Rachael's third run was an 11.71-100, and she started packing up the Belvedere, as well as organizing my stuff for a quick getaway as the impending rain loomed ever closer. John made his last attempt a keeper as his well worn drag radials finally managed to grip the Cordova starting line, rewarding his perseverance with a stout 10.92-120.

I looked at the small block, elbows on the flat expanse of the driver's front fender, and contemplated my next, and possibly last attempt of the day. I was discussing it with Boone and Dale, but something John had mentioned about my car's weight was still bouncing around between my ears.

"Boone, why don't you take a pass in it...couldn't hurt to drop a hundred pounds out of the car!"
"More like a buck, twenty!" Boone was shaking his head, "I've never ran this thing through, and I doubt I could improve on your times in one hit!"
"It's worth a try", Dale agreed, "what do you weigh right now, Boone?"
"Around 180..."
"...and I'm about 280!" I interjected.
"You're a hamburger short of 305!" Dale started laughing, "grab your helmet and jacket Boone, it's worth a shot!"

I had Aaron crawl under the dash again, to adjust the rpm for the shift light. Previously I had it at 6K, and I would hang on the light a bit before I shifted, but I wanted Boone to just grab the next gear as soon as he saw color. Boone drove straight to the water box, as the lanes were completely empty, so I grabbed a spot on the fence to watch. He was far too conservative on the burnout, and the Valiant predictably spun. I could also hear the rev limiter get tickled before each gear change. The 10.61-127.7 was nearly two mph better than my best of the day, but 4 hundredths slow.
"He needs another run! It'll give us the number!" Dale exclaimed as he ran up to me breathlessly. We could see lightning strikes a few miles away as Boone seemed to be taking his sweet time on the return road. He was taking forever crossing the scales, and both Dale and I were waving demonstrably for him to head back to the lanes.

"Guys...nothing scares a track owner worse than the threat of lightning striking his timing system, so we are going to pull the plug right now", we heard Brian Lohnes announce over the loud speaker, and just like that our chance for another pass was over.