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Rachael and I were working the Belvedere through the lanes, when we heard the familiar, "Are you MoparBilly?". It was Howard (draginmopars, Moparts) and Gayle (Jnkgal, Moparts) who had came out to check out opening day of the race. Howard and I had both shared in the pain of waiting on Airwolf heads to show up on our doorstep. "Mine arrived on Tuesday after labor day, two days after I left for Oklahoma!" I informed them when the inevitable question was asked, "So I haven't even got a chance to look at them yet." Sharing stories with fellow Moparts members sure helped the 45 minutes in the lanes go by quick, and Rachael appreciated the opportunity to visit with another female mopar drag racer.
She finally got her shot at the Beech Bend track, and we agreed that a nice no-bottle warm-up pass was all we needed. She rolled up in the water box, braked, brought the rpm up, and looked over at me. Good brake stall, but we are supposed to be turning the tires! I jabbed my upturned thumb towards the sky a couple of times, and she stabbed into the throttle until the tires started smoking and I motioned her forward. She cleared the traps at 13.50-101, and the local announcer commented, "Rachael is one of five Gebhart family members entered in the event! I wonder how many of them will be speaking to each other by Friday?".
"Wow", I thought to myself, "He must've read some of my stories, or he has brothers as well".

Since Boone was only about 6 sets behind Rachael, I hung around and brought him into the water as well. He had so much smoke rolling off the ET Streets, I couldn't motion him forward fast enough. We had discussed it earlier, and had agreed he should just roll into the throttle as opposed to slapping it open, because we didn't know how the drivetrain was going to react on the first hit. He was in the right lane, and I made my way to the wall to watch his pass. When he launched, the amount of body lift, and roll to the passenger side was astounding, and it seemed to pull the Barnyard toward the wall on that side, he nearly had it back to the middle when he hit 2nd, and it made another move to the wall. "Don't be a hero Boone, lifting is OK", I was saying to myself as I heard him hit 3rd and begin wrestling the D-100 back towards the center of the lane. The announcer let us know it was an 11.45-115, but I never took my eyes off the Truck, knowing shutdown in that beast can be as treacherous as accelerating!

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