"H-hey, wait up! I gotta get ready first!"

Proco thrashed about, closing up the opened compartments, re-bolting the hatch, and righting herself within the confines of her vehicle's cockpit. Then came the engine check, calibrating the repulsors... by the time she had finished, the race had already begun. Her beautiful Octo Slug was going to lose to some topsider mule! This would not- [i]could not[/i] stand! She worked the turning mechanisms furiously, their lazy, unshakable pace completely unsuited to a non-aquatic environment. 

"J-just you wait 'till I'm pointed the right way, topsider! I'll show ya real guts, then you'll be sorry, hear?!"

He couldn't, of course, given that he was some distance away and she upside-down inside a glass-and-shell deathtrap. Proco reached under the dash, yanking the throttle and once again pounding a tentacle across the accelerator. The machine choked, sputtered...

...And the throttle came out of its socket.

"Clams."

And with that, the valiant Octo Slug Mk. I (patent pending) rocketed off over the horizon at blistering speeds.