Rachael attempted another pass, and went 13.75-104, with a horrible 2.42 60ft time. When she returned, I called her on it, of course.
She put her face in her hands to cover the red creeping into her cheeks, "When I pulled into the water, I accidently shifted to neutral, and sat there at 4500rpm for a while, wondering why I didn't see smoke. I was so embarrassed when I realized what I had done, I just pulled up, staged, and went!"
"Good grief!" I laughed, "well, that's enough for today, tomorrow it's for real!"

Dale's daughter Kelly showed up at the track about 20 minutes before Boone and Dale went through tech, and she had Boone's insurance verification with her. In Boone's haste to get around that morning, he had left it on his kitchen table, and was pacing nervously until it showed up.
Boone and Dale's entries cleared tech/registration without a hitch, then it was on to the Dakota. Hot Rod had opened the tech lines to the wait-list, and drive up people who had stuck around all day in hopes of getting in, and a beautiful black Willys had pulled up behind the trailer. He had left what he thought was adequate room to unload the Dakota, but he was unaware that the truck didn't have working brakes as of yet. A fact my brothers really didn't want to share with those standing around in tech, so it was a balancing act of trying to muscle it off the trailer, as nonchalantly as possible, without wiping out a fiberglass masterpiece!
Once in place, the tech inspector looked at it dubiously, "Right turn, left turn, headlights", he worked his way through the list as Darren worked the hastily wired switches.
Finally he breathed hard, shook his head, and said, "You know what, Fire it up for me!"
Dale opened the hood, crossed the relay posts with a screwdriver, and thumbed the accelerator pumps, as the 499 thumped to life.
Still not completely happy, he came back with Tonya Turk. She put hands on hips, stared Dale in the eye, and said, "Look, we've got people on the wait list standing here to get in. I'd hate to turn someone away, if this truck isn't going to make it here tomorrow."
Dale returned the look, and stated, "Tonya, it'll be ready, it'll be here, and it'll make a pass!"
Darren got his credentials, and all those waiting were allowed in as well, including Dale's buddy Michael Beeler, with his purple 4 speed 70 Dart, and the father/son team of Ken and Wade Metzinger!

Once we got back to Dale's, he explained to me, "One of the guys that works at the track from time to time, offered us the use of his shop, and lift, to finish up Darren's truck, so we are going to take it over there."
"Cool, but can you help me a minute", I asked, You saw my 12.53?"
"Yeah, what was up with that?"
"Not exactly sure, but help me check WOT, I may have messed up the adjustment the other night."
I jumped behind the wheel of the Valiant, while he removed the breather, so he could check. I held the pedal against the positive stop in the floorboard, and he started laughing, "You barely even moved the secondaries!"
We adjusted it correctly, then he loaded up with Boone, Darren, James, and Dad, and they headed out in his 1 ton.

When I walked into Dale's house, Rachael had started cooking a huge supper for everyone.
"Why are you cooking so much?"
"They said they would all be right back".
"Yeah, sure," I laughed, "if midnight means right back!"

Another early casualty for the Mopar camp was Mike Chenoweth and his Hemi Road Runner that averaged 10.60's at 130 in 2010, but has suffered two early DNF's since then including no times recorded this year.