Yeah I remember that morning... took them a FEW
hours to get it working half a$$

Wow Billy you caught me in one of your pictures. I wonder if something caught my attention or I just had to turn away from the damaged valve again.

It was enjoyable visiting with Mike ( second 70) and John (moparpollack) most of the day. More pics of the "fat boy" spring compressor at work.

While most of the guys were using the time before the lanes opened to band-aid their cars together for one last pass or tune them up for a personal best, I was doing my usual sweep through the pits socializing and gathering info for the story! I just had to check in with the Drag Week Odd Couple to see how they survived the Firebird's off road adventure through the muck.
"There was mud in every crevice, nook, and cranny...even the interior because I had the windows down!" Mike explained, shaking his head.
"The radiator was so packed, that it started overheating in a matter of minutes", Daryl interjected, "We had to remove it from the car, and pressure wash it in order to get it functioning again!"
"I realized this morning when I finally woke up, that they were not going to let me go down the drag strip with as much mud as was still caked on it, so we spent more time at a car wash, going over every inch of it."
Daryl laughed, "looked like someone had done a clean-out on a cattle trailer when we pulled out of there!"

Mike Grandinetti's 71 Firebird finished Drag Week 2015 in 89th place among Street Machine Eliminator competitors with a 16.99-83 mph average. While not impressive numbers, consider that he drug his old high school car out of years of neglect and took it on the adventure of a lifetime, that is a major win in my book!

Daryl Yost turned the wick up on his Pro-Charged 540 for the final day, and carded an incredible 9.47-151. That pass helped him over come the bent-drive-shaft-10.62 he had to settle for in Union Grove, and he finished Drag Week 2015 with his goal of a nine second average intact, 9.97-148 for 7th place in Street Race Big Block Power Adder (tough class!)

As he did all week, Ray and his Barracuda opened the festivities with a fine 10.26-131, and he could have been the first guy to officially complete Drag Week 2015, instead he piled back into the lanes for another hit, since there wasn't another route sheet to collect. He finished the day with a nice 10.22-132. The third set down the track included the guy who had been chasing Ray in his class all week, the stunning 67 427 4 speed 'Vette of Terry Converse, but his pass would go for nought, because we would find out later that he was indeed another member of the "Off-Route Nine"!

It was a great day hanging out with the crew. They just don't make zip ties like they used to.

The Curious Case of the 2015 Pro Street Power Adder class finale!

I've been talking about it often, but it bears repeating just how interesting the PS/PA class was in 2015. Let's face it, as soon as news spread that Lutz wasn't going to make the second day, all the drama went right out of Unlimited. The new Ultimate Iron class only had two entries, but PS/PA had 12, including guys with multiple class wins, including guys with multiple 7 second averages before, so it figured to be a barn burner right from the start, and for the first four days, that group didn't disappoint despite several of the heavies fading out early.

Steve Fagan's Pro-Charged BBC 94 Blazer has averaged 9.18 for the five days as far back as 2010, and ran as quick as 9.04 on Drag week. 2015 was the ole' workhorse Blazer's 9th Drag Week, so when Steve had to settle for an off the pace 10.24 on the 4th day, you can understand how he might feel he had nothing left to prove at St. Louis, after all he had been in fifth place most of the week, behind three seven second machines, and another solidly in the eights. Forty-five minutes into Friday's the first session, on a hot and greasy surface, the Blazer spun pretty hard at the hit, black tracked and wiggled for the first hundred feet or so, and carded a 9.86-148. Could he have came back and shaved a couple tenths off? Sure he could've, the thing went 9.29 at the same mph on Monday, but, as I mentioned, he and the Blazer had nothing left to prove, and he turned the slip in, one , done, DW15 in the books.

The same scenario played out for our resident hitter, Matt Blasco, and his awesome '72 Dart. His Friday blast proved once again that the Predator headed monster was the class of the field as he carded yet another 7.71-178. Perhaps the only clue that he may have left a little on the table was that he was down a few mph from his previous 7.7 romps, but really did he need to squeeze into the 7.6's to impress us? Certainly not, and with the untimely 16.9 from Thursday it wasn't like he was going to sweeten the average any.

Tom McGilton's Mega-buck '13 ZL-1 Camaro ran a 7.88-186 to clinch his first class win in five attempts, despite the fact that he wasn't the quickest car in the class on any of the five days. Meanwhile Tina and David Pierce finished up with an 8.88 which was a couple tenths off the consistent 8.50's from earlier. The Colorado is a true street Truck, and nearly eight hundred pounds heavier than her old pro-stock style S-10, so finishing the week only a couple tenths slower than last years average had to be rewarding for them.

Tinas husband will get that truck on track,Im sure a carbon fiber diet is coming.For Street Outlaw alumni they are great people.LOL.Guess Daddy Dave is entered for this year.Good to see.Also saw where Larry Dixon of Top Fuel fame is coming this year with his 66-67 Nova that was his first car will be attending this year.Reminds me I need to book rooms for DW 16.

When you consider that cast of characters and outrageous machinery, no one could be blamed for completely overlooking Jeff Schulze and his old school back-halved 67 Camaro with a nitrous injesting BBC. Weld wheels, 8.50 cage, cowl hood, blah, blah, blah. His first shot on Monday only confirmed what we all knew from the beginning, 9.60-142, placing him 9th of the ten cars in the class that got past day 1. Everybody reading this has seen a similar car at their local hang out, cruize, or local track. Friday, he managed another 9.60-144.

I know, I know, what makes this curious, or interesting? The real drama is in the final tally of the five day averages! With Glenn Hunter's DQ, Tom McGilton won handily with a 7.85 average, and Tina was bumped to 2nd with an 8.72. So who collected the 3rd place plaque and the chance to enter early for 2016 you ask?

Aha! In the closest three way battle for a position in Drag Week History
Jeff and the Camaro's 9.60 gave him a five day average of 9.5902-142.47
Steve and the Blazer's 9.86 slowed his five day average to 9.5916-144.65
Matt and the Dart's 7.71 moved the five day average to 9.5966-153.33

I'm quite sure none of them had any idea it would be so close in the moment, and it probably wouldn't have mattered much if they had, but it's interesting to ponder if any of them would have took another shot!

I bet those 3 guys had no idea how close it was. Or they'ed have been duking it out all day friday.

"If you're adding race gas, why aren't you adding timing?" John was looking at me over the top of his glasses, "It runs fine on pump gas when you hammer it on the street, so you should try more timing here."

Boone, John and I had been discussing what was needed to give the Valiant a chance to make up the ground I needed on Glenn Bridger and his 68 Camaro. I had checked the results from Cordova, and our runs were separated by a thou, so I still needed six hundredths to catch him. Glenn had already made a pass, probably about the seventh set down, but Lohnes and Freiburger were bragging so much on five time class winner Curt Johnson and his N/A Fox Body in the other lane, that they never announced Bridger's ET.
Our pits were at a spot close to the entrance, with easy access from the return road, but it was impossible to see the score boards from there, so I still had no idea what I was up against, or if he was going to make another pass.

"It didn't really respond to timing on Brian's dyno at IMM", I protested, even though I already had the light hooked up.
"Sure, but what fuel did he have in it", John wasn't taking no for an answer, "Listen, it's hot, it's sticky...you're adding 118 to the mix, bump it up!"
I added three degrees, and we had just shut the 428 off when we heard a car rumble through the gate with horn blaring.
We looked up to see the Trapnell Brothers driving in with four people in the purple Holden Monaro, all waving Australian flags and foam fingers with "Oi!" printed on them.
I stepped back from the Valiant, cupped my hands to my mouth and yelled "Aussie, aussie, aussie" at the top of my lungs. They responded with a chorus of "Oi, oi, oi", as they drove by, followed with more horn blaring and waving as they made their grand entrance, clearly excited to have arrived at the final track.
"We didn't see them at Cordova did we?"
"No", Boone agreed, "last time we saw them was when we left Union Grove at 10:30pm."
"They promised they would make Cordova by 2:00pm and we left before then, so I suppose they could have made it", I shrugged.
Their emotional entrance had thrown me off my thoughts at the moment and I promptly laid my arm across the fender-well header while reaching to tighten the distributor down. I walked over to the cooler to put some ice on it, but Opal took over and made me up a baggie of ice water to hold on it.
"I'll find you some burn creme for that somewhere", she shook her head, "or it's going to get much worse before the day is over".

Boone closed the hood on the Valiant, and asked if I was ready to head for the lanes.
"Yeah, I'm ready to go, how about you?"
"I'll be right behind you" he assured me, but he walked over to the Gremlin to check on Dale's progress.

Cars had been pounding the track for forty-five minutes, but the lanes were still packed when I rounded the corner. Sean Fling waved me into lane six, as he coned off the back of lane five. Apparently they were filling, and pulling the lanes in pairs, rather than taking four or five cars from each lane as they had most of the week.

Parking in lane six meant I had a front row seat to lane 7 which I heard Freiburger announce earlier as the "impound and exhibition" lane. The "and exhibition" part of that statement didn't sink in immediately, but it became very frustrating once I saw all the guys who were disqualified or hadn't completed each leg using that provision to get fast tracked to the head of the lanes, and making runs before guys that were actually still in competition. As I mentioned earlier, Sunday through Thursday this Drag Week was among the best; smooth, well organized, great facilities, but Friday was like a bad ending to a really great movie. I walked back to where Boone was parked, about ten cars behind me, and noticed that Sean had coned the lane off behind him.
"How close is Dale to being ready?"
"He should be up here in fifteen minutes or so", he shrugged, "who are they running right now?"
"They just cleared out 1 and 2, so now they will be pulling out 3 and 4." I decided against telling him about what I'd witnessed in lane 7, because I knew he'd be making a scene at the head of the lanes, and we really didn't need that.
He looked at the lanes, and pulled his phone out of his pocket "It's going to be a while. Rachael was cooking, and I'll see if her and Skippy can fix us a plate and bring it down."
"Something to drink too", I added before he dialed.
"I have drinks already", he pointed towards the passenger's seat of the Barnyard.

It took about an hour to work through the staging lanes, but it was made a little more bearable by a couple of bratwursts and good company. It was nearly 4pm when I nosed the Valiant under the tower, and I could hear the announcement that they were closing off the back of the class car lanes to begin bringing up the Street Machine Eliminator entries.
"Well, this may be your only shot...better make it count", I told myself.
I decided the best way avoid the nasty hesitation that had plagued me all week was to leave off the trans-brake and the two step. I didn't have confidence that the 904 would handle it all week, but now I didn't have anything to lose.

The Valiant left with the wheels up off the brake, but it pulled hard out of the groove to the right and spun when it landed. I had to wrestle it back to the groove as I grabbed second, she felt...OK...the rest of the way down. While it was enough to outrun Robert Smokowski's SS/SB/NA 72 Nova, I was pretty sure the time slip wasn't going to thrill me.

I was on the scale at 3140 when Boone made his final official run of Drag Week 2015, finishing up with an 11.39-118 while Calvin Hayward's Pink Fox Body caught him in the lights with a 7.87-181 after spooling the turbos for five seconds to give Boone a head start. The picture below should show the Barnyard and the Mustang, but the photographer seemed to be preoccupied with Calvin's girlfriend instead of the race.

Trapnell's Monaro also finished up a successful Drag Week 2015, as Lohnes relayed the story that they actually did arrive in Cordova before the 2pm deadline, but after it was called for rain, so they were allowed to take a 20.00/50 and continue.

The time slip read 10.59-125, not what I was hoping for. The 5 hundredths I picked up in 60ft., was given back by the 330 because I was out of the groove and spinning. I parked in the pits just in time to ride back to the lanes with Rachael and Skippy. My hope was to watch Dale's run from the starting line to figure out what the Gremlin was doing to knock the tires off so violently.
The first car up after I walked to the lanes was Doc McEntire and his 68 Camaro. He was leading our class by so much that he only needed a 17 second run to seal the class win and he clearly didn't trust whatever repair they had done to the powerglide on the park bench at Cordova, because he walked it out gingerly before rolling on the power for an 11.90-147.
"Think he'll come back for another one?" Skippy asked me as we stood in the shade of the tower.
"Yeah, he's not really competing against Bridger and I, he's attempting to obliterate the times Eddie and his Duster have ran in this class."

Dale rolled under the tower beside Paul Cornman's Demon.
"Not again", I groaned.
"Why not?" Skippy quipped back as he sprinted behind the cars to stand beside James as he brought Dale into the water.
This would be probably the 4th or 5th pass Dale has made in the Gremlin beside Paul's Demon in the last two Drag Weeks, and while the short wheel-base, violent little Gremlin with a nitroused 440 is pretty impressive in it's own right, it's not quite as awesome when a small tire, stock suspension, full interior, NA small block A body is running within 6 or 7 tenths of it time after time!

Great recap, I never get to hear these stories

Dale stopped just through the water, then stomped the throttle to begin his burnout. The 440 promptly burbled and died...then the carb caught on fire. I was still next to the tower, behind Paul's Demon, so I could see the fire through the passenger's side of the Gremlin's windshield blazing away in the cowl scoop. I motioned to James, still standing in front of the Gremlin, and he quickly gave me a brush off sign while acting as nonchalant as possible. Apparently this is a regular occurrence with the Gremlin when the timing is backed off far enough to run both kits. Dale doesn't have any retard capabilities with his ignition system, so he has to pull it all out in the pits which results in a very lazy 440 in the burn-out box. Paul finished his burnout, and was preparing to stage while Dale was still cranking his over. It finally lit, sucked the flames down, then he promptly grabbed the bottle and throttle, sans line lock, and completed a hasty burnout to within a few feet of the beams.
The Gremlin left with the front tires about a foot up, nice and smooth, but even when he grabbed the second stage, I could tell it wasn't as violent as it has been, and I suspected that he had pulled out even more timing than he has in the past. Shortly after the gear change, I heard that sickening sound of it dropping a cylinder, Dale lifted for a split second then stabbed back into it and labored through to a 9.20-139 while the green Demon went 9.76-138.

Rather than walk directly back to our pit spot, I decided to make a concerted effort to look up Mr. Bridger and his Camaro. I'd been battling with him all week, but he was usually gone by the time we rolled in every day, so I hadn't spoke with him or even looked the car over. By the time I located it (there were about 10 red or orange first gen Camaros, so it's a bit of a shell game) I was surprised to see the trailer hooked to the back of the Camaro, and an open beer in the cup-holder, obviously his Drag Week 2015 was in the books. I was admiring the interior when I noticed a guy, late thirties, fairly close to the car, so I looked up.
"This yours?"
"No, it's my Dad's, he went to turn in his time slip."
"Did you ride with him all week?"
"Yeah, we had a great time...definitely worth it!"
"So it ran okay today?"
"Yeah", he gave me a big smile, "about the same as all week"!
Apparently my cover was blown, because he was not going to divulge any information whatsoever! His Dad, Glenn showed up a few minutes later, and I tried once again.
"How'd it run today?"
He glanced at his Son, and I caught a slight shake of his head.
"'Bout the same, you're not gonna run much better than fifties in this air, so we decided that was good enough."
"Well dang", I smiled a both of them, "I've got the Valiant and I was hoping for a side by side race in the second session!"
"The elder Bridger smiled and stuck out his hand, "I would've enjoyed that, but we decided to pack it in, and get our stuff loaded up for the trip home."
"Have a safe one", I told them as I shook both of their hands, "just not going to tell me the exact number I need to shoot for are you?"
"Nope", they were chuckling as I turned to head for our pits.
I checked my phone as I walked away and realized I had a text: "Scored you some burn creme", from Opal.

By the time I walked back to our pits, Dale already had the front clip off the Gremlin, and was working to remove the valve covers.
"Did you hurt it again?" I asked as he bent over the 440.
"Yeah...sounded exactly like it did in Union Grove...", he pulled the cover from the repaired passenger's side head, "...all good on this side."
"It's over here", Aaron confirmed as James pulled back the cover from the driver's side.
"Looks identical to the last time", James shook his head, "valve half way down and stuck in the guide."
"Well, go turn in your time slip, then you can go get your truck and trailer so we can load it," I offered.
"There ain't no way!" Dale shot me a dirty look, "I'm running in the shootout tomorrow!"
"You want to spend another night wrenching on this thing, go right ahead, but I'm not having any of it!" I turned toward the Valiant to prepare for one last pass in the final session.
Dale didn't even bother to answer me, and it seemed as though Darren, James, and Aaron were up for another session of track side engine repair as they were gathered around the Gremlin with him.
Boone just shook his head, "at least we're much closer to the motel this time."

Jason and Charlie Ogle had parked their E-Bodies at the back of the closed off lanes even before the call for Street Machine Eliminator went out, so they were the first pair of those cars to enter the water box at 4:45 pm. Jason nearly matched his best ET with a 12.20, and recorded his best mph, 116.6 in outrunning his brother's 12.52-115 in the Challenger, who, as he reported earlier, was struggling with a clutch issue.

Oh " brother". LOL

<quote>
"More pics of the "fat boy" spring compressor at work."

So...did he reach coil bind??? <grin>

The next three sets down the track featured the trio of Shelby Club front scratchers, all finishing Drag Week in style, although Patrick Culkin's 90 Shadow was puffing a great deal of white smoke after his last official pass.

Friday had been overcast all day, and they were worried bout rain hitting us later in the evening pretty much from the get go, but about twenty minutes into the Street Machine Eliminator session it became clear that they were worried about something else even more. Gateway had scheduled a piggy back event onto ours, sort of a street drags, and drift style event, that was set to kick off as soon as we were done. It seemed that the Gateway staff, and the Drag Week staff suddenly realized they weren't going to be finished with Drag Week 2015 by the time the locals expected to have the run of the place.

At 5:07pm, just twenty-two minutes after the Street Machine Eliminator class got their first shot at the track, Brian Lohnes suddenly announced over the PA system, "I've been informed by Race Director Lonnie Grimm that we are shutting off the back of the SME lanes at 5:15!"
A scant 7 minutes later, he announced: "We are opening up the lanes for the all-run, final session."
Two minutes later he called out once again, "The lanes are filling up fast with class cars, so all you spectators better get back to your seats!"
You can imagine the frustration if you were an SME racer who wasn't fortunate enough to have made your first pass in the first 31 minutes. They had waited two and half hours through the class car first session for their opportunity, and now thirty minutes into the SME session, the back of the lanes were cutoff and the class cars were given a head start to back fill all the other lanes, The chance of getting another run to turn in before the bracket race was pretty much null and void at that point.

In the interest of fair reporting, I must weigh in with the fact that Friday didn't go our way, and I wonder how much that tainted my feelings about how the event was handled at Gateway.

John nosed the 67 Valiant into the water at 5:25 PM, pretty much aware that this might be his only pass before the Quick 32 bracket race. He had the 440 tuned up perfectly for the weather conditions, but the well worn drag radials slipped just enough to card an 11.004-120.92. He drove straight back to the lanes intent upon getting a ten second pass all five days, but pulled up behind pretty much every car still running at Drag Week...it was going to be a long wait!

Three minutes later Rachael pulled the Belvedere into the water, next to Hemi_Joel and his GTX for a battle of 67 b-bodies. Joel asked her to allow him the opportunity to deep stage before she turned on the final stage bulb. She complied, but she was so focused on her staging that she never dropped the shifter back into low after her burn-out. The strain of applying the nitrous 10 feet out while in second gear was more than the 7260 front u-joint could stand!