[KevinM]

I'm not going to take sides on this so I will offer a few thoughts to both of you.

Tommy, the only likely scenario where you loose is that you red light on one run. That means you have to be very conservative with your starts. Practice is key! Without a fair amount of practice, your reaction time could be a full second if you are making sure not to red light.

Blitz, You need to be very aggressive with your starts. Red lighting one run is fine in your case. If you can cut a good light and Tommy has a 1 second reaction time because he is being careful not to red light and loose the whole thing, that could be the difference that gives you the win.

For both of you, practice is key. Get to a strip and practice starting. Look to reduce your reaction time as much as possible without actually red lighting. If you have no experience with a tree this race becomes a crap shoot based on who gets lucky with their starts.

When you practice, just practice the start, then lift after first gear. That will keep your times slow so that you don't get thrown off the strip and it will spare your cars.

Blitz, go out and practice 2-3 shifts. You don't need a drag strip to do this. Just do a bunch of them on a deserted road somewhere. Work on pushing the lever straight forward with your palm, with just a slight side load on the stick.

As an option for the race, since there is a significant chance that Blitz will be thrown off the strip for lack of a cage after one run if he posts a good time, have you considered renting an unused airport or renting an unused runway (That doesn't cross an active runway) at an operating airport?

Good Luck to you both,

Kevin