Yamato keeps an eye on the ship's systems, watching how they hold up with the ever rising amounts of friction, heat, and g-forces. He's picking up speed fast, and before long he punches through into the stratosphere, and the stress on the ship starts to ease up a little.

"Through to the stratosphere," he says, "I'm going to keep accelerating downwards -- in the actual race, I'm going to have to make a pretty sharp turn as late as possible, and try to preserve as much speed as possible."