"Rachael just broke down in the staging lanes" was the text I received from Opal, just as I was preparing to drive to the lanes in the Valiant. That scared me because I was worried that she hadn't took the beams to officially finish Drag Week yet. I parked in the back and made my way under the tower to see the Belvedere pushed back from the water box and on the right side, out of the way with Rachael and Skippy both flat on the ground looking under the car.
"Did you break in the water, or did you stage the car?" I asked her as soon as I walked up.
"No...I staged, then it broke when I hit the nitrous", she explained.
"Driveshaft?"
"Yeah, I could hear it clanging into the exhaust when they pushed me back off the track, but the back u-joint is intact so it's in the front."
I turned to Skippy, "We're going to need a floor jack..."
"Already called Boone, he's bringing one", he interrupted.

While we wrestled with getting the Belvedere off the ground, on jack stands, and the driveshaft removed, they were steadily working through the remaining SME cars, including those who were fortunate to make it back to the lanes for a second hit, like the Ogles, Clark Lamb, and about twenty others. Still, when they finished up, and took a break to prep the track for the all-run session, the track time break down looked like this: The "Class cars (148 still running)", were on the track for two and a half hours in their first session, the SME cars (92 still in) were on the track for an hour and two minutes! In that time however, Clark Strong would manage to run an 11.501-116.6 in his yellow 69 Road Runner to hold down the final spot in the Street Machine Eliminator class Quick 32.