I had expected to have the opportunity to watch Dale make his pass in the Gremlin before I had to run, therefore knowing what to shoot for, but they were feeding impound pit cars into his lane so our lane moved ahead of him. I found myself paired with Jay Williams, who lives just ten miles from my Dad in Oklahoma, and has Billy's Step Dad as his co-pilot. The last time Jay and I raced a couple of years ago, he was in his supercharged Nickey Chevrolet Camaro, and I worried about a close race. This year he was in his big, beautiful, blue 64 Pontiac Catalina, and unless the Valiant and I completely fell on our face, the race wouldn't be in doubt. As we pulled up from our burnouts he gave me a wave and I found myself wondering if he takes crap from Pontiac purists for his six pack scoop the same way Mopar guys gripe about cowl hoods!

The image of the wheel stand from Byron was still fresh in my head, so I left pretty conservative. I basically stabbed it off idle and the front tires never even came off the ground, to compound matters, I was well past the 60 foot clocks before I grabbed the nitrous. The Valiant pulled well from there though, and I hit the shift points perfectly. I started feeling a little trepidation at the finish line however, as it took some finesse on the pedal to haul the Valiant down and make the hairpin turn the last time we visited Great Lakes two years earlier, and that had been from 127 NA! 139 was no problem however, as the rear disc conversion once again proved it's worth. I thanked the ticket shack attendant and stole a look at the slip as I idled down the narrow return road. 9.72-139.25, best mph for the Valiant; ever, period! 1.486 sixty foot, slowest ever on a nitrous pass. The back half was only a hundredth slower than the 9.43 at Gateway, but I had given away basically a quarter of a second in the first 330'!

Pic 2. Found this about a month ago while trying to find more pics of Drag Week 2018. Like panning for gold to find a money shot of the Byron wheelie a year and a half later!