It was 4:15pm by the time I finally approached the head of the lanes, where Keith Turk was standing with the go/no go tire gauge, and directing people from the two lanes we had been in all day to the four lanes of cars in tech.
Just as I pulled up, he handed the gauge to Hemi Joel, and decided to take a break. I had no qualms about trying to influence Keith into putting me in one of the left two lanes, heck I may have even bribed him with a cold diet Coke, but I didn't feel comfortable trying to use my friendship with Joel to my advantage; in the words of Doc in Tombstone, "My hypocrisy only goes so far"!

He directed me into the right lane, behind his buddy Jay Brown in the 69 Shelby Mustang. This meant I would be teched by the gal who wasn't giving the drivers back the white sheet...not an ideal situation for me. I staged all my safety equipment on the passenger's side seat and floorboard, then sat the temp license on the tunnel facing that door. This meant if she wanted to examine it closely, she would have to reach past everything else to pick it up. I made it through the gauntlet of volunteers checking lights, horn, brake lights and signals with no problems, then pulled up to the NHRA tech official.
I felt sorry for her as soon as I handed her my paperwork. She had been teching cars for eight hours staight, and looked worn to a frazzle.
She checked the seat belts on the drivers side then made her way to the passenger's side. I stayed on the drivers side, and pointed out the cert, all my equipment, pulled back the padding to reveal the Snell rating on my helmet, and mentioned the temp license.
"Ok", she muttered then straightened her back slowly as if it pained her and set the clipboard on top of the Valiant. I watched as she signed me off for 8.50, then she handed back the yellow tech card, and put the white Drag Week sheet on her clipboard with a few others.

I pulled the car around out of line after my numbers were installed, and my registration/insurance info had been checked off by Tonya Turk and crew. I gathered up my banner, t-shirt, and goodie bag, then went and got Dad so he could sign up as co-driver, and get his arm band that would gain him access to each track, and the starting line area.
It was 5:30pm by the time I parked back in our pit area. Rachael was entering the tech area with Darren in the Belvedere, but Boone and Dale were still a good 30 cars back as the shadows began to grow long.
"This registration process is going to take more than twelve hours to complete!" I shook my head as I looked at Dad.
"Yeah, and they will still be working on the Duster when it drives under the canopy to get looked at!" he laughed.