As the sun began to disappear, and it looked like they were about to wrap up the repair on the Gremlin, Boone and I took some time to walk around the facility. We hit up the t-shirt shack for a couple of souvenirs, and found it interesting that about half of the Great Lakes Dragaway shirts were emblazoned with NHRA logos, and the others there were with IHRA logos! I'm not sure which sanctioning body was current, or how long ago the switch was, but it made for a large variety of shirts to choose from. We checked out the onsite bar as well...didn't expect to see that. As we were heading back towards the pits, we stopped to look at some of the Mopars that had shown up for the test and tune, including a beautiful Pro Street style Road Runner, and a nice small block Dart. There were a couple of Chicago street/grudge type racers with ratty G-body Malibus on hand as well, with N/T scrawled on the windows and a huge entourage for each of them, they had been loud and boisterous for about an hour, setting all the bets, and particulars before hand, and we watched as they headed into the lanes, then turned our attention to the Aussies all huddled around the Holden. Once we got within ten feet of them, the smell of alcohol nearly knocked us over! Only two of the guys were actively working on the car, the other eight guys and gals, were all far too busy with the red solo cups they were supporting.

We talked about ten minutes with the Trapnell's as they attempted to re-assemble the stack injected and fogger equipped BBC, when we noticed that the grudge racers had returned from their race. We only thought their entourage was loud before! Now the stories were flying, and excuses were being made, money was being exchanged, and it got really loud!
"Maybe we should walk over there and see what all the fuss is with those blokes, mate!" One of the Aussies, who was clearly in no shape to walk the 200ft between the cars suggested.
"I think not!" Another one spoke up, "you need to just sit there with your drink, and watch from afar, before you get us into more trouble than we need tonight!"
Boone and I decided that was a good time to beat a hasty retreat back towards our encampment!