After Drag Week 2018, HEMI Joel, and I left Atlanta Dragway tired, wore out, happy we finished the event, yet bummed out we finished in 4th place. Yet somehow on the way home we talked about things that could be improved for the next year. Things to make the car go faster, pick up ET when it had 5 mph over everyone else in the class, make the crossover from Street to Race and vice versa easier, and less time consuming. By the time we got home, we had it figured out, and we would come back to Drag Week in 2019 ready to go... At least that was the plan... Little did we know, life would happen, and the world would come to a stand still after that.

Lots of people wonder why the big thrash to get to Drag Week? Well it goes something like this for most. After returning from what is the most grueling week of torture, as far as working on a car, driving it 1000 miles in the heat, rain, blazing sun, and by the time you get home, you don't even want to LOOK at the car again for a couple of months. As for Joel, he runs his own business, and while he does take care of a few things while on the road, when he returns, it's time to buckle down again, and take care of things that might have been missed in his absence.

Fast forward to midyear 2019, and while working on my Road Runner, I get a phone call from Joel, saying he wanted to stop by and talk to me. Joel, and I live about 7 miles apart, as the crow flies, and we talk on the phone at least once a week. It must have been very important if he wanted to talk at my place, in person. I told him to stop over anytime. Joel came over that night, and walked into the garage, and gave me the news. "We are going to skip Drag Week". OK, what's up? Joel had gone in for a check up, on suspicion, and the doctor had found something. Wanting to get it taken care of right away, meant missing Drag Week. I'm not gonna lie, I got a little choked up. Not because of missing Drag Week, but Joel is a very good friend of mine, not just a Drag Week buddy. We've done a lot of thing together over the years, and seen a lot of cool things. Things I'd never have done without him. I told Joel, don't worry about it, take care of yourself, and we'll go to Drag Week in 2020.

We all know what happened for Drag Week 2020. Really bummed it didn't happen, but it is what it is.

2021 rolls on in, and HOPE that Drag Week might happen in September. Only time will tell, but registration did open up, and those that were signed up for 2020 would get first shot at 2021. Since Joel was lightning quick on the keyboard, we were in for 2020. Race #1 complete.

Joel had plans for not only entering Drag Week, but also the Midwest Drags, which started in Norwalk, Ohio.

Over the last couple years, Joel had been making changes to the Coupe. One of which was taking the T56 Magnum apart, and having 1-4 gears "face plated". The T56 magnum is not known for it's powershifting ability, and having it face plated would change that. keeping 5-6 with stock synchro's and sliders, would keep the trans easy to drive on the street. they are not needed going down the track anyways. Joel also switch clutches in the car. In 2018 he ran a McLeod Soft Lok. While this is a good setup for a race only car, it is not a good choice for a street car. Each day we would arrive at the track, take 3-4 turns of base pressure out of the clutch, make a pass, then put 3-4 turns of base back in. It was very time consuming, and minutes at the track, can result in hours down the road on Drag Week. Something different was needed that could be used for both. I think a McLeod Twin disc RTX is what he installed in the car? The last major item that was switched, was valve springs. Out came the basic type of spring, and in went the Beehive style spring. Joel can give better details on that swap, but lets just say, it turned into a pain to get everything correct, and add in parts being out of stock, and unknown backorder status. The HEMI project came to a halt because of it.

And with downtime, it gave Joel time to hone his arts and crafts skills: