Two of the first three mopars to record times on Drag Week were 66 Plymouth Belvederes owned guys by named David M., but that is where the similarities stop. Outlawd (Dave McKenna) ran an 11.66-114 in his 496 powered example to get his Drag Week underway. David Meyer approached the beams a little later in his Troy Trepanier built "Northern Bel" 526 inch twin turbo hemi powered version, a car that had already wowed on the national show circuit, and ran 199 in the standing mile. The 4900lb Plymouth eased out of the hole, then slowly built momentum, clocking 10.50-133.

Since it was obvious to me that Boone and Dale weren't planning to run until ten minutes of track time was left in the day, I decided to put the Valiant in the staging lanes. I was directed to the back of lanes 3/4. National Trail's lanes are narrow, but very long, and I realized there was no way all of us would run through before the supposed two hour cut-off. I decided to go watch from the starting line for a good view of the proceedings.