As I stepped out the back door after lunch, I heard Boone yelling at Dale about the carb linkage, and tossing something across the yard. "Oh Boy" I thought to myself, "here we go"!

"You can't hold it with just one bolt!" Boone blurted.
Dale wasn't backing down for an instant, "That wasn't what I said! James can cut this one and add to the other bracket! You aren't listening!"
James looked like a person who didn't want to be where he was, as he skirted around the back of the Truck.
Darren poked his head out from under the Charger, "Get back over there James!" he hollered with a laugh, "You wanted to be in this deal, now you're in it! You can't run away everytime we get in a fight!"
Dale picked up both brackets and began to show James what modifications to make, while Boone fumed in the back of the shop. I walked out towards the Gremlin with Dale when he handed off the project to James.
"What the heck was that about?"
"He got mad because we've spent all day on the Gremlin! So now he's on edge about everything, he sees everyone else near ready to go, and he thinks the Truck is falling behind!"
"How did the test drive go?"
"It swapped lanes when I let go of the trans brake...like right now!"
"Your test road is not exactly The MotorPlex!"
"I know, but I need to spend some time under that front end when we get to Bowling Green!"

Darren was trying to burn up another starter, so Dale and I walked over to see what was going on.
"Don't think it's getting fuel..."
Dale pulled off the breather, and stroked the Dominator, the squirters were spraying fuel everywhere.
"Nope, you aren't getting fire! You did something wrong with that box!" Dale told him.
Darren pulled out the instructions and mused, "It said something in here about a switch...".
I looked down and realized I was mistaken about the 6AL, he had installed a Digital 6+ like I have in the Valiant. He crawled back under the dash for a few minutes, and then tried it again. It was hitting, but no where near starting.
"Sounds slow to me", I told Dale.
"You never touched the distributor?" Dale asked Darren.
"Nope, right where it was last time it ran", he assured us.
Dale pulled a little more timing into it, and cylinders began to pick up.
"Still slow", I commented.
Dale added more timing again, and it would start, sound like it was hitting on about 5, then die.
"Darren, you need to pull the plugs and see what they look like...", Dale ordered.
"The plugs are a pain on this thing", Darren started in, "and besides, I've still got quite a few wires that need to be finished up, and the bumper brackets have to be put on..."
Dale's voice rose sharply, "Dang it, Darren." If the engine won't run, all that is just a waste of time! We need to see if it's going to run, so change the darn plugs!"
I was losing my patience with this whole deal, in retrospect I guess everyone was at about this time. So I jumped into the conversation.
"Darren, just push this piece of junk out of the way, so we can get Boone's truck out of the shop, and ready to load." I had everyone's attention now, "If you idiots want to sit around here and finish everything on all three of these cars we'll be here until Wednesday morning and miss Drag Week completely!"
Darren pointed his finger at me, and matched my tone, "Oh,...I'm going on Drag Week! It might not be with you, it might not be with them, but this Charger will be there! So you just go ahead and leave if you want, I got this!"
Classic Darren, defiance for no other purpose than defiance itself. The truck he's been driving back and forth to work, wouldn't pull that Charger ten miles down the road without vapor locking and overheating. Dad's truck is broke down, so the only option for him to get to Drag Week is to put the Charger in the big trailer. Then Dale has to put his Gremlin on the small trailer and pull it behind his 1 ton. So here is Darren, the one with the least equipment dedicated to this operation, the one with the least investment into getting these five cars to go on this trip, the one who's been up 26 hours straight, and couldn't possibly drive to Bowling Green tonight if his life depended on it, trying to dictate terms to the rest of us! 35 years ago I'd have knocked him down and held his face in a fresh cow patty! 25 years ago, I'd have punched him square in the throat...
Dale grabbed Darren's shoulder, and focused him back on the engine, "Get that #1 plug out, so I can look at it!"
Darren complied, and I stomped off in the direction of my rig. Rachael came out, and I had her help me hook the truck up to the trailer. Then I spun the whole thing around in Dale's yard so I would be ready to just pull out and go the next time I was this tempted to leave them all behind.