On a normal vacation when you arrive at the hotel, you are usually done for the day. Not on Drag Week. Between working on the car to be ready for the next day, and chatting with fellow Drag Week participants, there is still plenty to do. As soon as we pulled into our Hotel parking lot, Joel went inside to check us in, and I removed the trunk lid, and started to get tools out, slide the drain pan under the HEMI, and started the oil change. Fist was to remove the oil filter, and make sure to check for the gasket. Sure enough the gasket had stuck to the oil cooler, just like it did in 2018. We didn't need to seal coat the parking lot, like before. (I still want to see the WalMart security video of that mess.) I filled the oil filter as much as I could with Valvoline VR1 20-50 race oil, applied a light film of oil on the gasket, and screwed it in place. Next was to drain the pan. I located the proper allen head wrench from the tool box, and started removing the oil plug. The hot oil rushed out of the pan, and quickly overfilled the top of the drain pan, and overflowed out onto the asphalt. So much for not making a mess... Guess it's a Drag Week ritual for me? About this time Joel arrives back to the Coupe, when I asked what took so long he told me he was swarmed by his adoring fans, signing autographs, and telling everyone how he did a huge wheelstand that day. He said he posed for a couple pictures after he used his new plastic comb... After he was able to break away from his cheering section, he told them he was going to get busy doing his work on the Coupe. In reality, he just was talking with the night clerk at the Hotel front desk. The only autograph he signed was to pay the bill. He started removing the spark plugs, valve covers, and starts checking valve lash. Meanwhile I'm pouring in fresh oil into the HEMI. We did talk with Squirrel a bit, but Jim retired to his room not long after we arrived. Always great talking with Jim. With a name like Squirrel, you would think he's a wired up, chatterbox, but not even close. Jim is super laid back, and after 10 minutes of talking with him, you'd think he was a Librarian. Full of knowledge, but very soft spoken.

We did a attract one drunk guy watching us. He even offered me a job, making way more money than I make currently. When I asked him what's the catch? He told me I'd be living on the road 330 days out of the year. I told him no thanks. I like where I live, and I'd most likely have to miss future Drag Weeks. Living out of a suitcase 10 days out of the year on Drag Week is long enough for me. With most of my work finished, I told Joel, I was going to the room, and retiring for the night. Since I hadn't slept the night before, he was more than OK with that. I grabbed my gear, and headed in. After rolling around in parking lots all day, a hot shower felt great. It was around 1:30am when my head hit the pillow. I barely remember the bull running through the China shop aka Joel coming into the room, so I must have been tired.

The 6:00am alarm went off way too early. As always, I got up before Joel, and headed to the bathroom. When I finished, I went to flush the toilet, and nothing... The image of harry in Dumb and Dumber immediately went through my mind. At least Joel didn't put exlax in my drink the night before, like in the movie. Even better that Joel didn't go use the bathroom ahead of me and drop a stink pickle in the can. I checked the sink. No water... With no water, that left the possibility Joel didn't take a shower the night before, and I'd have to put up with stench of him. No worries. He left a trail of hotel towels everywhere. That nightmare was diverted. I walked back out to the room, and told Joel the bad news that there was no water. No water also meant that Joel couldn't get his morning coffee. Great, he's gonna be in a fog more than normal today. To my surprise, Joel quickly got up, dressed, grabbed his 6 travel bags, pillow, and headed out the door. We loaded up the Coupe, removed the boot from the front tire, and headed to Summit Motorsports Park.

The track wasn't too far away. The air was cool, and it was the first time we kept the side windows up in the Coupe. Amazing how much quieter the ride is with them up. We arrived at the track about 6:40am. It was rumored that the gate would be opened for the racers at 7:00am. Joel said, "Lets get busy, and change the car over now." "We better wait, just in case the line starts moving, we don't want all our stuff all over." "I guess so, but I'm going to remove the rear spring rubbers now." No big deal, that was a simple job, just required lifting the car with a bottle jack, and that was easily accessible in the trunk. While in line we also shut off the ball valve for the street gas, and ran the Holley 94's dry. Then open up the race gas ball valve, and fill the carbs with 110 octane race gas. At 7:00am exactly, Bill Bader, the owner of Summit Motorsports Park, opened the gate himself, and cars immediately started to make their way to the pits. The track at Norwalk is nothing short of amazing. Not a speck of dirt anywhere. Joel asks where we should park, and I told him as close to the staging lanes as possible. He does the best he can, and we hop out, and start switching the car over to race trim right away. Empty the trunk, remove the passenger seat, remove the exhaust, Air cleaners. The car is quickly ready to run, and Joel heads to the staging lanes. The track was to go hot at 8:00am sharp, so we had a little bit of time to chat with others. As I walk up to the starting line, just to look the track over, and be amazed that such a nice track exists, I get a phone call from Joel. "The HEMI is a quart low on oil. Can you walk back to our pit, and get one, and bring it here?" Sure... I made my way back to our pit spot, and found a quart of oil, and made my way to the staging lanes. Joel sees me, and then says "Did you bring a funnel?" "No." We need a funnel." "Figure out a way to put it in, or walk back yourself." Joel got the oil in the HEMI.

8:00am, and as promised, the track went hot, and cars started making passes. Joel was only 15-20 cars from the front of the line, and it didn't take long for him to pull into the burnout box. After a decent burnout, Joel staged, and when the lights came down, he dumped the clutch. The car seamed to slip the clutch, and looked lazy compared to the day before. Never the less, Joel rowed through the gears like a pro, but around the 1000' mark got out of the throttle. The scoreboard lit up. 10:35 at 115mph. Wonder what that was all about, and will Joel take that run? We knew Mark Fisher was in first place with a comfortable one second lead, and third place was a full second and a half behind us, but was that good enough for Joel? Guess I'll find out, when we meet up.

As I'm walking back to the pit area, the concession stand is now open, and not much of a line, so I see what they have, and the breakfast sandwich looks like the breakfast I needed. It didn't disappoint, and was one of the best meals I'd had on this trip yet. When I got back to the pit area, Joel had just arrived. I asked him if we were going to hit the road, or make another pass? "Hitting the road!!" What a relief. Joel walked off to turn in the time slip, and I got busy returning the car to street trim. Now normally on Drag Week, you bring your time slip to the tower, and route sheets are given to you there. At Norwalk, they were having people turn in time slips at the hospitality center. We missed that memo, which was too bad, as it wasn't far from us. Joel got a slight run around from that, but was back fairly quick. All that was left for him to do was install the rear spring rubbers. With that done, we were ready to hit the road. Time it took to switch the car over? 21 minutes. We left the gates of Summit Motorsports Park at 8:48am. The earliest we had ever gotten out of a track on Drag Week. Time to find a gas station... The closest one was about 10 miles away. Once there, Joel saw another Kodak moment. A Moose to stand next to, and take a picture. It's not like me to do so, but why not. Joel can't be the only dork on Drag Week.