My 4 hour wait in the 100 degree heat and relentless sun in the staging lanes at darlington was rewarded with: disappointment. Based on my analysis of the last pass, I had leaned out the carbs another step, and tightened the clutch a turn. But the changes were not enuff to overcome the higher temps that had filtered in between mid morning and mid afternoon. 10.54 @ 135.3. second pass video

Jeff and I got got busy changing the car over to street trim. My hind end was dragging from the heat, and Jeff was beat too. But the motivation to get to the air conditioned hotel room that was waiting for us at Charlotte drove me forward. My Shumacker cordless air compressor/jumper pack was not happy in the heat either. It kept cutting out as we tried to air up the MIckey Thompsons DOT tires. I said screw it, lets go. Hopefully there will be an air compressor at the gas station across the street.

I dumped a quart of water over my head and shirt, got behind the wheel, and we headed across the street for gas and air. The air compressor required a credit card, I had to pay a few bucks just to air up the tires. Since we didn't have to follow a route, or stop at checkpoints, I looked at the map to find the shortest route. It was only 100 miles, so I didn't completely fill the tank. I wanted to pull into Charlotte with the main gas tank as low as possible to save weight going down the dragstrip. Since there was no checkpoints, and no stops for gas, I didn't take any pictures on the way to Charlotte.
We checked into our hotel there, got cooled off in the room for a little while, then I went down and started working on the car. Jeff found that his new friends Paul and Joe Castiglione were staying at the same hotel. Jeff got to know them because they had purchased a road runner from the estate of a friend of Jeff's who had passed away recently. I checked the lash, and changed the plugs. Castiglione's had brought some kind of moonshine or something like that that they offered to Jeff and I. I passed on that stuff, but Jeff partook. And partook some more. At first I thought what kind of a trunk monkey goes out and gets drunk when there's work to do. But then I thought oh well, it's been a hard day, he needs to have a little fun and blow off some steam.