I understand that, but you could have been there sooner if that was desired. Most of drag racing involves guessing. Back when we used to drag race AMC engines we did things like that all the time, there were practically zero high-perf parts for them and often you made up your own. Half the parts on the cars were modded GM or Ford parts made to fit AMC.
Not trying to rib you at all, I guess it's just the modding side of me showing up, I tend to see things like how easy that ring removed instantly, it comes from years of searching for easy mods that cured problems, I still do it today, just to cure problems on modern cars when the makers (Ford in my case) refuse to do so unlike what they used to do. You don't really guess there, rather you make it happen and correctly once you determine it can be done. Currently modding a HVAC cam on a Focus to avoid the cable breaking problems they have with heater cables, the Ford official fix is another $850 airbox and $2000 + in charges to yank the entire dash to get to it. Ridiculous, my part mods costing maybe $10 and installed in 10 minutes, problem gone. I've got many other fixes on the two Focus cars I've got and never much more money involved doing them. The cars are utter junk as they rolled off the lines and a pile of endless problems.
Shortening car engine valve guides was a given back in the old days, many designs required you to do it, Iskenderian Racing Cams back in the day rented out cutters to mod the guide tops on most engines back in the '60s.............
High lift and shorter duration are a gangbusters combo and we did lots of them for the circle track dirt car people but you better have durable parts like springs, they get knocked about a lot more than long duration stuff does. If rocker arms any errant geometry issues will show up faster in breakage. I don't know what lobe center the SOHC cams use routinely but the combo is even better if the LC gets closer like 105 degree or so. Some Honda like the early DOHC use that low number really well, you get a big mid range boost without losing the top end revability at all. The wonderful thing with DOHC, you can then put that LC (both actually) exactly where you want it (them).
About time somebody is making shorter duration high lift parts, the bane of bike engine modification for like forever is how most makers made cams too long in duration in relation to higher lift due to so many cam profiles coming from regrinding stock cams. The cam makers tend to stay with more reliable grinds and shorter duration hi-lift have their problems but dang do they run good.