I've noticed that if your car doesn't have a sprintbooster it tends to lag at the low end which could mean an initial loss of 1 car length and then it's catch up time. I drove a 6 roadster recently without one and it was a totally different vehicle than mine (w/ a SB). How many car lengths were you behind?

I'm hoping the car you raced was the SC version since it puts out 420hp. In all honesty it doesn't matter how good of a driver you are if your car is bone stock. Put a few mods on there and I'm sure you'll edge him out if he's local