When they pulled back in and parked, I took the time slip, and then immediately grilled Dale about why he jumped back in it before the stripe, and he flatly denied doing any such thing! "Darren, why'd you get off the gas so early?" I questioned. "The 440 is still not happy, that sound got a little worse this pass, so I was trying not to kill it!"
I took the 11.495 and 11.499 slips and showed them to Scott Abbott (Scott58, Moparts) figuring as often as his Road Runner goes under 11.50 without a bar, he might have a plan. "I'd try to turn one in", He shrugged, "The rule is, we are teched to 11.49 and slower, and those are slower than 11.49, at least you can try." I decided it was worth a walk, as I approached the tower I saw Keith Turk in a conversation with Monte Smith, and Monte was hammering him on the nuances of some of the Drag Week rules. Keith actually looked relieved for the interruption, but that didn't prevent him from shooting me down, "Nope 11.50 with a zero or slower!" "It's 11.499! Can't we round up!" "Always pushing the grey areas aren't you?" He looked at Monte, "Another Mopar guy!" "Trust me", Monte sighed and shook his head, "I know."
I went back to our pit, and Lane Sporrong, who drives the Baja Chase Truck with it's Duttweiler supercharged LS motor, was hanging out, talking to the brothers. When the conversation came around to what we were going to do with the Satellite, Dale turned to Lane, "What have you guys been running today?" "11.60s and 70's." "Would you mind running us, so I can pace this thing to a good number?" "No problem, I'd love to!" Lane smiled, along with his Dad Michael, they are the energizer bunnies of Drag Week, always helping people out, always working on something, and they LOVE putting laps down the track on their truck.
Dale got through 1st and 2nd clean, and had a lead on the truck, then he let Lane drive around him on the top end. We had an 11.63-114.76 for our troubles! When Dale got back, I again jumped him, "Why the heck did you give up the stripe?" "You said to make sure I didn't go under 11.50!" "I didn't say anything about letting the chevy win!!"
