The field notes
How it got out of hand.
The cars were built in the spirit of the best hot-rod magazines: enormous engines, impossible proportions, and enough polished metal to make subtlety leave the building.
Robert chose a lane. Sandy chose the other lane. Neither driver admitted to caring who won, which was difficult to believe once the engines started shaking the grandstand.
The launch turned the strip into smoke, thunder, and a disagreement about whose car looked faster. The crowd voted with its feet, rushing toward the finish line to see whether Robert or Sandy would get bragging rights.