youre basically right, my ass was in trouble, (neck/neck) till about 4-5k then he started to drop off...by about 40mph in first gear he was starting to keep up to me again, when i shifted he got a bit ahead of me and then was quickly vanished. at 60 i dropped down because I saw what i thought was a cop. I had him by about a length at all times with a very shakeup startup.