Apparently some people do actually work out bugs and discover gains during the Sunday test and tune. The top pic was Ray's first hit, and the only time I think the car ran with the hood on all week. As much as I love the look, I guess it just doesn't work, because his second pass (bottom pic) and the rest of the week, was hoodless with the aluminum scoop attached to the carb.

David McKenna (OUTLAWD, Moparts) was making his first Drag Week, and was busy melting the tires on his 66 Plymouth on Sunday as well. With it's blacked out trim, this is a car that sneaks up on you, but the longer you take to check it out, the more you appreciate what a really clean, well assembled machine it certainly is.
We were way too over our skis to do that on Sunday, but we got the opportunity to pit near Dave and his Dad Monday, and enjoy some time to look his car over and bench race.

Good write up,Billy, as usual, thanks for doing it

A pair of Green small block Dusters were also making their Drag Week debut. Rick Trunkett's 72 featured a muted paint scheme with blacked out wheels, and almost had the low down dirty 12 second street car look down cold, until you walked past it and noticed the B3R decal that takes up the entire back glass, with the parachute hanging off the bumper. A peek under the six-pack hood revealed a massive single turbo.

Corey Pant's 74 Duster in contrast, possessed zero ability to sneak up on anyone. The in your face green paint is augmented with a bright silver 340 call out stripe that begs for attention at every angle. The J on his windshield meant he was in SSSBNA, and would be one of 13 guys trying to outrun Ray's Black Pearl.

Great Pics! Thanks! I had to break in the new drag radials...

Luckily I did line up for a couple passes on Sunday...on the drive down Saturday I was tweaking some of the WOT values in my VE table, but it was pouring rain during the drive so I never got a chance to lay into it. I forgot that I was fudging the transient fueling to try to get rid of the rich spike on the launch, so when I launched on the first pass, the thing nearly stalled twice because it had no "pump shot" at the hit...A couple clicks on the return road and the second pass was clean.

I don't think I ever saw Davids car with the hood open. Sano!

Yeah I was parked next to him at Norwalk, super clean setup!

Thanks Joel, Clark. I was battling for last in my class, so it was more of a 1 hit and split approach, which really cut into my socializing time.

It's been together a while and could use a little freshening up, but that normally involves making it faster, and I am not to motivated rip it apart to put a cage in it at this point in time.

it made little difference. there are 3 reasons I ran with no hood. My friend made the scoop for me at the last minute. I wanted to be as consistent as possible all week and last year I did the sealed hood so I went polar opposite

nice pictures. did you take them?

I know, I know...
Why does it take Billy so long to get started on his story, nd to make regular updates.

Partially, because I spend a great deal of time surfing the internet and social media looking for and collecting Drag Week pictures.

I only took 150 shots this year, and they are the ones that are grainy and out of focus!

The Hot Rod Staff, as well as Dominick Domato, and Will McDugle share many of their shots, but also many of the participants and amateurs as well.

Most of these are from ksj's buddy Bob Brehm, who pretty much shoots everything that moves, car or female, on Drag Week!

If I use ones with a yellow date stamp on them, those are courtesy of James Pranis' buddy, Scott Sprague, who is almost as prolific behind the lens as Bob!

Top pic: Find the gremlin...
2nd: ksj repping for fallen DW member Jake Brantner, and the Black Hat Gang at the same time.

Billy,

Where does Scott Sprague post his photos?

To say Bob is prolific is an understatement for sure.

Love the stories, keep it up!

Bill

thanks for the pics and the little story on my car gonna hope to make it back this year or next , had some problems with my car and my girls t-type

Hope you and Lisa go this year.I first tried to get Bob to go in 2010.Gave him all of Kyles 1320 DW videos.He still wasnt feeling it.He rode with me in 2012 and hes gone every year since.Not sure how many thousand pics he took last year. I know it was over 3k.I do know by Friday he took less than 350. LOL

Rachael parked the Belvedere beside the Valiant, Darren stepped out of the passengers side.
"Did you and Sherri get your arm bands?"
"Yeah", he raised his arm, "saw Clark make a test hit beside a Hellcat, looked like a good race."
"A red Hellcat? It's entered by David Kirwan, if you can believe that".
He gave me a surprised look, "The guy who usually brings the Starsky and Hutch Torino?"
"Yeah! Supposedly his boss' car, maybe they were like you and Rachael, and Kirwan had an entry and they really wanted to try out the Challenger instead!"
"Well, the Torino was always low twelves, high elevens, so it wasn't going to make a dent in the SME field, maybe the Hellcat has a shot."
"Didn't Clark change engines?" Rachael asked, walking around with goodie bag in hand.
"Yeah, from a Eddie head 360 to a 4" stroked W-2 deal", I confirmed.
"I think he's still in the elevens though," Darren added.
"Not surprising, he had that 360 combo scienced out pretty good, it'll take a little bit to shake out a whole new deal!"

I think I squared off with that particular Hellcat a few times over the week.

I had wanted tens right out of the gate with the 416, but between the car gaining 100lbs and me not paying attention to my fuel pressure data it didn't happen. It did the next time to the track after DW though.

The test and tune cars had went silent, and the sun had disappeared from view before the boys presented the Ruster Duster and the Gremlin under the lights of the pavilion for registration and tech. They managed a few halfhearted high fives among themselves when both cars cleared the gauntlet, but in all honesty, it was a joyless and suspenseless procession as all parties involved were simply too worn out to care at that point. The National Trail staff, the Hot Rod staff, the Drag Week staff, and certainly the 347 contestants and crews who would embark on this quest the following morning, were just ready to put what had turned into the longest day in Drag Week history, behind them.

Rachael and I had re-organized our junk for a third time. Our plan was to leave the 1-ton, two car trailer, and Valiant where they currently sat, and to take the Belvedere to the motel. Dale was going to take his dually, and Darren would take his truck, everything else would remain at the track.

Once again, I had prepaid for all the motels, but I had waited quite late in the process to do so. I was amazed to find a Days Inn with fairly inexpensive rooms within ten miles of the track still available, so we headed back towards Columbus' east side. Although the motel was just off the highway, it only took a block for a truck driver to realize this wasn't the best neighborhood in town. The confirmation was the fact that there wasn't another drag week car or rig in the entire parking lot.
We parked to the side, grabbed our stuff and headed towards the main lobby. A side entrance had a green canopy over it with the words "East Side Sports Bar" over it, and judging by the clientele taking a smoke break, and milling about outside the door, they were moving some drinks on a Sunday night!
"Way to go, Dave!" Darren chuckled under his breath.
His new girlfriend Sherri and Dale's son Billy were looking around with expressions of horror, but the rest of the crew took it all in stride.
The clerk gave us our room cards, and we made our way down the hall past the the rowdy bar crowd, and into our rooms. Things didn't feel right as soon as we entered, then Dale discovered towels thrown on the floor in the bathroom. Darren knocked on our door, and reported that their room door was ajar and the bed clothes were thrown in the floor, so we made our way back to the clerk with all our stuff, past the bar once again.
"I'm so sorry", the clerk explained with no surprise or emotion in his voice, "those rooms were marked as cleaned."
The two rooms this time were thankfully down an opposite hall from the bar, and were more than adequate for eight weary travelers. I showered second, and was unconscious before the next person turned on the water.

lmao....we stayed at that Days Inn Saturday night! fight in the parking lot in the afternoon, etc. we checked out Sunday morning, and stayed at a dive in Hebron Sunday night.

Still better than Americas Best Value Inn.From Saturday night til Monday A.M. the local Police visited 6 times.LOL.Thought I was going to have to post bail for Doug Garrisons sisters.

ABV was the dive we stayed at Sunday night, I think it was better than Days Inn. At least, there were other DW guys there to help out and keep an eye on things

You know, I consider Joel to be one of the cheapest guys I've ever met, but we have NEVER stayed in a complete dive. I'll have to thank him for that...