I was walking towards the Charger, when Dale's little generator starting noticeably dropping rpm. I could clearly see it from my vantage point, and it was beginning to pump blue smoke out of the crankcase ventilation tube before it finally sputtered and died.
Darren, Dale and Boone turned away from their respective work in unison, and looked at me and the generator.
"Did it run out of gas?"
I shook my head, "I think it just burned up...it was smoking right before it shut down!"
"Naw...put gas in it", Dale assured me, "I've had that thing forever and it's never gave me a lick of trouble!"
I did as he instructed, and it fired to life with a full tank of fuel and sounded fine for about three minutes, then it started pushing out smoke again and slowly died.
Boone had a look of terror on his face, "How am I supposed to charge my batteries now if the alternator doesn't keep up?"
"Not with that", I pointed, "That thing is toast!"
Dale walked over to fiddle with it, but I had spilled a little gas on my hands so I decided to walk back down to the bathroom and clean up before we hit the road. I walked by the track equipment garage on the way back and overheard the track workers talking about locking up within the next hour so they could get home and I relayed that info to the guys when I got back to our pits. The brothers seemed unaffected by the news but fifteen minutes later Pops was tossing stuff in Darren's Charger and muttering under his breath, clearly agitated.
"Dad, what are you doing?" Darren asked incredulously, peering out from under the hood.
"Didn't you hear Dave?" He tossed his hands in the air and spat, "we need to get moving, we can mess with the rest of this crap later!" "Do you want to get locked in, do you want to be here after dark if they turn off the lights?"
Boone walked over and whispered at me, "Happy now?"
"What the heck, I didn't expect..."
"You didn't think...period! He's tired, stressed, and you just got him all riled up for nothing!"
"Tired? He took a three hour nap on the cot today!"
"He's old! Dang it Dave, how many times do I have to explain it to you?"

The end result was that Darren placated Dad, and the Charger rolled out of the Cordova Dragway gate a scant thirty minutes later. I shrugged at Boone and Dale, who were still finishing up the Duster.
"Follow them", Dale instructed, "we'll be along shortly, and they are more likely to need your help than we are."

We drove three miles south to Cordova Township and made a left turn into the huge gravel parking lot of the Great River Mart and Shell station. There were probably nine or ten Drag Week vehicles on the property including the Charger, and we eased into a pump next to Mike Karl's blue 68 Nova. Darren fired up the Charger and moved it over to the side of the convenience store while I started pumping 91 into the cell of the Valiant.
Dad walked over to me and asked if I could take him back to the track to get Darren's truck.
"What?" I was startled by the request, wondering if he was just ready to give up, or if there was a real problem.
"Darren says the Charger is done! He doesn't like a sound it's making...so I want to get back and get the truck and trailer before they lock up."
"Okay" I paused, "Give me a second and we'll figure it out."
I walked over with him to the Charger and Darren was already on the phone with Dale, going over a list of problems. "It's rattling like crazy, I've got rubber all over the quarter where one tire is rubbing with all the weight in the car, the battery is junk, it barely started at the pump..."
I walked back over to my pump, convinced that Darren really was ready to call it over for him and the Charger. I happened to notice that the man on the next pump with a U-Haul box truck and car trailer was none other than Mike Grandinetti, who's Pontiac Firebird had lost a motor on the top end earlier in the day.
"Going back to get your car Mike?" I asked.
"Yeah", he shook his head, "This is going to be an expensive trip since I had to rent this to get home."
"You drove the car here?"
"Yeah, it's a street car right?"
"You think you could give my Dad a lift back to the track? I think my brother is done, so he needs to get their truck and trailer as well."
"Sure", he smiled, "I'm going to need help loading mine anyway."
I got Dad and sent him off, then parked my Valiant on the far end of the lot so I wasn't blocking any pumps. I quickly found myself in a conversation with the Aussies from Street Machine magazine who were covering the event, until Dale and Boone finally arrived with the Gremlin and the Duster.