I walked back to our pit area, and found Rachael looking through a brown leather satchel placed on the hood of the Belvedere.
"Where did you get that?" I asked her as I approached, quickly recognizing it wasn't anything our group had brought along.
"Someone left it out on the side of the road, before we came through the gate", she explained. "Dale and I saw it when we moved up in line the second or third time. It has a laptop in it, motel instructions, a bunch of other stuff, someone must be going crazy right now."
"Anything with a name yet?" I asked as I peered over her shoulder into the bag.
"Aha", she exclaimed, "this will tell us!" She pulled out the eight page technical questionnaire that Hot Rod gives to each competitor that details everything about your entry. It had already been filled out completely.
I read the first line, "1973 Opel Ascona, yep Rach, that's the little compact with the nitrous big block chevy from Sweden! I saw them near the front of the tech line, lets go give it to them."
She followed me to the front of the tech line towards the strange looking grey two door post Opel, and we walked up to a young man trying to hastily fill out a new questionnaire on the trunk lid of the car.
"Might be easier to turn in the one you already filled out", I smiled and extended the paperwork towards him.
He looked up with a blank expression towards me, but his face lit up when he recognized the satchel in Rachael's hands.
"Wow! Where did you find it?" He asked with a big smile on his face.
Rachael explained it as his partner walked up from the front of the car. They both breathed noticeably easier, and were genuinely appreciative, even though you could tell they were still overwhelmed by the magnitude of the task ahead of them. It felt good to know we had helped them avoid the first pitfall of the week, but the young Swedes, Magnus and Dennis, would face many more if they wanted to complete Drag Week 2016.