We walked up the back stairs of the tower to the second story balcony, and walked past a long line of people waiting to turn in their slips. The line was so long that we ended up in the stair well leading up to the third floor, and we sat down on a stair with a group of ten or more stragglers also at the back of the line. None of us were moving at the time because the Drag Week staff was busy trying to put the ladder together, instead of filling out our final slips. So we sat in the stairwell and talked about our Drag Weeks, just moments after it was over for most of us, and emotions were still raw.
"I'm not happy, Boone. It's frustrating that I couldn't get it back in the 30's after Indy!"
"Yeah, well you improved your average by almost three tenths over last year, and your best run by nearly a tenth, so I think that's plenty to be happy about! You could be me, I came here hoping that converter change would net me a ten, and I slowed down!"
"Well the Barnyard Viper is a fan favorite and you've finished three years in a row!"
"Not good enough...I want a ten." Boone lamented, shaking his head.
I pointed at the base of the stairs just below us, and we listened in as Joe Barry (Third overall), Tom Bailey (Winner) and Dennis Taylor(brought three cars he built himself, his daughter ran eights) were having a similar conversation.
"I'm just really discouraged", Joe let out a heavy sigh, "I sunk a bunch of time, effort and money into improving the '56, and to leave here with nothing to show for it. At least last year I had one six!"
"Yeah", Dennis agreed, "Last year we won Gasser with the Ranchero, so this year we put a blower on and break the thing. Then all the problems with the Nova...not what I expected for sure!"
"Look at me", Tom Bailey chimed in, "I build a whole new car...stretched, narrowed, lighter, and work my tail off all week to run times the old car was capable of!"
I looked back at Boone, "We hot rodders are a sick bunch."
"Yeah", he laughed, "Never satisfied, never truly happy, always looking for better, faster, more!!!"

The track (and us) sat idle for an hour before they finally announced the cars in the Quick 32 SME bracket race. With the advantage of hindsight I looked back at the live feed from 2013 and 2014, and found it took them an hour on both occasions to accomplish the same thing. Seriously, this is an issue that needs to be addressed! Once they called the competitors to the lanes, those of us in line to turn in our slips started moving in the direction of the tower suite once again.