When you have experience racing on a pro tree, all your concentration is on letting go of the button, or getting to wide open throttle as fast as you can when you see the three ambers flash as one, but you train your mind to take a snapshot of the other car out of your peripheral vision the instant you feel your car react. It's important for you to know who got the tree and by how much when you are index racing, so that you can form a plan as to how to race the stripe. As soon as the Valiant's front end began to rise, my brain showed me the snapshot of the Gremlin, and it was a car out already.
"Oh good grief, that was ugly" I thought, but even as it registered, my thumb was planted on the nitrous button.
The front end was cresting to come back down when the small block wailed under the spell of the juice. The front end stayed up and torqued to the right as the Valiant accelerated through low gear and halted the Gremlin from pulling any further ahead. The tach light flashed in my eyes, and I slipped the Cheetah SCS back into second. The bottom of second felt wonderful as I concentrated on the Gremlin in front of us.
"You're reeling that monster back in! You wicked, wicked little minx, I love this small block!"
The Valiant was clawing back to the Gremlin's rear bumper when the shiftlight flashed again, and I put the 904 into Drive. The loss of gear multiplication halted our gains and the Gremlin even pulled back away in the last 200 feet.
"Wish I had a second kit for drive! Who am I joking? The shift light was on for the last 150 feet, the needle was past 7! You'd need a different converter, different gear...she's giving you all there is to give!
I pumped the brakes and started easing down in the shutdown area. Dale braked hard enough to get back even with me and we exchanged thumbs up salutes and then he took the exit in front of me.