We formulated a plan as we stood around at the checkpoint. Boone decided he would stay behind and wait for Dale and Rachael, but his co-pilot, Dad, would ride on in with Robert, so he could get some sleep. We decided to go just across the street to the gas station, fuel up, then Boone would come back to the gravel parkng lot, and try to get some shut eye while waiting for the stragglers.

When I finally pointed the Valiant east again on IL-16, it was 8:00pm, and we had 158 miles still in front of us. John and his Valiant took up residence off my back bumper, while Robert trailed him.
We clicked off another fifty relatively stress free miles on the Illinois State Route system, then, as the Drag Week planning staff is famous for, they kicked us off for eight miles of "East County Road 500", followed by seven miles of "County Road 2120 North", or, as veteran Drag Weekers know them, "Fifteen miles of suspension and low hanging parts test, Road".

Forty miles per hour worked out to be the best speed to avoid bottoming out shocks on that stretch for the Valiant. We came out on US-40East, near the small town of Marshall, and realized they were going to dump us on I-70 for the rest of the trip into Indy. We had around ninety miles gone since we left the second checkpoint, and eighty or so left, so we figured it was a logical place to fuel before we jumped on the big road.