I made my way back to the lanes, where the Valiant sat all alone. Earlier I had accidently left the fans on for well over 30 minutes, so I had doubts it would start. It did, but just barely, and I idled back to the pits. By the time I returned from getting the truck and trailer, everyone except Dad had went up to the pavillion for the awards ceremony.
"Somebody has to stay here and keep an eye on the stuff". He concluded.
"Well we should probably start loading some of this up, it's really starting to come down".
We gathered up a few things that obviously didn't need to get wet, but we weren't making any huge progress. He convinced me to go up and watch the awards, and he would wait.
The finale under the pavillion was pretty cool, but just felt anti-climatic. Plenty of emotion non-the-less, the sponsors of this deal are intimately involved, much more than just writing a check, so they make it special.
On the first day DF had announced there were 9 cars in Modified Power Adder, and 5 cars in Modified N/A. Dale and Boone had both tried to get me to switch to N/A and forget about the N20, but I refused.
"The first place plaque in Modified Power Adder goes to Gary Satterlee, and his Fox Body", DF announced, "He won the battle of attrition since he was the only finisher in that class"!
"You idiot", Dale scolded, "You had a second place plaque if only you would have forgot about the nitrous and changed classes"!
"Yep", Boone agreed, "You left one just sitting up there".
"That's OK guys", I looked around the Pavillion, surrounded by my brothers, family, and a whole group of like minded individuals who had just went through the same wringer we had, "I got everything I came here for...and more"!!