Robert staged his Ram R/T, as Drag Week announcer Brian Lohnes commented on the popularity of the black vehicles and red butt stripes, with the Mopar crowd. A scheme that was shared by his truck, Rodney's Dart GTS, and Rick Callahan's 68 Dodge Superbee which was ably representing the F.A.S.T. series cars at this year's event.

Robert's Hemi Ram went 15.18-87
Rick's Hemi Super Bee went 10.94-126

Boone and Rachael fueled right before they jumped on I-35 South, and with the Dakota leading the way, headed towards OKC. Forty miles into their trip, they saw Larson's S-10 pulled over in a parking lot, with the front clip removed.

Dale and James were making good time in the Gremlin, but the floorboard was feeling hot, and they had a feeling the fresh trans fluid was going to be cooked by the time they made it to the track.

I purchased the new cable for the Belvedere, and also bought five gallons of C-12, dumping about two in the Valiant.

7 million posts on fried shifter cables at moparts over the years and you never bought a simple piece of Aerosleave to keep a shifter cable safe? Billy.....Billy.....Billy.

lol In 2011, Casey Cunningham melted one down in his 63 Fury! Luckily he had a spare.

Here's a few more shots of the trip from Topeka to Thunder Valley. When I got up in the morning and looked in the parking lot and only saw two of the five cars, I knew they had a rough night.

John and I in the pits.

Just passing Winfield KS. I hear they have a great yearly Bluegrass music festival.

John following me and other Drag Weekers passing us.

Waiting in line for my run. The truck has run 14.80's in the cool air in Pheonix, but so far I could only manage low 15's in the heat. That would change though at Great Bend.

He can take it.LOL.And Id venture to say all of the cars will have aerosleeve next year.When Tulsa was announced as the host track I told him how this year would play out on getting all the cars ready.He agreed.We were right. LOL.One day they want to kill one another and the next its singing Kumbaya at a check point.

Cool pics Robert! I knew you were holding out on us, that mirror shot is awesome.

Jay/James,
There was a protective heat sleeve on the cable that a previous owner had installed, and Boone re-installed it. Apparently those things, when exposed to heat regularly, break down. When I took it apart in Noble, I noticed the sleeve was falling apart, and the inside had been burned away leaving only the thin aluminized outer shell.

Don/Sam,
No doubt about it Jim Childs and Rod Mills saved our hides with their timely help, and generosity!

Mine is sleeved with 1/2 ac hose.

http://www.firesleeve.com/intro.html?sessid=e9de77d77baa25506db58bbc4fada1ea

from the department of "been there...done that". They have this stuff in bulk at most A&P shops. I melted a cable in the Mirada back in the mid 90's. A friend of mine who was an airplane mechanic gave me a 3ft section of this stuff. That cable is still in use on my old car. I use it to shield wiring, and even my fuel line. You won't kill a cable using this stuff!

I dumped in another quart of tranny fluid, and at John Sr.'s insistence pulled a plug, they continued to beat me up for running the thing terribly lean, commenting that it sounded like it quit pulling and flattened out at eight hundred feet.
"This thing has no color anywhere, not on the plug, and not in the pipes!" he shook his head.
John looked at the plug and then stared at the hole I pulled it from, "Are you sure this plug is right for this head?"
"Sure, it's a .750 reach, like I run in all Mopar aluminum heads!"
He showed me the threads on the plug, and it looked as though a few were hanging into the chamber, "now look at the head, does that look like your typical Indy plug hole?"
I had to admit, it looked pretty shallow, "Hmm, something I'll have to look into further when I get home."
I could tell they were less than impressed with the amount of effort I was willing to put forth to pick up the pace, but my head just wasn't in the game at that point!

While going through everything I visited with Moparts member moparpollack, and I'm sure I struck him as a little disengaged as well, I would have enjoyed the opportunity to have an extended bench racing session, but I was worried about the rest of our cars making it. Freiburger and Lohnes were working the microphones in the tower and commenting on Larson's progression towards the track, and all the while I knew he was in close proximity to my brothers. Every time I called them to get an update, I implored them, "Just stay ahead of Larry!"

At 12.35pm Addie Ross pulled up for her second or third run of the day, and squeezed a 10.950-123.35 out of her Dad's 63 Falcon Wagon. They ran a solid 10.819-125.31 to cover me by more than a tenth in Tulsa, but were struggling to keep it in the tens since then, wrenching on it, and making several passes both days. Their 10.969-123.16 at Topeka gave them a three day average of 10.912-123.94

I made my run at 12:45pm, it still hesitated at the hit resulting in a 1.61 60ft., but pulled good afterward, and I had no complaint about the 10.932-122.68. My 3 day average was 10.949-122.47, so the battle for 4th place in Modified NA was close! Actually, I think we both wanted the same thing...tens all week!

When I returned to the pits, I noticed Dale and James finally made it with the Gremlin, and were pitted behind John and Robert. Dale was busy unloading their junk, and James was already installing the lexan windows in the doors.

Brian Lohnes was in the tower explaining that they were changing the end of day procedures, because Larry had hung out in the lanes quite a bit past 2:00 pm yesterday just working on the truck, and they felt like he held them hostage, so the new deal was, once the lanes closed at 2:15, and you were the next car in line, you had five minutes to make the call, or you were done. Great time to change it when we still had 3 people on the road!

I looked at my phone, it was nearly 1pm, "James, you texted me at twelve, and said you guys were twenty minutes out?"
"Thing started getting hot, and traffic was crazy over by the college..." he shook his head.
Dale's daughter Kelly, made the trip down from Tulsa, and she questioned me about the whereabouts of everyone else.
"Not sure, at this point, Rachael hasn't answered her phone the last two times I've called!"