Boone and I made our way to the bleachers as Tom McGilton brought his Larry Larson prepped Camaro up in the same lane Dale had just traversed in the Gremlin. Tom's bucks up build of a brand new 2013 ZL-1 had wowed everyone when it took the Pro Street PA win in 2015 with a 7.85-186 average. A wall scraper at another Street Car race in 2016 had prevented him from defending that win, but the twin turbo beast was as good as new for another shot in 2017. He rolled the beam just a bit before reaching full boost and only went 8.26, but the 189.8 put everyone on notice.
"That's faster than Blasco or Hunter either one", Boone shook his head.
"I think Les Smith went 182 earlier as well", I added, "so that will be a tough class, and you know Tom will be back for another hit in the final session!"

Joe Barry did a burnout through Tom's black track and backed up for the creamsickle 56's first attempt of DW-17. The big Chevy seemed to leave really smooth, and Lohnes backed up that feeling when he said Joe was 1.19 to the sixty foot clocks.
"A little soft, but come on six ninety-nine", Boone whispered.
The board flashed 7.08-200.7, and I was about to say that I expected more speed than that when blue smoke enveloped the car.
"Aw, crap! Did he blow it up?" I shouted as we joined the rest of the crowd rising to their feet.
"I never saw a chute", Boone reasoned, "I think it's tire smoke!"
The smoke cleared enough that we could just make out the orange and cream 210 coupe rolling around the corner to the return road.
"I was afraid we were going to have another incident like last year", I let out a deep breath.
"Better shut down area here", Boone observed.
We caught up on the last forty-five minutes or so as they went to check on the top end.
"Did you see Perkins' Valiant run?"
"No", Boone shook his head. "That's the blue 69 that's from Canada, with Ross, right?"
"Yeah, big block, Indy heads, Dominator, small tires. He went 9.91-135 on his first hit!"
"Impressive", Boone agreed, "good competition for the Ruster!"
"Yeah, except he's NA!"
"Hey", Boone shrugged, "we're all just a bunch of Mopar street cars, so how you get to the number is irrelevant!"
"How 'bout the 'Ratchero'?"
"Shouldn't it be called the 'Hemichero' now?" Boone questioned, "I mean, it's powered by a blown, injected, all aluminum elephant now, so the old name really doesn't apply!"
I nodded in agreement, "Mr. Scott can call it what ever he wants I suppose, after that 8.86-155 pass!"
"Yeah, I noticed he tamed down the launch a bit that run, after it tried to stand up thirty feet out on his first attempt!"