Other than the Supra's traction limited 8.62 on the first day, the three of them had played their parts to perfection Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. On paper it looked pretty straight forward, with the LS Camaro right where Clark had claimed it would be, 7.83-171, 7.81-177, and 7.80-170. Mike Jovanis had been a tick conservative on the first day with an 8.32-168, but he locked it down from then on with an 8.19-171, and an 8.10-172. Meagher and the Real Street team stepped the Supra up, with a 7.98-178, and a 7.71-179.
The stuff on paper doesn't begin to tell the whole story though. Clark and the Camaro had already ditched the trailer and hood, as the LS was suffering from a serious overheating issue, that had never occurred in testing. The results didn't show that Mike's Mustang had given him fits on Wednesday and the 8.10 was a last ditch effort, either.

Drag Week saved the real drama for Thursday in SSSBPA though as the blue 89 Mustang made the only clean pass of the top three. When the smoke and steam cleared (literally), the LS needed a new head, and the Toyota needed the head welded up and repaired. When he left Indianapolis Raceway Park, the NMRA True Street racer had to wonder if the other two would even make it back to Cordova under their own power, let alone roll out representative numbers.

Sticking with his plan, Mike Jovanis and his little boosted 347 knocked down a consistent 8.15-173 to finish Drag Week 2016 with a solid 8.18 average. Had the 2JZ been able to hold it's second head gasket for two seconds longer, Jay and the Supra had a shot, only needing an 8.63 or better to move ahead of the Mustang. The 9.13-124 meant the Toyota couldn't win the class, but still, the 8.27-163 average was the quickest and fastest 6 cylinder in Drag Week history, and the quickest and fastest import in Drag Week history...not a bad haul for the Real Street JROD crew!!

The time was ticking away towards 7pm as the sun was quickly fading below the horizon. The call had already went out for the quick 32 SME competitors, and they were being paired in the lanes for first round of eliminations when Clark finally brought the Camaro around for what would be his first and only attempt on the final day. When he started his burnout, I turned to Boone from our vantage point in the stands.
"What does he need?"
"A good pass", Dale laughed
"He only needs an 8.92 or better to win the class", Boone looked up from his phone, "but he needs a 7.99 to keep a seven second average".
"Who cares about a seven second average? He's been so close to winning a class six times,he just needs to finish this up!"
"You're rooting for an LS Camaro to beat a real Ford", Dale admonished me.
"No, I'm rooting for Clark..come on man, we've had a front row seat for some of his toughest failures, I want to see him succeed for once!"
The black gen five had just began to back up from the burnout, when the fire went out. The LS just died and refused to re-fire. Clark's wife, who had been standing just behind the car against the retaining wall, turned her back, and walked away slowly, with her head buried in her hands and was comforted by Debbie Taylor, Alex's Mom. Dennis Taylor and a few others ran out to push the Camaro back behind the burnout box just off to the side.
My brothers and I were once again standing, and peering over the wall to see the hub of activity around Clark's car as others made their final attempts at Drag Week 2016.
"You mean to tell me, that after 5 days and a thousand street miles, he's going to come up short forty feet from the final Christmas tree as time runs out?" I shook my head and wiped my hands on my jeans.
"High drama", Boone let out a breathless chuckle, "can't write fiction like this, unless you're working for Disney!"
Dennis Taylor, whose "Retro Nova" was already out of competition was feverishly scurrying around the Camaro along with two or three other guys, trying to find the problem, they had the trunk open, and one of them had a jump box.

The third pair to run as Clark worked on his car was Dan Saitz, and his Modified PA leading fox hatch.
Freiburger, who was probably on his third beer at this point, made the announcement, "Here comes Dan Saitz, and let me tell you Brian, he's going to have to whack it, to get the Jacket!"
"Hey, ohh...I'm not touching that one!" Lohnes countered.
For his part, Dan ran an arrow straight 7.57-184.9, his best pass of Drag Week, to secure his class win and fourth place overall.

The elapsed time from when Clark's Camaro lost fire until it lit up again and backed into the water for another attempt was eight minutes...it seemed much longer. The Steve Morris power plant sounded awesome as he blistered by us and we crossed our fingers as he charged past the eighth mile. When it was still clean at the thousand foot mark, I pumped my fist, knowing that would be good enough for the win, but the whole place went nuts when the scoreboard lit up with a 7.991-170.4. Hot Rod Drag Week takes so much, but it gives back in kind.

Once again, Kyle Loftis of 1320 video was on point, and captured it all in real time.

Clark's Drag Week 2016