Thanks BBR! Nice shots!

"They want us to catch up", Boone informed us.
"That's not gonna happen, you've seen how long that takes"!
"Says he's only a few miles ahead, and they are driving slow".
Boone sucked in behind me as we cleared the town and went back onto two-lane road. Five or so miles later we came up behind a line of cars, a couple of which were dragweekers, following a dump truck, we topped a hill, got a good look, and I hammered the Valiant up to 4200 and shot around the group, as I cleared the dump truck, I saw Dale following the Hot Rod guys, he left me room, and I slid in, followed closely by Boone. We ran along at the speed limit for about
30 minutes as the sun began to fade, at Kingfisher we saw a group of car guys with signs, and a big Dodge 4 wheel drive on a grassy nole. The Hot Rod mini-van pulled off the road, "Kieth Turk was back there" Darren commented. We continued on through town, and it was dark soon after.

Twenty miles up the road, I saw Clarke off on the right, up a driveway, with the hood up on his Blue Camaro, and James' Red Vega pulled up behind him, they didn't look like they were having fun, and there was no thumbs up. I saw a wide spot in the road about half-mile further down and pulled over.
"What are you doing"? Darren asked
"We have to go back and see if we have anything that could help them".
"Dang-it! This the first leg we were actually making good time..."
Dale and Boone walked up to the window. "I'll go back and see what's goin' on", Dale volunteered "I'll call you guys and let you know if we need to stay and help them".
He flipped the Satellite around, and went back. We opened both passenger side doors, waited for traffic to clear, and answered nature's call. Darren answered his phone, it was Dale.
"He says we should come back, they need help", Darren relayed.
"Ok, let's go", I said. Boone shut his door, and Darren spun half around from the oncoming traffic, alarmed. "DANG IT, BOONE!! I wasn't done, now I got it on my shoe!"
"What do you mean you aren't done, we were done before you answered the phone"! I laughed.
Now he was really getting mad, "It takes a while"!
"No, no it doesn't, you've got issues, you need to go see a Doctor"! I was pushing all the right buttons.

I had to walk quite aways so no one would use that situation as a photo opportunity. Shake it more than twice..............LOL

lovin this thread.was good meetin yall on dragweek.especially when you guys came up with an electric water pump for me in tulsa.cant wait to do it again in 2012.probly wont be the fastest mopar like i was this year.but it will still be a blast.

We pulled up in the driveway, and off in the grass, It appeared to be a long drive, with about 5 different houses sharing it, all built off to the right of that road. The first house was a good distance down, so we didn't feel as though we were parking in someone's yard.
Clarke had the passenger's side valve cover off, and it appeared as though he was checking the valvetrain, his sidekick, and James were each hold ing small flashlights.
Dale walked over, "thinks he nicked some lifters".
"Well, we can definitely supply some light" I added.
We pulled the generator out of Dale's car, a drop cord out of Boone's, and an aluminum bell, big bulb, clip light out of my car, and had it looking like a photo shoot in short order. Darren had a snap-on case out quickly, one of 2 or 3 he had brought...he's a bit of a tool junky, so I had no idea. Out came a borescope with removable screen, and the next thing I know, they have it shoved down in between the rockers and I hear Dale say, "See Clarke, it's the back 2, they look lower".
"Would be the back", Clarke lamented, "Better get it apart and see what we're dealing with".
I'd never really paid attention to what a dominator carbed big block engine looked like in a 95 Camaro, but I now know, it's not a fun deal!! The back of the carb nearly rests against the windshield, the rest of the engine from that point back is under the cowl. It was so tight the carb had to be removed separately, to get the intake off.
Clarke realized that neither he or James had torx bits, and we didn't either. Dale looked at his watch, "It's 8:30, O'reillys closes at 9:00, and we are only about 10 miles from Guthrie".
Clarke made a list, and Boone took off in the Belvedere. They drained the coolant, and had the intake off, when it became evident that a lifter swap wasn't gonna get it.
I heard someone say, "It ate the cam, one of the rollers is completely gone"! 20 years ago, I would've shook my head and made some degrading comment about his choice of engines, but I like to think I'm a kinder, more progressive Mopar Man now, or maybe it was his close proximity to long, heavy tools that tempered my judgement.
"Was leading my class..third year in a row I haven't finished, cam and lifters, then bottom end, now cam and lifters", Clarke was really bummed, "3 different engine builders".
We had seen quite a few different groups of competitors drive by, but no-one else stopped. An elderly man drove up in a 3/4 ton Pick-up, and asked if we needed help.
"You live down this drive?" I heard Clarke ask.
"Yes, yes I do".
"You think you could store my car in your drive for a few days 'til I get back here with my truck and trailer"?
"Not a problem, young man, let's go down to the house and get a tow rope".
Clarke jumped in the truck, as the rest of us stood there, kinda stunned. I guess that's how a Drag Week Veteran does it!!
Boone showed up, as Clarke and his buddy unloaded thier personal belongings, and stuffed the removed parts and tools back in the Camaro. James started loading up his stuff in the Vega, and we did likewise. Once they dropped off the car, I realized 3 of them wouldn't fit in the Vega.
"Clarke, you guys want to ride with us, we have plenty of room", I offered.
His buddy was ready to go, but riding to Tulsa in a Mopar was just too much for a proud Chevy man. "Naw, We have someone coming back for us, he's just a little bit up the road".
"Ok, no problem".
"Thanks for the help though, thanks for stopping, appreciate it"!
I felt a little less guilty for driving by the green Nova earlier.

We drove through Guthrie, without seeing any other competitors, and headed off towards checkpoint #3. We were just coming into Perkins, the town where the checkpoint was, and had past through the first 2 reduced speed signs, when a local police officer pulled off a side street in behind us. We tightened up the ranks, nose to tail, and continued on. I was busy watching my speed, and arguing with Darren about the directions, and I missed Boone and Dale diving into the first gas station we came to.
"You gonna go back", Darren asked.
"No, the checkpoint has to be just ahead".
"Naw, it's like 10 more miles", he didn't sound very convincing.
We drove another 2 miles, and saw it on the left. The Drive-in was closed, but there must've been 15 cars in the lot, at least 8 of them DragWeekers. We pulled in, took our pics, and started talking to everyone. It was my first chance to get a good look at the Blown red 240Z, with it's Datsun P/u bed trailer...very cool! After about 5 minutes I decided to leave Darren there, and go back a 1/2 mile to get fuel. I fueled up and came back, and still no Boone and Dale. The HotRod crew pulled in and Wes Allison walked up, "Can you go back to that station and let me get a few shots"?
"The one I just left"?
"Yeah, you were too fast for us"
"I was waiting for my brothers".
"We got them at the other station up the road, why didn't you stop there"?
"Yeah...I missed it, let's go".
We drove back up and he got a few shots. In my mind, I was thinking, he's tried twice today to get all 3 cars in a tight shot either on the road, or at a stop, and we've managed to screw it up by not being together both times!
Boone and Dale arrived at the checkpoint a few seconds after I did.
"Hey, the HotRod guys took pics of us at the station, and wanted to know where you were..."
"I know, I KNOW"!

By the time we rolled through Tulsa, past the host motels, past the track, and to Dale's house, I was feeling the effects of a long drive, and a long day. I walked into his spare bedroom, and was out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

Places the Gebhardt boys need to visit:

Silver State Classic Challenge

Bonneville Salt Flats (thinking LOTS on nos here...)

...anything else?

Hello! Update Sir! I know what happens but still want to hear your version. LOL

This was Sunday, tech day at Topeka, in the afternoon, we were plum wore out. Just had Boone send me his disks from his camera, so I'll have more pictures
Ksj, I'm gonna start on the "Tulsa experience" as you dubbed it tomorrow...don't want to short change the telling of THAT story.

That's some great story telling, keep up the good work. Hint: for your novel length posts, type it in Word, save it freqently, then when it's done, copy and paste it into Moparts. Then if Moparts crashes your post, you dont loose it. (been there)

I saw you guys at Topeka and said hello, but didn't know who you were. And you didn't know who I was, you probably thought that I was just another brand-X flunkie. Don't want to hi-jack, so I'll keep it brief: I was there with Jay Brown and his Cammer powered 69 Shelby. The car was just finished after a 10 month thrash starting from scratch. It had never been on the track, and only 15 miles of street drivng before we left for Drag Week with hi hopes of running 8's. But alas, we broke down and DNF'ed between Topeka and Great Bend. Jay has the whole story at fepower.net if anyone is interested.

That Cammer has a sound all its own.

Billy,

Your a great story teller. I've enjoyed reading it and look forward to whatever else you add to this.

Livin' on Tulsa Time
For you younguns, youtube Don Williams.

I woke to the sounds of Dale's wife heading off to work, and his step son trying to figure out how to escape school for the day. He's a highschool Senior, typical gutted out honda, single seat, fart pipe, street rat type, except he lives in OK, with a Gebhart. So it's a rusty old 78 Aspen with a quickie black paint job, motorhome 440 with stealths, comp hydraulic, torker II, 750, A-body fenderwell exits, header mufflers, and then the gutted interior, and single seat!
"Cody", Dale said, "just go to school, check in, see how many days you've missed, go to first hour, then bail..and DON'T tell your mother I suggested it".
There was no continental breakfast, there was no Boone and Darren. I showered, dressed, and walked out into weather much cooler than we had the previous days, and ominous clouds overhead. Dale was on the phone with Boone, as we jumped into our respective cars, and headed to the track. We went to O'reilly's. "Why are we here", I asked as we parked, "I thought Boone was picking up the parts"?
"Yeah, I was hoping to catch him here...I still have to get some 91 to race on". That darn Boone, left me on the hook again! We went to the station to buy his gas.
We rolled into Tulsa Raceway Park, and it appeared most has already arrived, we found that Boone had saved us a spot. We pulled in and started adding our pile to his.
Jetting the carb up at Amarillo had helped the ET., but I'd went too far for the drive, the Valiant now had black soot on the quarter above the exhaust exit. I decided since we were waiting on track prep, I'd change the plugs. Boone and Dale both started in on the tire shuffle. I noticed Dale still had my bottle in his trunk, "I better go check on your bottles at Monte's trailer, I commented. When I made it over there, the 2 bottles were sitting outside, chilled, but still empty, and Monte had like 4 customers standing in line waiting with thier bottles. My assessment was that this was a job for Dale. "The bottles are sitting outside, and there's a line", I told Dale when I got back, "You better go make some noise". He stepped off immediately in that direction like a man with a purpose, I felt sorry for anyone who got between him and a free re-fill of nitrous oxide!!

Mom and Dad showed up, with Dale's 6 month old granddaughter in tow, and Darren had his new girl friend show up, which none of us had ever met, then Cody came in from skipping school, and slowly DragWeek seemed to take on a little different dynamic than the previous 4 days. It seemed more difficult to focus on the cars, and our routine. Fortunately, it was spitting rain, and it became apparent we would have a little time before anyone made any passes.

The NGK's were out and the Bosch platinums were going in when Dale returned. "No problems, they will let us know when they are ready", he said.
After the plug change, I walked over to the pumps and grabbed a few gallons of race gas. Dan Brant's 63 330 was fueling up, and it was my first opportunity to really look it over, absolutely stunning, but I've always thought that Mopars done in black with a red interior are the best!

While walking back to the Valiant, I did notice a rather large gathering at the front of the white 63 Fury which had been the fastest Mopar to this point, I thought it looked odd, that many guys peering under the hood, but I had work to do.
"Where's Darren", I asked when I reached the pit.
"He left with his New GF, Carla, something about getting something to eat".
"I think her name is Yoko", Boone added, "You know he invited her to tag along to Topeka".
"Before or after his car didn't get done"! I knew the answer, and I knew they didn't want to talk about it any more.
Somebody who had been helping Monte came over and told Dale he could pick up the bottles now, when he returned, we started on the Valiant. A guy walked up in a fire jacket, looked in and said, "Do you guys know who the local mopar connection is around here".
I looked at Dale, "Uh, yeah, we are...I mean he is".
"What're you looking for"? Dale added.
"Lost my electric water pump", Casey didn't sound particularly hopefull. "Fine on the drive last night, then overheated on the way over here".
"What kind is it"?
"What brand"?
"No, I mean is it the whole unit, or does it bolt in the stock housing", my mind was going over possibilities, Dad has one on his race car engine that bolts to the block, Dale has one but it uses a reverse flow plate....
"Yeah, it's the one that bolts in the stock housing".
"Darren's got one, I'm sure of it", Dale chipped in.
"You think you have one"? Casey's demeanor began to change. Needle-in-a-haystack? Yep, we can do that.
I called Darren, and asked if he could grab it while he was out. "Who's it for"? he asked.
"The guy in the White 63".
"He's beating you guys, who volunteered it"?
"Dale and I did, can you get it and bring it"?
"Yeah, I'll be back out there in 20 or 30 minutes, have they started running anything yet"?
"No you haven't missed anything, just hurry back".
I looked at Casey, "He'll have it out here in about 20 minutes".
"Ok, man, thanks"! A big smile, a handshake.

"I blip the nitrous and the rpm barely jumps" Dale was complaining about his Satellite.
"Well, it is about 30 degrees cooler out here, maybe the bottle pressure is lower".
They had just called everyone to the lanes, "We've got 10 lanes guys, fill them all up! I was the first to move in our group, and as I came around the corner, I jumped in the middle of the pack, about row 6. Dale and Boone came around next, and went all the way to row 10, against the fence, which was empty at the time, perks of knowing your home track, I guess. I walked up in the lanes, to check out how things were working, and saw a total disaster. At the line where the 10 lanes stop, the asphalt begins to neck down into the 2 lanes leading through a gate, into the water box. Tulsa Raceway Park had no personnel in that area, so it was just a free-for-all to see who got to pull up next out of the lanes. Combine that with the fact we were starting an hour or more late, and everyone was worried about the weather holding up, and it made for some anxious moments.
"I'm embarrassed to call this my home track", Dale was incensed, "They've got a skeleton crew out here, they are taking forever to prep the track...they are the slowest track in the world when it comes to getting cars down the track, and the anouncer is up there blithering on about how great the traction is, and how everyone is gonna break parts 'cause the track is awesome".
"Just relax, we're going to get our runs".
Things started moving, and Dale quickly jumped up into the line, Boone jumped in about 6 sets later. I walked up to watch them, as I was 5 cars back in my lane, and the fast guys were all muscling thier way in, so I figured it would be a while.
Dale torqued off the line, grabbed the horn/N20 button, the car fell on it's face, with black smoke rolling. He let off the nitrous, the car recovered then motored down to a 14.15-98. "Now he REALLY won't be happy", I thought to myself. 2 sets later the Yellow 'Vette of Doc Fox did it's now famous you-tube spin off the line, nearly hitting the wall. What you don't see in the video is that he was spewing his own anti-freeze on the track which led to the problem, and then he drug it all down the track.
"We are down for an extended clean-up, this is going to be a long day"! I told Boone.
He was about 5 sets back from the burn-out box, and had the pump on his bad slick again. "This thing is only good for about 10 minutes", Boone looked disgusted, "So I need to know when I'm gonna go, and they keep bringing the fast cars in front of me".
Dale came back up, already in the back of the lanes, "what happened"?
"Doc Fox lost antifreeze all over the left lane".
"Why aren't they running just the right lane"?
"Ask them, I don't know".
He stormed off towards the Christmas tree.

Dale was back, "They said HOTROD wants pairs going down the track, for the live feed, and the videographers".
"As opposed to watching a clean-up"?
"Hey, that's what I was told".
I walked back to my car, and decided to sit in it for a while and relax. Casey walked up to the window, "Did your brother get that pump"?
"Let me call him", I pulled my phone out of my pocket.
"Darren, where are you"?
I told Casey, "He's about 2 miles out, and he has the pump, where do you want to meet him"?
"I'm pitted just past the brick building, in the middle row".
Ok, I'll send him"! Darren was squaking in my ear, "No you haven't missed much, they are cleaning the track."

Monte came up to my window next, and introduced himself. We talked about my car, the problems I was having, and he complimented the car several times...I felt like a schmuck for not introducing myself earlier. Then Dale walked up with a fitting in his hand, "This is my nitrous filter, plugged completely". He came back a little later, "cleaned it out, put it back in with those 102/91 jets, bumped the horn button at 1500, and it darn near jumped to 7K! Think I better go back to 73/73".
We were standing at the head of the lanes a little later and Dale said, "This isn't going to work, someone has to straighten out this mess."
"Geez Dale, you know this track, quit griping and do something to help, get some volunteers or something". I seen him a few minutes later at the back of the tower, talking with Tonya Turk, both gesturing and pointing at different spots in the lanes. Dale roped Darren and Cody into working the early part, there were 2 other guys helping as well. As racing resumed, the forwardmost volunteer was bringing the fast cars all the way up to the water, in front of those that had been waiting for all that time. Boone lost it, jumped in his face and started yelling at him.
"I was told the big cars had priority", the volunteer stammered.
"I don't know who told you that,(technically Boone, that's what Dave said in the Driver's meeting) but we are all street cars, and I paid the same entry they did(technically Boone, I paid your entry, but at this point, roll with it)"! "Once we are paired at that gate, you run them out"!

Boone removed the tire pump, which had been working hard the whole time, slammed the hood, and pulled up beside the little turbo v-6 powered convertable ChevyII. The Belvedere launched hard, pulled, black smoke rolling and seemed to be really moving. He was running right with the Chevy until it seemed to lay over around a thousand feet, then the numbers popped up 11.45-116.96 to Boone's 12.10-94.97! We instantly thought "WTH, did he lift or what?

Boone Vs. Chevy II at 7:56

I went back to my car, and began to move through the lanes, Darren and Cody looked like a couple of deer in headlights, apparently Dale hadn't impressed upon them how assertive and demonstrative you have to be when you are trying to direct a bunch of adrenaline crazed horsepower junkies itching for thier next fix!! They shut us off as I was at the front of the lanes, I jumped out and looked down the track to see the pretty blue 4 door Willy's gasser up against the wall, that was a major bummer.

To say the staging lanes were messed up,they were.The three lanes to my left there were at least 6 guys who got 2 passes before I got my first. I was just glad to be there. LOL. Killing me here Billy.

Finally, I had the opportunity to make a pass, seemed like we had been there all day. It sounded nice in the burnout, purged the nitrous into the engine, and staged on the first bulb, and waited, and waited. The Blown 240Z was beside me, and they had been playing with the electronic fuel injection on the laptop. Whatever they did was screwed up, it was loping like crazy, and belching black smoke, and he wouldn't, or couldn't get in the beams. I motioned at the starter several times to bring him up to the beam. Finally he set both of his bulbs and I rolled in.
The tires were at 20 lbs, and I went WOT at the hit from 3000 on the footbrake. The Valiant moved out nicely, and I hit 2nd at 6000, as soon as I hit the N20, it started wobbling, short shifted to drive and let off the bottle, then it was bouncing bad enough to be bottoming out the shocks again, so I white knuckled it another 100ft then leveled out to the finish. 11.68-112.65 picked up almost 8 tenths, but only 2 mph due to the top-end problems.
Darren told me later that he and Dad were in the stands (he gave up on his lane director job!) and when I was at 1000 ft. Dad was yelling, "LIFT DAVE, LIFT"! Darren had to remind him I probably couldn't hear him, and other people were staring!