Just wondering how many of the rides will make it today! Good luck and have fun!!!

hope you guys get r done.i saw a aussie charger at the track yesterday while racing,it was a twin turboed efi bb and it was nicely done.had australia plates on it!good luck guys.

Billy it was nice to finally put a face with a name! Good luck this week!!!

It's 6am Monday, the brothers are breaking in the cam on Darren's 73 Charger as I type!

They pushed it into the tech line yesterday at 1:57pm.

The Valiant went 11.77-112 yesterday, on a lean-drive it down the road-tune. It was straight and true though, no wobble! My daughter's first 2 passes were with a slow MPH, but a walk down to the finish line to show her where it was cured that problem!

This year's tale is shaping up to be a crazy one, talk to ya'll later...

Good luck,Billy!! Let the adventure begin!!

I heard from one of the brothers today and only Billy and his daughter made the trip so two of the brothers are riding along instead of being participants.

Comp Cams posted this on their Facebook today

Hey Billy,

Great job making the event again this year. Since the Demon has been parked I haven't been on Moparts much - it just hurts too dang much.

Anyway, I got paged that someone was looking for me and found myself back on and instantly looking for a story post from you. The reason I bring this up is because of reading your "why do I write this stuff..." posts in this thread. Compadre, do not despair - we ALL LOVE your stories. You have a gift my friend. One that is able to take written words and turn them into mental images for others to not read, but to relish and make one feel as though they were riding shotgun with you all the way. The stories you write are only surpassed by the stories you tell. So, for the good of us all - do not quit writing them.

Best of luck to you at Drag Week my friend - I want to do that event one day with my dad. Enjoy the thrash and the rest of us will sit on pins and needles until we can read all about it.

~Lil Demon (Billy)

With only 2 cars in the show that were always lined up early in the day and seemed to behave very well, I don't know if Billy can top last year's story. This year appeared to go far too smoothly on the live feed!

Should be some good tales in the week before the week though....

Hes got a story for sure.Had a blast.Billy,I met and talked to your dad Sat for awhile.Cool cat.Sounded like he was having fun.

Thanks for all the kind words guys...Made it home safe Sunday night at 10:30pm. Worked today, now trying to de-brief myself, and figure out how to proceed...on the story and the cars! I love Drag Week, but it's really tough on both the machines and the body!!

Was blown away with the response by all the folks who came up asking, "Are you MoparBilly? Man, I enjoyed your story!"

As aluded to by KSJ and others the tale of the last week thrash may be just as compelling as the trip itsself.

I'll be looking forward to hearing your saga Billy

When I rolled into Tulsa/Owasso late Monday afternoon, I went straight to Boone/Darren's place...I didn't want to deal with trying to find a place to park the rig at Dale's with all the hubub going on.
Darren was working on the Charger...kinda...he had the interior gutted and was still laying down Dynamat across the massive floor pans. The engine was still loose on the motor mounts, the headers were banging against the steering, and the fuel tank had just recieved another coat of paint, and was awaiting install. The engine was, well, looking pretty much like it did in the pic from several weeks earlier.
"Dale screwed up our last Summit order...so we had to get it next day air" Darren lamented. "My new exhaust and most of the fittings to finish the fuel system are on that order. Crazy to wait this late, but I just didn't have the money earlier".
"Sounds par for the course", I agreed, not looking to start something after a 28 hour ordeal just to get there.
"Valiant ready to go?"
"Not even", I admitted, "Haven't fired it yet, still have wiring issues...tomorrow. Just need a shower, and a good nights sleep at this point."

Jamie met me at the door, "Have you ate? Let me throw something together for ya". Jamie is Darren's GF, a southwest Texas girl with a heart of gold who makes Sweet Tea by the bucketfull, and is always wanting to feed you. I was glad they were back with each other, Darren is a decidedly better human being when she is around.

A shower, meal, and a few glasses of strong tea, and I was nearly normal when I heard Boone's ole 1/2 ton Dodge sputtering up the driveway.
"Why didn't you come over to Dale's?" He fixed a plate almost immediately, covered in primer and paint dust, looking beat up.
"Didn't want to fight for a parking spot. Why are you back so early, figured you were in 12-16 hour mode at this point".
"Can't see so well after dark over there, and by nightfall you are so tired productivity goes down...so I bale out and hit it again at first light".
"Got all the peices painted?"
"The bed fenders, and one door are still at a body guys house that Darren knows...don't even know if he's touched them yet!"

Boone was off work until DragWeek was over. Dale had to work Tues-Wed, and Darren had to put in Tues-Fri.

The next morning we headed over to Dale's place, with reinforcements in the form of Dad.

I pulled into Dale's Tuesday morning, and proceeded to park my rig at the back of his place up against a big shade tree.
I lowered the tail gait down against a board placed on top of the trailer toungue jack, and began to unload all the parts and tools I had brought with me. I decided not to disconnect from the trailer, or unload the car, since I had plenty to do underneath still, and the open center trailer makes as good a work platform as anything else.
I walked over and looked at the Truck, judging by where it was when I left in July to where it was at that point..."No way in heck this thing moves before DW" I swore to myself. A quick perusal of the Gremlin led me to the same conclusion. At that point I decided I had to concentrate on my cars, to the point of selfishness, not something I was comfortable with, but last years performance was still stuck in my craw, and I wasn't going through that again.

Pops started working on the hood, prepping both sides for paint, while I took stock of the Belvedere. It has a clunky B&M rachet shifter with a reverse manual valve body, the roll control button they had used for the nitrous last year was laying against the boot as the rubber peice that had held it to the shifter's stick had dry-rotted and broke. I grabbed the passenger's side door to open it from the outside, but it wouldn't budge.
"Boone, I thought you fixed this door before?"
"Did. Kelly has attempted to use that door twice, and she's broke it 2 times!" He shook his head, "Shoved the button so far in she bends the tab, waiting for it to click open..kids don't understand the concept of pull on the handle!"
"Well, I'm gonna order a B&M handle with a built in thumb button, that's the only way Rachael will be able to shift this thing and hit the nitrous!"
"I need a few more things, lets throw an order on now", Boone prodded.

The shifter handle, another set of plugs for the Belvedere. Boone needed a window net and mount kit, a #10 weld on bung, valve cover breathers. Then Boone brought up the infamous head gasket swap of last Dragweek, commenting it only had 8519s and the other one was probably due. I gave him a sheepish look, thinking he had just jinxed us, and ordered a 1009 to match the one he had installed.

I had originally bought the Barnyard in 1988 in Phoenix, and converted it to a 440 shortly afterwards, but I had never titled it. When Dad got it from me, in '89, I gave him the open AZ title, but he was only interested in the truck as a bracket racer.
Fast forward to this year, and Boone has been jumping through all kinds of hoops to get an Oklahoma title, tags and registration. He had finally recieved the paperwork he needed just a week earlier, only to find it was listed as a 65 Ford, not Dodge!! A call to his independant tag agent who had been helping him through the whole process wasn't reassuring. She searched the paperwork and told him she found where she made the mistake, and they would simply have to go through the 3 month process again..
"I told her that wasn't an option, I was going to be driving the thing in a week, and she told me to just go get the tags and registration on it as a Ford, and she would do a Title correction later!"
"What are you going to do?" I asked as he relayed the story to me.
"Drive down to the tag office, and get tags and registration on my Ford I guess, then I have to go get two more sticks of tubing for the down bars into the bed, run by the parts store for a few things, grab some more paint...you wanna come with?"
"Nah, I better get this Valiant ready to fire, so I can test this block and see if all the water stays where it's supposed to once it builds pressure!"

Time to lean back and grab some and enjoy the story!

Can't wait for more.