By the time we had our stuff unloaded, Boone showed up and started adding his load to the pile. I crowded the Sporongs a bit to make room for him, they were a father/son team running the "Baja Chase Truck", a 2005 Silerado, with big balloon mudders all the way around, then when they arrived at the track they did a 4 wheel change to slicks, and skinnies, yielding mid 11 second ETs. Very cool truck, very cool guys, we enjoyed chatting with them at Amarillo, and the rest of the trip.
I lowered the drag radials to 22, jetted the back of the carb up from 82 to 89, wired the nitrous button up, and moved the distributor pickup wires to a new hole about 1/4 inch away from the alternator wires in an attempt to alleviate the ignition break-up problem. The guys completed thier slick swap, and Dale pulled the timing back on the 2 B-Bodies, also raising both cars from a 73 to an 82 N20 jet, to make up for the higher elevation.
Boone convinced me to remove my "Plymouth" front license plate off the Valiant, and bolt on the "Drag Week 2011" one we picked up in our goodie bags. I was doing that when a local was talking about how much he liked my car, and something in his voice registered, I gave him a good look.
"Hey man, thanks for the warning about 136 last night, that really made a difference, it was tricky in the rain"!
"You recognized me"?
"You were at the Pizza Hut in Guymon, right"?
"Yeah, that was me...I just couldn't believe they were sending you that way, I didn't want to see any of these awesome cars get tore up, glad I could help".
Dale came back from his first run, complaining about leaving it in low too long, or something, a 13.12-103.01 in his hand, "I need a 12, I have to move up on some of these naturally aspirated cars, they will really struggle in this 3800 ft air". After 2 days he was 39th, and worried about his chance to qualify in the quick 32.
Boone was almost ready to go up, and I looked at one of his slicks, "That thing looks low", I commented
"Yeah, It's starting to lose air faster than the first two days, I intentionally put 2 lbs more in it, but it's already down..I better the pump with me to the lanes", he declared.
They were ancient 28X9 M/T ET DRAGs that were mounted tubelss, and had been holding a car up (unsuccessfully) at my Dad's shop for at least 5 years, it was a miracle they held air at all.
Dale came back from his 2nd run, really upset, "Decent launch, but it just laid over at half track, 13.61-85. I think it ran out of fuel, 5 gallons wasn't enough, it's running away from the pickup"!
I gave him the rest of my race gas...C/12 in an 8 to 1 pig, what a waste of good fuel, at least that would keep him off me.
Boone rolled up the burnout box beside Mike Crow and his all-world, all conquering, Former Drag Week Champ, 73 Red Barracuda, with it's stick shifted, high winding small block, a true mid 10-sec terror! Ok, I know, he has his mild street motor in it now, but as a second generation storyteller, my Dad taught us early on, "Never let the facts get in the way of the telling of a good story!"
Mike and his Barracuda grabbed the hole shot, and had Boone by a car when he hit the nitrous and the Belvedere rolled up on the suspension, and began to give chase in an odd snakelike procession down the track that told me, "There is no way those two slicks are at the same pressure right now". It looked as though Mike would hold him off, but the Barracuda slowed to a 12.30 at only 94, while Boone streaked by at 12.03-108.64. That's one Boone will be re-telling around the camp fires for many years to come!! We'll have to get Ksj to let us in on what happened to Mike, as the car was considerably faster at every other track.