Haha, that was me with the rockers and junk. I remember seeing Dale trashing on the Gremlin, and thinking how I was glad that wasn't me. In any case, I was happy to help and hang out with you guys, and listen to the awesome stories from your dad.

Tony

Good job Tony. Way to come to the aid of a fellow Mopar racer in need. You sir are a true MOPAR HERO!
Jerry

I agree... it takes guys like you to keep the
Drag Week guys on the road when in a time
of need

Tony,
Sorry, I couldn't remember the name...just so much stuff going on at once! Once a year my faith is always restored in the great people involved in the hobby in general, and Mopars in particular! While Dale didn't use that much of the stuff at Union Grove...it was a life saver once we got back to St. Louis...but that's another part of the story!

Thanks for the comments guys, but I wasn't that much of a hero. I took the day off to see the DW group (as did most of northeastern Il) and was hanging around for the Wednesday night ladies race that my sister in law is always in (GLD has something going on 5 days a week pretty much). So it a way to kill time till the pm racing started, and get rid of the old indy rockers that i swore never to use, but had to keep from rusting up in garage.

Trying to pay forward some good race track karma!

As luck would have it, my dad pulled out a rocker arm bolt and bent a shaft about a week later!

I love reading the stories, carry on Billy!

Tony

Congrats Tony, nothing better than helping out other racers, especially on a race like drag week, you showing up with those parts tells me your a pretty special guy.

As Tony mentioned, the Great Lakes announcer soon let everyone know that Wednesday night was ladies night, and women could race for free.
"You know Darren, you've been wanting to see what the Ram R/T will run, maybe you should toss Rachael in it and find out", I was half joking, almost thinking out loud more or less, but he seemed receptive to the suggestion, and so did Rachael.
The next thing I knew, she was helping him clean all his stuff out of the truck, and preparing it for tech inspection.

"The Belvedere sounded like one of the pipes were loose on the drive back", Boone mentioned, motioning towards the Plymouth.
We hadn't been opening up the exhaust this year, so I hadn't even looked under the car to this point, "OK, I'll check it out".
He followed along with me as I retrieved my floor jack and headed towards the 67 as it sat on the paved pit road. "I saw the odd couple at that machine shop in Kenosha".
"Mike in the Firebird, and Daryl in the Chevelle? What were they doing?"
"Getting a new driveshaft built for the Chevelle", Boone explained, "the other one was bent."
"I knew he tossed it out, and had to borrow some u-joints to make his last pass, but I figured all was good when he went 10.60."
"He said it shook all the fillings out of his teeth just to get to the finish line on that run. Those two have had a heck of an adventure so far!"
I jacked up the passenger's side of the Belvedere, and noticed that only one bolt was still in the three bolt header flange. Further inspection revealed the real culprit was a missing bolt in the aft tailpipe hangar, which had allowed all the vibration to transfer forward to the flange. Aaron peeled away from helping on the Gremlin to help me replace the flange gasket, bolts, and get the rear of the pipe re-secured.
"Appreciate the help", I told him, "sorry we're stuck here babysitting Dale's Gremlin, instead of rolling towards Cordova!"
"Are you kidding?" He laughed, "where else are you going to get the experience of rebuilding a broken eight second car, so you can drive it a hundred and fifty miles in the same night? This stuff is crazy, and fun, at the same time!"
Aaron is twenty-seven, and recovers quickly, for the older guys, this was not so much fun, I walked by Robert's Black R/T a few minutes later, and he was sitting upright in the driver's seat, head back, mouth open, completely out! The long days and short sleep were taking a toll.
The satellite truck which had provided the live feed was growling it's way towards the gate, and I took a quick look around the pits...seemed like our group, and the Aussies were the only Drag Weekers left at the track by then.

Some shots leaving St.Louis.

Rachael's first pass in Darren's Ram R/T didn't go quite as well as planned, as she spun pretty hard out of the hole, and did a terrible job shifting. It was somewhere in the low 15's, and after consulting with Robert about his experiences racing his truck, they decided to leave it in drive for the next attempt. The second pass was 14.54 @ 95, which was faster than Robert's black R/T ran on Drag Week last year, so that seemed to make Darren happy. I was sure Rachael would run the silver 1500 until it was out of gas, but after the 2nd run, she parked it back in our pit spot, and started helping Darren re-load his stuff.
"That's it? Just two runs?" I shrugged my shoulders at her, "I figured you'd make more than that!"
"Naw", she wrinkled her nose, "It's not nearly as much fun as the Belvedere!"
Robert laughed as she walked away, "You've created a monster!"
"Wow, I guess, that 440 on nitrous has her spoiled", I agreed.

Meanwhile, it continued to be all hands on deck, as Dale re-assembled the Gremlin. One of the Trapnells walked over from the Aussie camp to commiserate. Apparently they had found someone local who could re-grind their damaged BBC 50MM camshaft, since they were unable to find a replacement.
"How the heck do you find someone who has the ability to do that!" I asked him.
"Only in America, right!" He laughed, "but we will be at Cordova before 2pm tomorrow, I guarantee it!"

I could be wrong but I think these are day four leaving Cordova.
Bill

I was trying to figure it out Bill, and I'm not exactly sure...maybe pulling into the track at Cordova...because when we left, it was raining...

They sure are nice pictures though, I get plenty of pics of my car at the track, but I really like the ones that show it on the open road!

As the sun began to disappear, and it looked like they were about to wrap up the repair on the Gremlin, Boone and I took some time to walk around the facility. We hit up the t-shirt shack for a couple of souvenirs, and found it interesting that about half of the Great Lakes Dragaway shirts were emblazoned with NHRA logos, and the others there were with IHRA logos! I'm not sure which sanctioning body was current, or how long ago the switch was, but it made for a large variety of shirts to choose from. We checked out the onsite bar as well...didn't expect to see that. As we were heading back towards the pits, we stopped to look at some of the Mopars that had shown up for the test and tune, including a beautiful Pro Street style Road Runner, and a nice small block Dart. There were a couple of Chicago street/grudge type racers with ratty G-body Malibus on hand as well, with N/T scrawled on the windows and a huge entourage for each of them, they had been loud and boisterous for about an hour, setting all the bets, and particulars before hand, and we watched as they headed into the lanes, then turned our attention to the Aussies all huddled around the Holden. Once we got within ten feet of them, the smell of alcohol nearly knocked us over! Only two of the guys were actively working on the car, the other eight guys and gals, were all far too busy with the red solo cups they were supporting.

We talked about ten minutes with the Trapnell's as they attempted to re-assemble the stack injected and fogger equipped BBC, when we noticed that the grudge racers had returned from their race. We only thought their entourage was loud before! Now the stories were flying, and excuses were being made, money was being exchanged, and it got really loud!
"Maybe we should walk over there and see what all the fuss is with those blokes, mate!" One of the Aussies, who was clearly in no shape to walk the 200ft between the cars suggested.
"I think not!" Another one spoke up, "you need to just sit there with your drink, and watch from afar, before you get us into more trouble than we need tonight!"
Boone and I decided that was a good time to beat a hasty retreat back towards our encampment!

Happy B-day Boone.You magnificent sob.You share your B-Day with me.Not many can say that. LOL

We made it back to our pits, as the sun began it's quick descent. Rachael and Opal had ran the grills for the second time, so Boone and I grabbed a couple of Hot dogs and walked over to see where they were with the Gremlin.
"Looks like they are going backwards!" Boone commented.
"We are!" James rolled his eyes as he walked over to plug a grinder into the generator that was supplying light, "John here, has decided to blueprint the rocker spacing! Right here, right now!"
"Yeah, I have", John growled, "they weren't even close to being centered over the valves, and Indy rockers are not forgiving when they are abused!"
Dale continued to do what he was doing, and left John to his own on the rocker situation, which spoke volumes to me, so I figured he felt it was worth the time. I looked at my phone, 8:05pm, and they had another hour of work easy..it was going to be another long night!

All of the shots Jeff had on his Facebook page were from St.louis. This wasn't too far from the track, the first day.

Ok, Jeff.
I'll put on my Sherlock Holmes hat, and don the pipe: Definitely not first day, because Aaron is driving my car, and Skippy is driving Rachael's, that only happened on Thursday's drive from Cordova to St. Louis.
Now that we've established, that, Where?
As I commented earlier, it was raining, and I was driving when we left Cordova, it was also still very cloudy when we hit the checkpoint 30 miles in. I gave Aaron the wheel somewhere on US-67, after we passed through Monmouth. It was dusk when we pulled out of Jackson, so it couldn't have been after that. So, we were traveling south on US-67, and the sun is fairly low on the right side of the cars, so late afternoon, I'm going to say between Macomb and Jackson...

Jeff Oviatt lives in Clear Lake Iowa, so he may have just left his place, followed the route and scouted out a good place to set up...not exactly sure.

Ok, Jeff, now you ask him on Facebook and see how close I am...

My mistake. His pictures were taken at Cordova. The Drag Week fog still fills my head yet.

When I'm trying to write the story, there are numerous times when I'll be talking to Dale and Boone, trying to iron out details that are stuck in my head, but none of us can agree upon which day they happened or who was around at the time! Lots of stuff packed into one week!!

Once the engine, was buttoned up, and fired off, we still had to pack away the tools, and strap down all the stuff we had borrowed from John's trailer, so it was closing in on 10:00 by the time we were ready to head out.

As our 6 vehicle caravan made our way past the waving Aussies, still surrounding their wounded purple beast, we turned onto the single exit road, and there, to our surprise, were ten to twenty spectators, stragglers and track workers, all lining the road, giving us an ovation as we crept by. It was surreal, and gratifying in the same instant. That moment will forever be imprinted in my brain, and will always remind me of that crazy, long day we spent at that fabled old track!

We had no sooner pulled out on the road in front of the facility, than the place went dark as they shut off the main lights, and I could barely make out one single pole light left on above the fuel depot where the Morano was parked!
"Wow, that was quick", Aaron laughed as he looked back over his shoulder.
"Yeah! Maybe that's why they were clapping as we drove out...it meant they could go home!"

We pulled into a QuickMart five miles down the road to gas up for the trip, both the cars, and the drivers. I grabbed a 32oz Powerade, a five hour energy, and a bag of mini Reese's cups...if that wouldn't get me 150 miles, nothing would. When I walked out to fuel up, I noticed the splits between the fuel grades were like 40 cents each so I opted for 89 octane.
"Rachael! I hope you aren't putting 91 in that car", I teased her from two rows over.
"Yeah, I am, why?"
"Did you see the price difference!"
"Not my money", she laughed.

Robert had pulled Aaron aside in the store for a discussion, and when they came out to where I was fueling the Valiant, I could tell Aaron was a little disappointed, by the look on his face.
"Billy, can you make this run by yourself?" Robert asked me.
"Yeah, no problem, I'm feeling pretty decent", I answered as I dumped the five hour energy in the Powerade. "Why, are you shot?"
"Yeah, pretty much...I think I should just take Aaron, and head straight for our motel, instead of following the route...that way I can get some rest for tomorrow."
"I agree with that plan", I told him.

Fatigue and sleep deprivation are part of the game on Drag Week, but everyone has to know their limits, and I'd much rather have someone say something than have them running off the road hours later.

You guys were about an hour behind me, love hearing these repair stories. I didnt know about the Aussies breaking that car, I did however know they drink lots lol.