Drag Week 2013: The Build(up)!

Well, I'll pretty much start this out where the above story left off, with all our cars lined up in the pit area of Beech Bend Raceway Park. In order for that picture to happen, Boone already had to snub his compatriots in the Gasser class who were frantically waving at him to pit with them! Seriously, joining the Gasser class is like joining a fraternity, this group of drag weekers are really unique in their whole approach to the game.

After the first Drag Week procedural hurdle with a hard fast deadline, The "You must be in the tech line by 2pm Sunday!", comes the next, and it has caught many newbies off guard in the past. "Your tow rig and extra equipment must be in the impound area, before the start of the Driver's meeting Monday morning!" So we rolled through the gate with a concerted effort and purpose. Our rigs were already in the proper area, we just needed to get all the gear we wanted to take back in the pits behind the cars.
As I was going through our truck, and handing Rachael stuff to put in our Satellite/shuttle, I stared at the spare 727 I had brought. "Rachael, how did the Belvedere shift on your 400 mile drive, and around town here?", I looked at her.
"Like a dream! We didn't have any trouble at all", she assured me.
"Hmm", I thought to myself, "We have 4 727 cars going, but on the other hand, that's a bulky, heavy monster to be loading and unloading every day." In the end, I talked myself out of it, and headed back to our pit. I nearly had the Satellite unloaded when Rachael, Dale, and Darryl pulled up in his truck, with his 16FT open trailer loaded down with stuff! Apparently they decided one big load made more sense than multiple trips. When it was all unloaded into our pit spots, it looked pretty daunting.
"Hope we didn't overdo it!" Boone laughed, "looks like your pack mules are going to get a workout!"
"You're the one who brought a truck", I shot back.
"That's a Thoroughbred, not a Clydesdale, she don't haul leftover parts!" he quipped.
The first call for the Driver's meeting went out. "I told you!" Darryl laughed. We had been discussing that since Hot Rod had scheduled a "Drag Week Car Show" in Indy tonight, they may be antsy to get the race started as early as possible, and it appeared they were doing exactly that, rounding us up 30 minutes earlier than in years past.