Wow, I probably wouldn't have even be able to get a Tropical Storm back to the headpin on the Cheetah last season in my PBA Experience league.  It was only 35 feet, but they put down a high volume of oil.  I had to take my speed down a hair and use my Special Agent!

But in general, playing off the gutter you need the ball to roll earlier and set, meaning putting your pin closer to your PAP.  1 1/2" may be too close for my tastes though.  For me, the key to the Cheetah is smoothing out the reaction so that the ball doesn't jump too hard off the dry by the gutter, or push too long in the oil if you get it a hair left.  So, a rolly kind of drill layout might work better for that.

Shorter pin to PAP will give you an earlier roll.  A shorter pin to PAP can be good for letting the ball roll early and lay off when you want to play from outside, while a longer pin to pap can be good for getting the ball to skid longer, then snap harder on the backend to generate angle on the back part of the lane.  And any time you move away from 3 3/8" distance on a symmetrical cored ball (in either direction), you're going to reduce the amount of track flare.