I had the Valiant all buttoned up and the rest of the family was ready to head towards Gateway, when I received a text from John that read "Guess I melted something, car is dead!"
Opal and John's Valiant was parked across a field from where we were, so I just walked over, while Darren and Rachael drove around the block to pull up to their location. The multi-meter showed the battery at full power so the problem was definitely in the wiring.
John and Darren made fairly quick work of the diagnosis. It was discovered that the main power through the bulkhead connector had been burned out, and someone had just jammed the biggest wire they could find into the hollowed out socket. It was actually a miracle that it had nearly completed two Drag Weeks in that condition!
John ran a completely new wire, separate of the bulkhead connector, then with a shake of his head and a wry smile, asked to borrow a butt connector from me. The inside joke was that he had been badgering me all week about the excessive use of butt connectors throughout my car's wiring.