If you are good at driving a stick, you shouldn't need to have the RPM's up to 2,000 to take off from a stop. Thats just wasting away clutch life. Also, you wonder what your popping noise is, and then go on to state you power shift the car. Things wear out much faster when they are abused. As for the popping, I would imagine it is a broken motor mount from the way it sounds like you drive your car. Power shifts, and dumping the clutch to do burn outs will break a motor mount. If the car won't go into 2nd when you are trying to be a race car driver, then don't do it. This is probably caused from worn synchronizers in the transmission. The synchros can't speed up fast enough to match the gear to the engine speed, so the gear won't engage.
