In 1996, Tom was faced with a problem, the Valiant had to be at a Mopar race in Vegas, and he had to be at a wedding in California. So he tabbed me to drive it. I was in love on the first pass, and promised myself I would own the car some day. What shocked me was when he told me to shift it at 6400. "Good Greif Tom, how big is this motor?" I asked as I stared him in the eye.
"What do you mean?" he feigned ignorance.
"Well, the only Small block Mopar that ever blew my mind growing up in Oklahoma was the Kent Johnson/Bill Lamb wheelstanding Barracuda, and Kent used to laugh about 'fifty-five to eighty-five', so you can tell me it's a 318 that runs 10's, but it don't shift at 6400 to do it!"
That's the day I was in on the secret.
Tom raced the car for another 6 years or so, and the sponsorship eventually dissolved, leaving him without support, and a waning desire to keep it going. A broken ring gear, which in turn took out the sprag in the transmission, landed the car in Tom's garage for the duration of his ownership. I kept in touch, as the price whittled down over the years. In 2006, I attended my first Drag Week, and the hook was set, so when I returned to Arizona, I went to Tom with a single question, and the answer was yes he had a title for the car. We struck a deal two weeks later.