As the Class cars took their first shots at the National Trail surface, it was clear that a combination of track temperature, ambient air temp, and five days of wear and tear was causing many of the competitors to collect a time slip that was a few tenths off their average pace. A good deal of them were likely to come back for multiple hits, so I decided it was time to stop spectating and put the Valiant in the lanes. My plan was to get a nice, solid, wheelstand free pass on the first run, then come back and lean on it for a personal best.

I had a fresh bottle in, and a couple gallons of 114 Rockett brand fuel in the tank, so I felt the engine was on point and ready to go, I just hoped the driver was too. I pulled alongside a thirteen second Pontiac, so all I needed to do was concentrate on the process of getting the Valiant down the track in the most efficient means possible.

I staged on the foot brake with the tach needle firmly at 2800 and stabbed the throttle to the floor after the ambers flashed. It wasn't a real hard hit, so I suspected a little tire spin, but the front tires dangled about eight inches off the ground. As soon as the fronts tickled the tarmac, I grabbed the nitrous and the front felt weightless again for a brief moment, but never rose significantly. I clicked second and found myself charging smoothly down the middle of the groove with the 428 at full song. I let the shift light hang for a second, then put it in drive. The shift light was on again at a 1000 feet, but the small block sounded so smooth as the tach needle marched to 7K, that letting off the nitrous never occurred to me until we hit the stripe. I was working the brakes pretty hard to scrub speed when I saw the top end worker motion for me to take the exit first, even though I was in the left lane, so that allowed me to cruise around the curve at 25 mph instead of coming to a full stop to wait on the Pontiac.
"Was it a good pass, or did I give up too much in the first 60", ran through my head as I drove back up the return road.
"She was singing a song out there", was my second thought, "that had to be a decent run!"
I pulled my helmet off so I could concentrate on the time slip that was offered. 9.652-138.03...both were best ever numbers for the little 62 Valiant, so I knew in a glance that my Drag Week 2016 had just came to a very satisfying close.