You was spinning your wheels and he got hooked up I bet.
The first rails had two speed slush buckets in them for transmissions if I remember right.
Nah...I was good to go with the automatic trans. Not enough torque to spin them in 1st. It could well have been that he popped the clutch too fast and was spinning his wheels in 1st gear.
It was almost 35 years ago. Can't say exactly how it all worked out but I know I did beat him off the line.