Hot Rod had announced that lanes were closing at 5:30 and Pizza/beer would be served at 6:00 Pm in the tech barn. I realized I hadn't eaten since Pizza at 1:00 pm the day before, so we decided to join them. The Pizza went fast, not nearly enough, and we held ourselves to 2 peices each, barely enought to hold off the hunger, no that the adrenaline was wearing off. In typical HOTROD/ Freiburger fashion, there was PLENTY of Beer. We aren't really drinkers, but I had 2, and then polished of my brothers' which they took a swallow or 2 of. An hour later I jumped behind the wheel of the 1 Ton, and they dutifully bailed in with me as we headed to the Motel. Pulled in the lot, and Dale immediately headed for the McDonalds across the street. I hit the pillow, exhausted, as Boone and Darren took showers. They woke me an hour later, for my shower, and my first words were, "Why the Heck did you let me drive back here?? A CDL driver who's been awake for 36 hours, had 4 beers on an empty stomach,...GEEZ that was stupid!!"

Monday, HPT
One of my favorite parts during Drag Week, odly.. is the continental b-fast at each motel. You are guaranteed to find yourself conversing with other particpants you've never met before, and they are all just as revved up and excited as you are!!
We pulled into the Track at about 8:30, and backed the truck up to the trailer...we noticed most of the trailers were gone, and before we even got started preparing the cars the loud speaker crackled out instuctions, "All trailers and support vehicles MUST be in the impound yard BEFORE driver's meeting. Driver's meeting begins at 9AM"!!

We looked at each other in shock, then jumped in, unloading the truck, while hooking up the trailer...we hadn't even really thought about what would fit in the cars, what we were taking or leaving behind. Decisions were made quickly, and we designated Darren to drive the truck to impound, while we headed to the Drivers Meeting. We were told that the 3 hour window for passes, namely 9-12 each day would most likely be expanded due to the 177 cars in attendance, that was certainly welcome news!
We returned to the pits at about 10:15 AM. I still had no wiring to the line lock, or nitrous, or alternator. Boone decided to change oil as well as mounting the slicks. Dale had reworked his 700 and sandwiched the bigshot plate between it and the torker 2 last night after tech, but he still had to plumb the bottle, wire the solenoids, change his stock fuel pump out for Boone's cast-off Chrome Holley pump, and change to his slicks.

We worked for quite some time, when I could feel that Dale and I were getting perturbed. We had a ton to do, and Boone's 67 Belvedere should have been up to run fairly quickly, but he and Darren seemed to be messing around with trivial stuff. We had a small 12 volt powered air pump, and he was bringing the slick up to what he guessed would be correct, I say guess because the guage on the pump, and the little POS thumbnail guage Dale had brought were roughly 4lbs. apart.
I walked by to see what he was doing, and he turned, "I finally had to tick Dale off."
"What for??"
"He was trying to help me with the tires, I told him to work on his car!!"
"DAMMIT, BOONE!!" my voice raised, "don't you get it? We need you to make your run and quit messing around so you and Darren can help us get ready before we run out of time, that's the bottle in your car that I have to use!!
He spun, spitting mad, ripped the air pump off his slick, and jumped in the car. As he headed for the staging lanes, Dale walked over, "What was that?"
"Just Dave pushing all the wrong buttons" Darren retorted.
"Now he's furious, and about to make a pass for the first time in that car on slicks with nitrous"
"First pass ever" Dale came back
"What"??
"Yeah, I'm the only one who's ever ran it at the track"
"Well...call him up, and calm him down, OK?"
I returned to my car and changed my approach, I'd never been down the track with that carb, tranny, converter, tires..what the heck, I don't need nitrous or a line lock at this point, I slammed the hood and headed after Boone.