Now, granted, I'm far from an accomplished writer, and while I hope most of you enjoy my attempts to give you an inside, blow by blow account of Drag Week, occasionally I like to hit zoom out and give a broader view. The problem is, I simply don't have the literary tools required to do that seamlessly within the context of the chronological story. I've spent a full month of my life on Drag Weeks, and every single one of those days was uniquely different. The event, from the competitors, the track officials, the Drag Week crew, to the Hot Rod crew, and even the spectators, often forces us to adjust on the fly, to situations barely within our grasp to control.

One of the underlying themes that came to the forefront at Union Grove, was the pressure on the organizers to "put on a good show". If you've done a great deal of drag racing, you've undoubtedly, at some point, found yourself at a "show" that features jet cars, or nitro Harleys, or funny cars, playing to a packed house, and the local bracket guys suddenly become filler. To their credit, the guiding hands of the Drag Week event have studiously avoided that vibe, carefully treading between the need to promote the record shattering unlimited cars in their media outlets, while projecting a feeling among the competitors that we are 300 street cars, all in this together. It's a tightrope, and as Drag Week has grown and evolved from 40 cars, with an eight second champ to 350 cars with a top ten in the six and seven second range, it becomes more difficult to traverse with each passing year.

To peel back the curtain a little, I've been blessed with a darn near photographic memory, which allows me to go back and pull minute details, feelings, and sounds, from my past. But, like any library or pc, I need markers, and tabs to find my place, so I consult the pictures I've collected and the route sheets to take me mentally back to the point in time I wish to immerse myself in. Another awesome tool at my disposal are the replays of the live feed which has been vital to growing the event over the past three years.
Great Lakes Dragaway is a well oiled machine, with a veteran crew that knows how to put cars down the track in a quick, efficient manner. So it was odd to hear David Freiburger discreetly implore the track starter to slow things up from their usual cadence, "We need to allow the set of cars on the track to hit the finish line, before the next set start their burnout" he spoke quietly into the handset, then paused, "it's for the live feed camera crew" he explained apologetically. So, suddenly, it became less about how can we get as many passes as possible for each competitor in the time alloted, and more about feeding the beast that provides the impetus for the event as a whole. Just for the record...I'm OK with that.

The second part of this equation, this tightrope, has to do with the handling of those Drag Weekers who feel that their single digit ET slips entitle them to preferential treatment. In the early years, they were simply given their own lane, and allowed to cut in when they were ready to run. That model of operation was clearly outgrown by 2011, and 2012 nearly saw a few fist fights as some of the fast guys tried to muscle ahead of people who had yet to get a chance at a run. The divided session concept debuted with great success in 2013 (after I strongly lobbied for it on Bangshift following the 2012 debacle!! I'll regale you with my tales of Al Gore and I inventing the internet together later). While the class session, followed by a Daily Driver/SME session program helped immensely, it still didn't address the upper crust cars, and how to allow them quick access, on demand, to the track. Far brighter individuals than I devised a little tax shelter called "IMPOUND". From the outset, this arrangement sounded quite punitive. Impound is a reserved area for cars quicker than 8.50 which are top three in their respective class. When in impound, only the driver and passenger are allowed to work on the car, or supply parts for the car. So, it seems like a way for the Drag Week technical staff to keep a close eye on these guys to make sure they are legit street cars, right? I agree completely, and it has been a huge success, but allow me to flip this impound coin over and look at the other side...cars in impound have their own lane and immediate access to the head of the staging lanes...wow, see what they did there! It's not Alcatraz...it's a Country Club! For the record, once again, I'm OK with that.

Now that I've bored you to tears with that explanation, let me get back to Union Grove, and the "Show". The only time our boys in impound don't have access to the lanes, is during the Street Machine Eliminator session. At Great Lakes Dragaway, with a packed house of spectators, a record number of live feed viewers, and a large contingent of Impound cars who hadn't made a hit at all in the first class car group, even that small concession was beginning to chafe and gald, both on the duo in the booth, and the hitters in their gilded cage.
Not even twenty minutes into the middle, Street Machine Eliminator session, in between introducing the cars on the track and calling out ET's, Brian Lohnes began plugging the action in impound and giving accounts of who looked as though they were ready to run. Clearly the directive was given to end this session as quickly as possible, so they could roll out the big guns for the crowd. Thirty-seven minutes after the first set of Street Machine Eliminator cars started their burnout, the Gold 79 Le Mans of David Burke was spotted approaching the head of the lanes, since he was in the first four cars to go in this group, this gave the lane director the ammunition he needed and the call was given to close the back of the SME lanes. Seventeen minutes later James Reeves' Omni closed out the fifty-four minute whirlwind little guys party as Bailey's Sick Second 2.0 sat quietly waiting as the first car in the final open session, after a quick track cleanup!