I stayed and watched cars for a good while after Boone and Dale left with the Gremlin and the Duster, but finally decided I should head up before they called Street Machine Eliminator.
I drove the Valiant up to the lanes, and into a traffic jam right where the bottle neck of the narrow return road opened up into the six lanes of the pre-staging area we had used while in tech the day before. They already had two lanes blocked off and empty for the SME cars, but with ten or so of us blocking the road, even if SME was called they couldn't get up there. My fear was that just like Monday of last year,I was once again going to get turned around and sent back to the pits so they could stage the next class. Luckily spots cleared up and we were all able to squeeze up just as the call went out for the Street Machine cars to the lanes. I walked up in the staging lanes to find Boone standing alongside the Ruster with a big orange cone in front of the car.
"What's that for?" I asked him, as I motioned towards the cone.
"That is where they are cutting off the first session", he laughed, "Dale was four cars ahead of me and he's going to get to run, but I'll have to wait until after the SME guys."
Without a word between us, both of us walked toward the starting line to find a place to watch Dale's first run.
"Did you see the blue Ranger from DW 2006?"
"I thought that was the same truck", Boone nodded, "much quicker this year!"
"Yeah, 8.55-160 was impressive, but I can't recall what he ran that year".
"I think 9.6 something at 138", Boone shrugged, "all I really remember was the look on his face after he spun it out in the rain and backed into that ditch on the way to Indy!"
"Yeah, his net tailgate broke when he hit the ditch and unloaded all of his stuff in the woods on the other side! He was white as a ghost". I laughed, "that was the first time we met Kyle Loftis from 1320 Video, just him and his camera!"
"Which has grown more since then", Boone shook his head, "1320 Video, or Hot Rod Drag Week?"
"That's a toss up", I shrugged, "but I think few could have predicted this much success for either one!"

Dale did a conservative burnout, and staged in the right lane. The front end rose quickly at the hit until the tires appeared to be tickling the pavement, and then it broke the MT ET Streets loose and he had to pedal it once. The naturally aspirated 580 sounded done by a 1000 foot and the board lit up with a 9.761-142.
"He just can't buy a good pass on Day one it seems", I shrugged at Boone.
"Nope, 9.59 is his best ever run on a Monday, even when he had an 8 second nitrous combo!"