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Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2532673
08/07/18 09:28 AM
08/07/18 09:28 AM
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Boone was staging the Duster as I drove around the barrier and backed the Valiant into the water box directly behind him. I had the best seat in the house to see the soot from the drive belch out of the headers as he grabbed the nitrous right from the hit. He had never before launched the car like that, and the gas shock suspended Plymouth clearly didn't like it! The Super Stock springs wrapped up so bad, they topped out the shocks at the same time the front tires were six inches in the air, causing the car to crab walk off the line headed in the general direction of the passenger's side wall. Had this been any other drag strip, he probably would have left some oxidized red paint on the concrete, but the extra width a Byron allowed him the room to shift, then wrestle the Ruster back towards the center line. He had just about found the groove again when the 2-3 shift sent back to the right once again.
"Oh Man!" Brian Lohnes boomed over the PA (the man is a master at modulating his volume to project when he's excited), "that A-body Mopar is wondering around out there like it's up on stilts!" "Still goes 9.95-140, but it was tiptoeing through the tulips!"

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2533596
08/09/18 03:20 AM
08/09/18 03:20 AM
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As soon as Boone's scoreboard lit up, I attempted to start my burnout, but the Valiant pushed through the line lock. With my thumb still on the button, I pumped the brakes twice and tried again, but apparently I hadn't got back to the water because it shoved forward again without rotating the Hoosiers. Disgusted, I released the line lock, maneuvered the Cheetah shifter to R, pushed the trans brake button and attempted to back back into the water. Despite bringing the revs up a little the car refused to move.
My heart started racing, "is the 904 broke?"
I shifted back into low, and the car wouldn't move forward either. I tossed my hands up in disgust and glanced out at the track workers, expecting them to be looking at me wondering what the hold up was. Racing NHRA races puts a clock in your head, like the 24 second shot clock in basketball, they expect the burnouts and approaches to the line to happen at an advanced cadence, but this crew wasn't even noticing yet so I took a deep breath and focused. "The line lock is stuck", it came to me quickly, because the suspension had raised, so it wasn't in the transmission. I tapped the button a few times and felt it release, then backed into the water and did a successful burnout. Despite a few deep breaths, I was still a little rattled and definitely pumped when I turned on the first stage bulb. I brought the small block up to 3K and bumped in. At the first flash I floored it, and grabbed the nitrous almost simultaneously, determined not to be late. It felt like to me that the front end rotated skyward much faster this time than it had last year at Indy, but maybe I just had a better understanding of what was happening having experienced it once already. In any case, it felt much worse, so I lifted off the nitrous and the throttle. My attempt to get back on the throttle as soon as the horizon started coming back did little to lesson the impact when it crashed back down, in fact the fourth picture below is of the rebound wheelie, not the original launch. When it touched down the second time I was on the gas, but the engine sounded weird, and the front end was pulling hard to the center line, so I abandoned the pass and just idled down track.
"Dang it! You just had to get greedy! What is that horrible sound? How bad is the front end screwed up? The alignment is all out of whack!" I tortured myself as I herded the wounded Valiant back down the return road to our pits, wondering if my Drag Week 2017 was just about to come to an end.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2533648
08/09/18 10:31 AM
08/09/18 10:31 AM
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31 Plymouth Coupe, 392 Hemi, T56 magnum
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I don't regret the things I've done. I only regret the things I didn't do.
"Wise men talk because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something. ~ Plato"
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2533649
08/09/18 10:32 AM
08/09/18 10:32 AM
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Now i have to go watch this pass. Byrons replay drives me crazy the audio and video are a couple minutes apart

Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2533733
08/09/18 01:23 PM
08/09/18 01:23 PM
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I had to go watch it also....

Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2534007
08/10/18 12:10 AM
08/10/18 12:10 AM
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Manitoba Canada
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Again Billy thanks for all the great stories ...and keeping it real!

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A new iron curtain drawn across the 49th parallel
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2534098
08/10/18 10:54 AM
08/10/18 10:54 AM
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"Well, it's still got oil pressure, the 904 still pulls, and the rear end isn't grinding itself to bits right?" Dale shrugged his shoulders after I explained my debacle to the group, "so anything else we can fix!"
"He's right, you know", Boone chimed in, "but we need to go turn in our time slips before we get too deep into it!"
We already pulled the hood off, and discovered the passenger's side header gasket had blown out in the middle, and was hanging down from the bolt on one side. Darren and Dylan agreed to tackle replacing it while we made our way to the tower to get our official time slips and route sheets.

Waiting in line, we watched and listened to the stragglers who were still fighting to get a quality run, and stay competitive in DW17. Scott and Kim Abbott have always been on the road quickly with their familiar orange and primer 70 Road Runner, but the big Hemi in their small tire, stock suspension 67 Belvedere was a little trickier, and for the second day in a row, they were still on hand to shut the place down. With a hot greasy starting line affecting his judgment, Scott just eased out towards the sixty foot clocks before bringing the elephant to full song.
"Now that he got his foot off the brake pedal, that big Plymouth is moving pretty good!" Lohnes sounded off on the PA. The joke brought a chorus of laughter from everyone waiting to turn in slips.
"10.68-134", Dale shook his head, "it's got 9 second potential once he sorts it out!"
"Certainly", I agreed, "but that's a bunch of power, a heavy car, and a small tire, so it won't be easy!"
"Did Squirrel get another run?"
"If he did, I missed it", Dale shrugged.
"ten oh nine...one thirty, I think", Boone chimed in.
"Dang, they found something, somewhere because he was only twenties on Monday and Tuesday!"
"Well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut..."
"Just stop Dale", I interjected, "That joke is low hanging fruit, you can't go there!"
Everyone around us was laughing just the same, gallows humor, I suppose.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2539894
08/22/18 03:33 AM
08/22/18 03:33 AM
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We collected our official time slips, then picked up our route sheets for the evening drive. I quickly flipped it to the back so I could check the total miles.
"Only 153 tonight", I breathed a sigh of relief, "That makes me feel a little better about the repairs I've got to deal with!"
"Piece of cake, brother", Dale clasped his big right hand onto the top of my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "But tell me, since math isn't my strong suit...does that twenty-four hundredths the Gremlin put on the Valiant today wash away your two day advantage?"
"You know it does, but tomorrow is a return to Union Grove, and if I remember correctly, the Gremlin didn't enjoy the last visit there!"
"Don't remind me", Dale laughed as we walked along the fence to catch the last cars running before returning to our pits.

"This is the guy that is 2nd in my class", Dale pointed as Matt Bryson staged up his four eyed hatch back fox body.
The 8.97-151 was impressive given the weather and track conditions, but it was a full tenth and two mph off his Monday pace. Terry Miller's red 3rd gen Firebird, who was a tick behind Bryson, holding down 3rd in Modified NA was up next, but blew the tires off early, so he would have to settle for the 9.04-154 he ran earlier.
"He's had MPH on Bryson all week, but can't ET with him", Dale shook his head, "Gotta be driving him crazy!"
Rick Steinke's "Honk if parts fall off" 67 crew cab Chevelle was up next. They had left Cordova with a share of the SRSBPA lead, having turned in a nearly perfect 8.509-160 mph. But while a 9.46 on day two ruined their chances to finish in the top three of the class, the broken transmission that led to the poor showing threatened to saddle them with a DNF! They limped to the motel, pulled the trans, and rebuilt it in the motel bathtub just to get to Byron, so getting an opportunity to stage the car in the last few minutes of track time was a real victory. The 8.69-159 got all of us excited.
"Love the thrash, and send it stories!" Boone smiled.
"Yeah", I agreed, "They usually don't work out as well as that, though."

Steve Morris brought Clark Rosentengal's twin turbo 2010 Camaro back into the water one more time, and while the LSX sounded great the car just didn't seem to move out of the hole. The 8.98-167 definitely wasn't what they were looking for, and it seemed the problem that held them to an 8.23 earlier in the day was only getting worse.

That left only two cars in the lanes: John Faraone's Valiant Charger, who was trying to stay ahead of Matt Blasco's Dirty Drag Week Dart for the "Quickest Mopar" plaque, and Tom McGilton's TT 2013 ZL1 Camaro which was holding off Matt Blasco for 2nd place in Pro Street Power Adder, but was trying to stay with Glenn Hunter's 56 Belair, which had run 7.53 earlier in the day.

Faraone left extremely soft for about 80 feet, then really ramped the power in. The big predator headed wedge lifted the front tires slightly and started driving the Valiant towards the center line. The last ditch nature of the effort precluded John from lifting, and he deftly tip-toed the 3900lb A-body down the stripe until it finally just clipped the foam blocks for the eighth mile ET and MPH, forcing him to lift and manhandle the old girl back into his lane, finishing with an 8.72-167.

"Another rough year for John", Dale shook his head, "He deserves better!"
"I doubt that pass will count" Lohnes explained over the PA, "and we will get that debris cleaned up and let Tom run without eighth mile clocks!"

We were headed back to our pits when Rick caught up to us.
"Billy!" He held his phone up in front of me, "I got a killer shot of your awesome wheelie!" "That was so cool! Everyone in the stands was blown away! It was great!"
I spun to lock him in my gaze and spat the words out through gritted teeth. "It WASN'T cool...sure, maybe from the bleachers, but in the car it SUCKED Rick!" Now the front-end is knocked out of alignment, and who knows what other damaged occurred...it wasn't COOL at all!"
I regretted the outburst an instant after it happened. His shoulders slumped and he had a wounded look on his face. "Man...I'm sorry, I thought you would be excited..."
"I didn't mean to snap at you Rick", I attempted to apologize, "I'm just worried about the car..."
"Don't be", his smile came back and he slapped me across the back, "Sharma and I will get it off the ground and put an Oklahoma tape measure alignment on the beast that will have you back on the road in no time!"

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2540046
08/22/18 03:03 PM
08/22/18 03:03 PM
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Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2540329
08/23/18 10:27 AM
08/23/18 10:27 AM
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McGilton closed out Drag Week 17's visit to Byron Dragway with a 7.60-187 pass as we made our way back to our pits. Darren and Dylan had re-installed the passenger's side header on the Valiant with a fresh Percy's multi-layer aluminum gasket. They are the only ones I've found that stay sealed for all the street driving, but they start to melt and degrade after about 6-8 nitrous passes. I installed the exhaust while Rick and Sharma inspected the front suspension and did an alignment. The passenger's side pipe wouldn't go in place without slotting the rear mount, so I knew the header had been tweaked when the 62 landed but couldn't see where exactly. Rachael had all of our stuff packed except the tools, and I was starting to feel like we might still make it out on the road at a decent hour. I fired up the 428 to check everything else out, and it was immediately apparent that we still had a bad header leak on he passenger's side. With the car back in the air on stands, Dylan crawled under with a flashlight and looked up at where the tubes met the flange.
"Yep", he confirmed our fears, "that back tube is cracked on the bottom...pretty much from bolt hole to bolt hole!"
"Crap", Boone shook his head, "what now?"
Dylan crawled out from under the car, and we were all standing around in a semi-circle discussing our options when Clark Rosenstengal walked down from the upper pits to check on us. It's not uncommon for the stragglers at the end of the day to commiserate with each other, and we had noticed that both his Camaro and John Faraone's Aussie Charger were up on four jack stands with attention on the trans area. During the conversation, I wasn't sure if both were having issues with their Rossler transmissions, or their Gear Vendors, but they were waiting for parts to arrive. Dylan eventually asked Clark if he had a welder and generator in his trailer, and I was surprised when he said yes and volunteered to drag them out so we could use them.
"It's settled then", Dale smiled, "Let's get that header back off and get it fixed!"

I accompanied Dale and Dylan up to Clark's little pull along trailer with the header, and talked to him while Dylan welded up the pipe. I noticed that Dennis Taylor was loading up the 55, which had made multiple passes during the day.
"Yeah, they lost the Badmaro last night, and have decided to throw in the towel for this year", Clark confided. "I might be joining them soon", he laughed. "It's been a trying year for all of us, and it just wears you down after a while."
The conversation proved prophetic, As Byron would mark the end of competition at Drag Week 2017 for both Rosenstengal and Faraone, as well as Dennis Taylor.

It was dark by the time we pulled out of Byron Dragway. Rick and Sharma had left several hours earlier, so it was just the eight of us when we pulled into Phillips 66 in Byron to fuel up and regroup at 7pm. We were surprised to see McGilton's Camaro and Barry's 56 there also, figuring they were well on their way before then. Plans were made for a late supper stop at Applebees in Freeport Il., some thirty miles away. Rachael and I took the lead out of Byron, and headed west on Il-72 with Dale and Dylan in the Gremlin directly behind us, followed by Boone and Billy in the Ruster then Pops and Darren in the Ram R/T. I was cruising along at 3K, enjoying the breeze through the windows and chatting with Rachael, when after about six miles I looked up and realized there were no headlights behind me.
"Where the heck did those guys disappear to this time?"
Rachael set her phone down and picked up mine, "I'll text them and see what's going on".

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2541308
08/25/18 05:19 PM
08/25/18 05:19 PM
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"A rear caliper locked up on the Gremlin", Rachael reported "they're pulled over in a farmer's driveway!"
"So after all that time sitting there helping us, now he's broke five miles down the road?"
"Apparently! What's that old saying you always quote? 'No good deed goes unpunished', or something like that?"
I chuckled, "very, very true...ask them if we need to turn around and come back".
Rachael had both thumbs going furiously for a few minutes then looked up at me and shook her head. "They don't want us to come back, in fact, Dale wants you to go to a parts store in Freeport, and pick up a new caliper!"
"Great! How far out are we?"
She sat down one phone and picked up the other. "We're fourteen miles from town, and the store closes in twenty-five minutes!"
"Great", I shook my head and kicked the small block up to thirty-seven hundred.
Rachael looked over with a smile, and asked how the car was handling.
"Wonderful, as a matter of fact, the front end feels better than it has all year, so Rick and Sharma did a great job!"
"Did you touch it since the wheelie in Indy last year?"
I thought for a second, "no I'm pretty sure I didn't..."
"Probably been screwed up since then, you just got used to driving it like that", she surmised. I had no answer so I just kept my mouth shut.
A minute later she pointed to the left of the road, "isn't that PJ's Falcon?"
"And Blasco's Dart, along with Guido's GTO! The Canadian contingent!"
"Which one were they working on?" She raised up in her seat and looked out the back as I continued on.
"Looked like more than one actually", I surmised, "but we have a date with a parts store, so we can't stop!"

Little did we know that both the Falcon's and the Dart's engines were opened up for major surgery. The Dirty Drag Week Dart would survive the ordeal, the little 60 Falcon would not.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2555817
09/28/18 02:29 AM
09/28/18 02:29 AM
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Rachael and I pulled up in front of the parts store just a minute before their 7pm closing time, and she jumped out and ran in while dialing up Dale on the phone.
She walked back to the car a few minutes later and shrugged, "He didn't need a caliper after all, it's some problem with the axle bearing."
"So we beat on the old girl for nothing?"
"Not necessarily", she smiled as she crawled over the bar and back into the passenger's seat, "It means we'll get to Applebee's sooner!"
Once settled into the restaurant, I called Boone to get the skinny on what had happened.
"Well...Dale's rear brake locked up on one side, and he was barely able to get the Gremlin off the road and into a farmer's driveway. Since I had the trailer on the Duster I couldn't make the cut, so I went down to the next farmhouse and tried to get turned around in his drive. Both were narrow dirt paths more or less so it took me a few minutes and the porch light was on by the time I got back on the highway and started back to where Dale had stopped. Darren pulled in as well and we had Dale's Gremlin on a jack stand with one tire removed when suddenly a big dually with a gooseneck cattle trailer stops in the highway to make a left hand tun into the driveway we have all cluttered with cars and parts!"
"Good grief" I shook my head. "What did you do then?"
"Dad ran out and told the guy he couldn't turn into the drive just yet because we have it blocked, and the farmer went off on him! He started ranting about it being his drive and no one would ever tell him when he could or couldn't drive up it, then he went into threats about what would happen if we didn't get our junk out of his way, and he ended with an explanation that he was tired, he'd been hauling cattle all day, and he just wanted to get home to a shower and a meal!"
"So, at what point did he pull the shotgun out from under the seat?"
"No, it never came to that. Darren and I both pulled over into the ditch, then we picked up all the tools and parts around the Gremlin, and carefully guided him and his rig past all of us. Then he parked just past us, got out of his truck and came back to talk with us about our adventures and our cars, tell us about his new Camaro that his wife won't let him take to the track, offered us the use of his shop, and was just as friendly and agreeable as can be!"
"So he has everything you need to get going?"
"No, we were just happy he wasn't yelling any more or calling the cops, so we let him get to his dinner! Then the neighbor whose driveway I'd used to turn around in showed up on his side-by side to check out what was going on. He explained that his shop was twice as nice as his neighbors, and he had a new Challenger, so Dale ended up taking the axle over to his garage to press everything back in place and weld the collar to the axle!"
"So it was the same axle that we found the collar backed off on before we left?"
"Yeah, but at least the bearing wasn't damaged, so if we weld it, it should last through Drag Week anyway!"
"C'mon!" I laughed. "You know Dale, it will be like that if and/or until that bearing fails again, and won't ever get touched otherwise!"
"True statement!" Boone laughed.
I hung up, and started eating my food, but not until I posted a picture of it on the group text, just to get the brothers riled up.

Dale sent a picture of the menu about two hours after I had sent the picture of my food. By that time Rachael and I had traveled the twenty-four miles due north to Monroe WI and checkpoint one, and were on our way due east on WI-81 towards checkpoint two in Lake Geneva, WI.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2558181
10/03/18 11:50 AM
10/03/18 11:50 AM
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Lake Geneva WI, according to their official website, consider themselves a resort town that caters to wealthy Chicagoans, so I'm not sure how they felt about having one of their prime public parks used as a back drop for Checkpoint two, but that's exactly what happened as 350 cars rumbled through town to take a picture in front of a gazebo overlooking the lake. Many of the participants captured stunning pictures of their rides against the beautiful lake with the setting sun, but it was pitch dark when Rachael and I rolled in and despite her help I barely found the place.
"You struggled to get us here because you are falling asleep!"
"I know, I know...we shouldn't have ate. Maybe if I stretch my legs awhile here, I'll be okay."
"Doubt it! I've exhausted all the topics I can talk about, and you are barely paying attention."
Rachael's always been good at keeping me awake while I'm driving, and definitely the most attentive, so I knew she wasn't exaggerating.
"How many miles are we in?"
"One twenty-three", she replied, looking at side two of the route sheet.
"Wow! We haven't stopped for gas since we filled up after leaving the track. Let's find a station, and then I'll let you drive to the hotel".
We pulled into a tiny corner bait/convenience store a mile down the road that was closed, and had a single gas pump out front. Everything except the pump appeared to be decades old, but the pump had a card reader, so we were in business.
"They must roll up the sidewalks at 8pm around here", Rachael laughed, "We haven't seen another person since we drove into town!"
"Yeah but it's probably hopping at 5am, with everyone wanting to get on the lake."

It was amazing how awake I suddenly became with Rachael behind the wheel. The fog that had been patchy as we came into Lake Geneva was quite thick as we left, and it was making her nervous. With the route on the phone, I coached her through the drive explaining what curves and intersections we were approaching, how to downshift, when to accelerate. She never complained, only smiled and nodded with each instruction, eyes on the road and both hands on the wheel except when she had to shift the full manual 904. The motel I had booked was 8 miles beyond Union Grove, so Rachael logged thirty-nine miles to the Super-8.
I handled getting us checked in while Rachael pulled the bags out of the car. Once in the room, I asked her why she didn't say anything about my nagging the entire distance.
"I'm driving a 9 second street car through the Wisconsin countryside with my Dad!" She laughed and shook her head, "What's to complain about?"
She headed off for the shower as I relaxed on the bed, thinking to myself, "is it awesome that one of my kids totally gets it...or is it a curse?"

After my shower, I called Boone to see how they were doing. I expected to hear him shouting over the sound of the 512, and the Ruster road noise but it was completely quiet, and he was speaking in hushed tones.
"We are at checkpoint two, talking to the local police officer at the moment", Boone explained.
"Woke up that sleepy little town with all that noise at 1am?"
"No, no...he said they are used to that because the residents that live around the park have been calling the Police and complaining all day!"
"So what did you do this time?"
"Well...Dale and I are dead tired, and our trunk monkeys are both asleep, so I finally get us here and we park in front of the gazebo, open our doors, shut off the cars, and I pull some tools out of the trailer, to start changing out our batteries. Dale and I were stretching our legs, getting our pictures, digging drinks out of the cooler and such when a police car came around the corner very slowly, pulled up behind us for a minute, then turned his red and blues on! He asked us what we were doing, and we started explaining Drag Week. He cut us off and told us he knew about all that, what he really wanted to know was why we chose to park in the middle of the street!"
"Boone, there is a parking lot right there!"
"Yes, he was only too happy to point that out, but apparently I was too tired to notice the entrance when we pulled up!"
"So, is he going to write you up?"
"No, he's a young kid who is into cars, so Dale is showing off the Gremlin to him right now...they have the hood off!"
"On the street?"
"Yeah, we're still on the street!"

I gave him the instructions to the motel, hung up, and pulled the covers up to my chin. I think I was still smiling when I fell asleep.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2558400
10/03/18 04:42 PM
10/03/18 04:42 PM
Joined: Jan 2003
Posts: 2,077
Oklahoma City
Jwilli500 Offline
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Jwilli500  Offline
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God! I love reading your stuff Billy! up

Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2558819
10/04/18 11:27 AM
10/04/18 11:27 AM
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Phoenix, AZ
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MoparBilly Offline OP
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MoparBilly  Offline OP
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Phoenix, AZ
Thursday, Day 4 Great Lakes Dragaway, Union Grove
I crawled out of bed at 6:50, showered and dressed, then took my bag down to the Valiant. The fog was so thick when I walked out, that I knew racing wasn't going to start at the regular time, so I had breakfast and let everyone else sleep in a little.
Boone had been complaining that sharing a bed with 15 year old Billy was terrible because the kid, in his words, "is all knees and elbows, then he flops around all night". When I returned to our room to get Rachael up, I saw what he meant as Billy sprawled all over the bed and Boone. I didn't know whether to laugh of feel sorry for him. Rachael dressed quickly, and I carried her bag out to the car as she grabbed breakfast. I was positioning it on everything behind the front seat when I heard the unmistakable rumble of a big block Mopar. It was Jim and Kim leaving the motel in Primal Scream. Jim stopped when he saw me and explained that they were on their way to a shop to have the 727 looked at as they had picked up a vibration on the last drive.
"I left a note with my phone number on Boone's car", he explained, "so I could get his advice...but then this shop owner agreed to get us right in!"
"Well, I think we'll have a little extra time, until this fog burns off", I offered.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2558825
10/04/18 11:38 AM
10/04/18 11:38 AM
Joined: Jan 2004
Posts: 666
IL
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Dart451 Offline
mopar
Dart451  Offline
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IL
Shop Owner Gary of GT Transmissions in Racine was awesome. I took him for a ride and he swore it wasn't the transmission. He put it on the lift and checked everything over and found the pinion nut had lost preload. We tightened it up and didn't charge me, he is a big supporter of the track.
Once again Thanks to you, and your Family for all the help you gave us!!

Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2558869
10/04/18 01:05 PM
10/04/18 01:05 PM
Joined: Nov 2006
Posts: 2,252
IL
furious70 Offline
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woohoo, I get to contribute to this part of the story! About that same time I was doing 85mph up I-94 trying to talk to Jim over the noise about any shops that might be able to help. They figured it out without me though!


70 Sport Fury
68 Charger
69 Coronet
72 RR
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2559301
10/05/18 10:29 AM
10/05/18 10:29 AM
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Phoenix, AZ
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MoparBilly Offline OP
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For most of the participants the heavy dense fog meant a little extra time to prepare for their passes, but for Darby Otto and his 74 Firebird, it was a matter of Drag Week survival. On his way to the drag strip, the Pontiac was clipped by a local commuter and the front end was damaged. The Drag Week family quickly came to his aid in the pits to massage the wounded bird back into shape so he could finish the event.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2559896
10/06/18 02:31 PM
10/06/18 02:31 PM
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Posts: 2,252
IL
furious70 Offline
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This photo is 8hrs early from where the story is at the moment, but I'm in front of the computer that has it on it right now smile

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70 Sport Fury
68 Charger
69 Coronet
72 RR
Re: Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience. [Re: MoparBilly] #2559906
10/06/18 02:52 PM
10/06/18 02:52 PM
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Phoenix, AZ
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MoparBilly Offline OP
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When Rachael and I rolled in, the fog was still too thick to begin racing. The crew was prepping the track, but standing at the starting line, you could see no further than the 330ft. mark so it was going to be a while longer. The perfectly maintained grass was still very wet with dew, so most of the participants were using up all the asphalt pits they could get on, but I knew from our previous visit that the mature trees in the back of the pits would be a prime spot when the sun popped out so we set up shop among them.
We had all the stuff nearly unloaded from the Valiant when Boone texted that they were on the way. His second text let me know that they had my fire jacket. I was wearing it for warmth when we arrived at the motel the night before, and had left it on the back of the chair in the room. Boone discovered it on his final walk through before turning in the key cards, or my day might have gotten pretty sideways!

Ron Maguire and his black 69 Dart were in the first pair down the track, and the small block found the cool moist air to it's liking, running 12.18-112, the A-body's best pass on Drag Week. While the grey skies and cool temps made it feel like it was still early, the start time had been delayed over an hour, and it seemed as if most of the participants were anxious to get the last drive of Drag Week 17 underway, as the day featured a record number of "one and done" attempts. Scott Hendrix's Pro Street 70 Duster was a tenth off his previous three days, but he decided to accept his first. Rick Callahan was two tenths off, racing his buddy Rod Munchiando, who's Dart GTS slowed as well, but both chose to hit the road for Cordova. Scott Abbott's twin SV-1s just flooded his poor 588 Hemi off the line as it blew black smoke like a diesel for the first 330ft., and I knew the 11.04-130 wouldn't work for him in the least, so he would be back.
"Waiting for the second session again", Rachael questioned me after we had set the timing and put the hood back in place.
"Yeah, we have plenty of time, and the lanes are stacked!"
"Ok, I'm going to take pictures again!"
She grabbed Boone's camera and disappeared into the throng of spectators which seemed to be growing by the minute.

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"Livin' in a powder keg and givin' off sparks" 4 Street cars, 5 Race engines
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