I ran my car for the first time tonight at the drag strip. Its a 350 TPI engine I know I should of ran a better time so Im coming here for advice on what I need to do to improve it. I just gave it a tune up 3 weeks ago. I ran the car by just leaving it in Drive and didnt manual shift. Should I of manual shifted? I will post the results of my timeslip and let you guys diagnose it. Thanks!

RT- .408
1/8th mile- 9.19
1/4 mile 15.4
MPH- 90.4

I was up against what looked like a mustang LX I got the jump on him and but I spun pretty bad He had a 1/8th mile time of 10.1 with a 1/4 mile time of 15.399 he caught up to me and past me once we got past the 1/8th.