I was at a new local attraction in Spokane, ammatuer races at Spokane Raceway Park. For five dollars you can race all night on Fridays. Every rice burner and every real hot rod for a hundred miles show up to show their stuff. After severely roasting a late 80's IROC on the quarter mile track with my 93 Typhoon (bone stock), I took on a 97 Z28 owned and modified by a local machinist who indicated he had only been "doing a little tinkering" with the car over the Winter. I asked what kind of times his car was putting down in the quarter, and he only replied that these cars run 14.6s from the factory (loose leg). While we were chatting while waiting in line to race, it was becoming apparent this guy knew a hell of a lot about performance cars, engines and racing. As we approached the start line and he's burning bleach off his tires like Big Daddy Don, I had that odd feel like I was about to be sandbagged. Nonetheless, I perservered and built boost on the line as described on this web site ( I don't have much experience with racing, so I rely heavily on what I read here). The start girl dropped her arms and I got a pretty good start and was probably ahead by 7 car lengths at the 1/8th mile mark when he started to reel me in. By the time we hit the quarter, we were door handle to door handle - photo finish. As I suspected, the machinist admitted in a brief post window-to-window chat that he had gone through the engine and polished and ported, etc. God knows what else he didn't admit to, but his car sounded and seemed far from stock.