Welcome Slim,
Hopefully some more drag guys will chime in as far as set-up and launch sequence. As a play rider the only things I can think of to help soften the launch would attempt to get the power valve to kick in later and/or swap some gearing.
I'm sure you've probably already tried a third gear start.
For the most part the guys here who do race have been alot more open sharing their information than I have seen in some other forums.
Tuck\o/