Sometime after noon, it became just warm enough to be uncomfortable sitting in the car looking at my eyelids, so I decided to stretch my legs, do some socializing, and check out the competition.
Glenn Bridger was back with his red 68 Camaro, and it was detailed to the nines, looking fantastic. We had battled last year for 2nd/3rd in Pro Street/NA, and he covered the Valiant and I by a few hundredths.
"Same class this year?" He asked me as he shook my hand with a big smile.
"No,I decided I wanted to spray it this year, so I'm jumping to Modified PA", I explained.
"Geez", he expounded with a surprised look on his face, "you better have a whole bunch of nitrous to play with those guys!"
"I can't possibly hang with all those turbo cars, and big blocks! I just want to go as fast as I can, and lay down some good numbers. What about you, any changes to the car?"
"No, exact same combination, just washed it off and brought it back", he replied.
"It looks awesome today!"
"Believe it or not, it looked this good on Registration Day last year too...by day three, not so much!"

I moved away, and headed towards a white Duster which had already finished the registration process and had a "D" on the windshield signifying it was a Pro Street NA competitor as well. One constant in Drag Week has been that if you stand still with your combination, and don't make improvements, you are backing up, I felt if I battled it out with Glenn again in the 10.50 range, we would be fighting for 5th/6th this year, even with the pair of 8 second monsters who had owned the class not in attendance. Jeff Atkinson had returned with the old yellow CARS Camaro, and that car ran easy 9.50's last year before bowing out because his buddy Jon Wischmann broke on Day 1. Both Jeff and Jon looked ready to put 2015 behind them, and Jon is a four time finisher, so I had no doubt they would make a full pull this year.

The white 70 Duster was beautiful, everything Dale had always dreamed the Ruster Duster would be when he was a kid. I chuckled at myself, "probably still wishes it had turned out this good". I looked over almost involuntarily to where Dale, little Billy, Boone, and Pops were working on the Ruster Duster. They had pushed it to the back of the line, and had the canopy draped over the front of the car. Darren and new girlfriend Sherri had his Silver Ram behind them in line, using it as an oversized jump box and tool bin. My eyes went back to the white Duster in front of me; big wheelie bars, parachute, aluminum wing, lift off 'glass trunk lid with a gas filler flap in the middle of it, steamrollers on bead lock wheels, 512 Wedge call out on the black six-pack hood and the fancy enclosed trailer it was set up to tow along. No way anything we brought could measure up to the quality of this car.