The Crusty Nova was back to try again after his earlier wheel stand. Shane pedaled it once and ran an 8.30-161, which was in line with the passes he accepted on the previous two days, but he drove it back to the lanes anyway.
Dale idled the Gremlin into the water, did a short burn-out, purged both systems and staged. He still drove out of the hole a good distance on motor, and the short wheelbase box ran a seemingly effortless, perfectly straight, 8.97-151.
Next up was Jay Brown and his aqua 69 Shelby Mustang with the big inch SOHC FE. According to Lohnes, Jay had been thrashing in the pits to change cams, so they didn't know what to expect. The 9.10-149.4 wasn't going to be his best, but it would certainly keep him in second place in the Modified NA class.
Five minutes after Dale's run, I pulled around the corner to do my burn-out in the Valiant. When I looked over to see who I was running, I immediately knew my plan to foot-brake was out the window. The Chisholm and Stasiak 55 Chevy gasser was to be my competition. The single most dependable wheelie king at Drag Week year after year, which meant cameras would most definitely be aimed at us and I HAD to toss the front end in the air and hope someone got some good shots!
I stuck the throttle to the floor, and yanked my thumb off the button. The Valiant rotated slightly to the right and by the time I forced it back in the groove it was on the rev limiter in 1st. I found the shifter, grabbed second, and finally found the nitrous button. The 55 was out on me by five cars, and all the nitrous did was stop the bleeding. It felt good though, and used up second gear really quick, so I stuck it in drive and let it eat. It felt strong all the way to the stripe and never popped once, but the black 210 worked us over pretty good 9.56-138 to 10.13-134.
When I returned to our pit area, Rachael ran over to talk to me with a concerned look on her face.
"They just announced that the lanes will close in twenty minutes!"
"What? What happened to extending it past two for all the hold-ups?"
She shrugged at me and said, "I'm telling you, it just came over the loud speaker!"
"Alright jump back in the Belvedere and let's get in line for another run then", I instructed her, as I fired the Valiant and drove on up.