Delighted being second, then went in front (7)
I believe the answer is:
tickled
'delighted' is the definition.
(thesaurus)
'second then went in front' is the wordplay.
'second' becomes 'tick' (both can mean a very short amount of time).
'then' says to put letters next to each other.
'went in front' becomes 'led'.
'tick'+'led'='TICKLED'
'being' is the link.
(Other definitions for tickled that I've seen before include "Made to giggle" , "Delighted" , "Pleased" , "to be attracted to poacher" , "Amused" .)