Fast way of taking down the Christmas tree

Many years ago. the guy who got me into drag racing took me to a track & told me it was time to learn to drive a drag car. I made some tentative passes to see how the car reacted & thought I had a handle on it. This was back in the late sixties & gassers were popular, his car was a C/Gas 48 Anglia with a Hilborn injected 301 cid Chevy motor & a 4 speed. The first pass I made under full throttle in the left lane, I took out the Christmas tree. It only damaged the front fiberglass nose piece, so we patched it up. Later in the day, I was put in the right lane because the car had a tendency to go right. WELL, guess what? I left this time, the car went left & took out the tree again. For many years after that, when I went to this track I had the dubious title of "The Christmas Tree Destroyer".