"There are walls made of paper, and walls made of stone. And some that are made out of livin' alone" is the first line of a song by the Steeldrivers. I sat back in the Valiant and looked at my NHRA tech card, and my Drag Week entry sheet with pen in hand, and rubbed my eyes. I had no intention of letting a wall of paper stand between me and my dream of a nine second Drag Week. The car was legal, cert was in place, as well as all required safety equipment, and I was a licensed driver...emphasis on the was. When I renewed my license in 2014 I had dropped the 7.50 portion because I didn't want to go take a physical (a requirement they have since dropped), and since the plan was a 10.00 street car, I just renewed my competition numbers and let the 4b code go. I would run the 6 passes and renew it once I returned to Phoenix, but I needed to get through tech today with a green light to 8.50.
Dale had just renewed his, and had a temporary sheet from NHRA, because their license printer was down and they were a month or more behind on printing new licenses. I decided to list him as driver and carry his sheet through tech, figuring they were going to be looking at those temp sheets all day long.. I practiced spacing the letters of "Dale" out enough to cover it over with "Billy" after the fact, and once I had it down I wrote Dale on the driver line as lightly as I could. I knew they would give the tech card back, so writing over it would be easy, still I was worried about getting a hold of the white Drag Week sheet again.

I saw that Ray (sixpackgut, Moparts) and the "Black Pearl" Barracuda had cleared tech, so I went over to see how it went for him. Like me, he intended to run nines this year, and while his paperwork was all in order, there had been a few minor things that didn't meet the letter of the law on the car. Ray is not as versed in such subterfuge as I am, so I had given him a few tips to make sure these infractions went undetected.
"Are you good to run as fast as you want?" I asked as we exchanged greetings.
"Yeah, I'm good to 8.50! You need to come over and pick up all that nitrous stuff you bought from me though, since I'm in an N/A class, it doesn't look good having two bottles in my pit!"
I had answered a facebook ad months earlier, and purchased much of Ray's N20 parts inventory, but we agreed to save on shipping and just have him bring the stuff to Drag Week.
"Cool, I'll do that, I'm just glad you reminded me the other day, as I had already forgot about it!"
Conversing with Ray always puts a smile on my face, even after the long trip. He just exudes enthusiasm, and it seems contagious, I headed back to the Valiant with a little more pep than I had earlier.