My 31 Plymouth coupe didn't get finished in time for Drag week this year again. Last year, I took my 67 Olds, and Mopar Billy or someone was giving me a hard time about wearing my Hemi Joel racing jacket, while driving an Olds. So this year I decided that I for sure needed to be driving something with a Hemi. Every Hemi powered car I own is in a state of disassembly, restoration, or broke, except my 67 GTX Hemi/torqueflight convert, so that would have to be the one. I had never had it to a dragstrip before, and was concerned that it would be embarrassingly slow if there were any unknown problems, plus it was bone stock with 3.23 gears.

Jeff (Jerico GTX) had signed on as Trunk Monkey, and we packed up and left on Saturday morning. Before we left, I put new points and condenser in the original dual point distributor, changed the oil, and swapped in some head pipes that had exhaust dumps on them.

ready to go:


We decided this was going to be a fun Tommy Boy road trip, and that we would see the sights on the back roads. Jeff brought some M&M's and set them on the dash, and the jokes and Tommy boy quote flew back and forth.

Owatona MN:


We stopped for lunch at Arbys in Iowa and discovered a leaky valve cover gasket. My Trunk Monkey in training promptly tightened the bolts and stopped the leak.



In Brandon Iowa, we discovered an amazing attraction, the largest fryin' pan in the state, real cast iron and over 9' diameter!


The first night on the road, we enjoyed a beautiful sunset.



Sunday was tech in for drag week, which was held at the oval track at gateway. I had purchased a tachometer, and used the time in line to install it, as well as visiting with old and new friends and checking out a bunch of cool cars. Also while I was in line, a videographer from Hot Rod asked me to put the top down, and he would film the car for a youtube video. I forgot to take the boot out of the top well, so the top wouldn't go all the way down, then I had to put it halfway back up, dig the boot out, and then put the top down. He filmed the whole bungled up procedure and put it on Youtube. Yippee, I'm gong to be a star!



As usual, the line was long and slow moving, but the weather was great!



I had previously corresponded with Tricky Steve from the HAMB, and when I saw this coupe, I knew he was here at Gateway, I sought him out and introduced myself.


Later, after tech, we moved to the dragstrip, and I made a pass. I was cautious, launching just off idle and shifted at 5700 rpm, and was pleasantly surprised with a 13.70 timeslip at just over 101 mph. Not to bad for a bone stock car with a 4225 race weight I thought!
My Friend Jay Brown (whom I have Trunk Monkeyed for 5 times) brought his FE Cammer powered 69 Shelby, and had a new Trunk monkey, Steve Peasly. My Trunk Monkey from last year, Kevin Rolf, brought his 428 Cobra Jet powered 68 SHelby GT 500, and was running solo with out the benefit of a trunk monkey.

Left to right: Jay Steve Kevin Jeff, Jays Shelby behind.

You will notice that Steve has a beer in his hand, and has never been know to not. When we were discussing titles, such as Trunk Monkey in training, Trunk Monkey extraordinaire, etc, Steve announced "I'm the Drunk Monkey!" We all had a good laugh over that and the name stuck.

Kevins Shelby has a cool snake on the hood from back in the early 70's.