Sean Fling was working the entry to the lanes, and asked us if we had any runs yet. Our negative answer caused him to direct us to lanes three and four, and we were assured that would allow us a quicker entry to the line under the tower.
Of course, the aforementioned Impound cars had first dibs, so we patiently waited as Bailey went 6.84, and McGilton went 7.81 to give up another tenth to Blasco's Dart.
Then, as we were anxiously waitng our turn, we noticed that race director Lonnie Grimm was alternating between the no-run lanes, and the other guys who already had a shot, at the head of the lanes. This wasn't the first time that we've noticed a failure to communicate between Sean and Lonnie, and I just shrugged it off. Boone however...well, Boone is a patient and genteel guy in real life, the only time that doesn't ring true, is when he's in a drag strip staging lane, then he's a whole other cat, and it's been that way since our first trip to Mo-Kan Dragway in 1984. Dale and I both exchanged looks when we saw Boone jump out of the Barnyard and head directly towards Lonnie in a purposeful strut through the cars ahead of us.
"Should we go up there", Dale laughed, as Boone got Lonnie's attention and started gesturing between the two sets of lanes.
"No...he's a big boy, and I think he made his point."
I saw Lonnie walk over to the cars in the opposing lanes and tell them to take their helmets off and relax, then he started pulling exclusively from our lanes, so apparently the message was successfully relayed without prejudice or rancor.

Boone was the first of us in line, and pulled up in the left lane, as he finished his burnout, he realized that in his overzealousness to get his shot at the fabled GLD tarmac, he was a little unprepared for his run, but he put it in the beams and waited to get his wrist slapped.

Photo 1: Boone's "impatient in the lanes" face.
Photo 2: Can you spot what Boone forgot to do before staging?