I grabbed one of the three HF moving blankets I had brought and spread it over the roof of the Valiant, then had Pops help me set the hood on top of that. Once I had the pipes off the car, I turned my attention to removal of the spark plugs. I inspected the first one out and my heart sank, the electrode was a rounded off nub about 75% of it's original height, the ground strap was rounded off as well, so the resulting gap was about .060. These poor things were wore plum out, it was a wonder it would run at all.
Dale walked over when I had the third one out, picked one up and let out a low whistle, "Were you just trying to burn up your ignition box?"
"I guess so", I shrugged, "these have seen better days."
"You bring a Craftsman bag every year with like eight spare sets of spark plugs, and you try to run on last year's set...unbelievable", he smiled and shook his head.

There seemed to be lull in the competition, and I heard Brian Lohnes announce that they were out of cars in the lanes before the end of the first session. A few minutes later he announced that Clark Rosenstengal, fresh off his 7.80 in his 2010 Camaro was searching for a copper head gasket for an LSX!
"Wow", Dale commented, "Showed without his trailer, and now a blown head gasket, that's rough!"
"At least he has a good run in for the day already, so he's better off than some of these guys", I reasoned.
As if on cue the green 90 Mazda of Rick Prospero drove through the entrance gate and headed in our direction.
"What were they doing last night?" I questioned Dale as he looked up to watch the Mazda drive by.
"Swapping in his spare roller cam", Dale shook his head, "Fun stuff!"

Only one set of cars went down the track in the last seven minutes of session one, and then they called Street Machine Eliminator to the lanes.