Boone was in the lanes for his first attempt with the Barnyard, also both Rachael with the Belvedere, and John in his Valiant had returned for their second passes.
I explained to Dale my problem with the hesitation, and since he was calling it a day, he decided to look over my situation. After some tweaks to the carb, he instructed me to back onto the return road in front of our pit spot and give him a quick dry hop.
I gave him a blank stare, "That's the kind of stunt that gets you tossed out of a facility", I argued.
"Listen...we don't have time for you to make a pass after each adjustment, I just need you to back out there and whack it, then tell me if the hesitation is worse, or better", he insisted.
"I've seen guys get tossed out of NHRA divisionals for trans brake checks in the pits..."
"This aint no friggin divisional", he raised his voice, "this is Drag Week! Now back out and give me a five foot launch so I can see what it is doing!"
I complied, and reported to him that it wasn't any better than my last pass.
"OK, I need to make a big change to see if we are at least moving in the right direction", he decided. He was in the process of changing the squirters again when Boone pulled the Barnyard to the line.
Boone's pass was indicative of what most were experiencing at Cordova as the storm loomed nearer, his 11.396-116.8 was the slowest time slip he turned in on Drag Week 2015, but like Dale, he had no intention of running again.