initially, then you get this eerie foreboding sensation that the rear end is driving under you...that, that is not fun!

As soon as I glanced back to look down track, the racing surface and the walls disappeared from my view over the front of the hood. I realized I was on the nitrous...and must've been right from the hit, I couldn't recall when my hand had squeezed the button. I felt the car still rotating up, so I shifted to second and lifted off the nitrous, but never considered lifting my foot at all. It seemed to hang forever, time stood still as I stared at blue sky, but finally I could feel it coming back down...fast! I grabbed the button again to try to mitigate the impact.