We tooled along through St. Louis at 50 mph, as Rachael took in the sights, steadily moving towards the Arch in the light Sunday morning traffic.

I decided to stop at the Pilot truck stop across from the track, and fuel the 1 ton, while Rachael grabbed ice, and replenished the coolers.

We had been told that test and tune would be limited on registration day, because the track already had another event going on. Much like when LS fest was going on at Bowling Green in 2013. In both cases it makes for a mess because it means the facility tries to tuck us away in a corner so as not to impede with their on-going event. It's hard to squeeze 300 street cars, all the support rigs, entourage, and everything else it takes to pull off Hot Rod Drag Week, into an existing event, and the track personnel always underestimates how much room we are going to need!

As I stood there fueling the Dodge, the 301 Street Cars gang pulled into the left turn lane to enter the track. "CARLOS!" I yelled at the top of my lungs, and the driver leaned forward to look past the passenger, then they both shot their arms out of the truck in a friendly wave. Registration Sunday is just like that, nerves, anticipation, expectations, all rolled into greeting old friends and making new ones. It has that first day of summer camp as a youth feel to it.
An 85 Caprice Classic rolled up behind them, with 24" spinners, and a bass boat paint job. Rachael noticed it as she walked out with the ice, "Is that going on Drag Week?"
"No, that's a show car for the event they are having today." I had noticed the signs which pointed each direction, stating "Race cars" and "Show cars", but now I strained my eyes to read the event sign.
"Well heck", I chuckled, and rubbed my neck, "It's Black Sunday!"
"What's that?" Rachael looked me in the face, for signs I was joking.
"It's an annual event, put on by the United Black Drag Racers Association. Legendary event, actually, I just never figured I'd get the opportunity to attend one!"
"So...it's only for black people?"
"No", I laughed, "everyone's invited, and I guarantee you, there will be plenty of Mopars, so, much more fun than that LS Fest we were trapped at before!"

We drove across the street, and were directed behind the oval track. As we drove around, we noticed, as I had expected, that they had tried to pit everyone in what was basically their maintenance area at the back of the property, and had quickly over flowed that area. We were directed to park against the oval track fence, in the narrow concourse between the front stretch of the oval, and the return road of the drag strip.

A quick recap of the numbers look like this: Fueled the truck twice, another motel room, we arrived at Hot Rod Drag Week for registration day and have only spent 2062.50 so far.