We turned in our slips, picked up our route sheets, and returned to the pits to finish loading up all our stuff. A Division 3 official came by on his golf cart to explain that they were going to be letting racers in to claim their pit spots for the upcoming Division 3 Finals.
"I've seen rigs lined up since we came through the gate at 9 something, but you don't even do anything on Thursday", I shook my head, "I've ran 4 or 5 of them in Division 7."
"No, no, but we told them we would open the gates for pit parking at 1:00 pm, and we didn't realize your program was going to go over, so they are getting anxious!"
"Yeah, I understand that but I guess I don't get the need to show up a whole day early just to be first people through the gate", I shook my head.
"The sooner they get their pits staked out, the sooner they can start drinking, I guess", He laughed, "We are just asking the Drag Week guys that are doing major repairs to move over to the staging lanes."
"We are just finishing up", I explained, we'll be out of here in an hour or less."
"Ok, no big deal then, just know that they will be streaming in!"

A 3/4 ton pick-up with an open trailer and a well-worn Nova pulled directly beside us and stopped. His buddy with a Class C motor home, and an enclosed trailer pulled next to him and they got out as well.
"You guys gonna be here a while", one of them asked me.
"Yeah", I nodded, "Are we in your way?"
"Naw, we was trying to figure out how to save a few spots for our friends through this initial rush, but you're doing a heck of a job at that right now!"

I shrugged, and continued to prepare my car for the trip when five minutes later I heard the awful screech of metal on metal, and looked up in time to see a guy dragging his enclosed trailer over the nose of the Gremlin, narrowly missing pinning Dale between the two vehicles. He continued on for nearly two feet with people yelling at him and waving before he stopped. I was already around the Valiant and headed for his driver's door when he stepped out with one leg, looked back at the Gremlin, then put the truck in reverse and tried to back up to free the trailer from the car.
I slapped both hands on the door sill of the open window and yelled in his face, "If you move this truck another inch, I'm going to drag you out of it and beat you to death!"
He looked up at me slack jawed, with eyes as big as saucers, like he'd just seen an alien. The passenger told him to shut the truck off, just as I was about to reach in and do it myself.