Once the Driver's meeting was over, everyone was ready to hit the strip. That was delayed, however, by difficulties with Tulsa's timing system and lights, which the track attributed to unruly overnight guests. A plausible excuse when you consider there were Texans on the property during the hours in question. One of which was rumored to be a Mopar guy who switched to Fords, and eventually ended up with a Fox Mustang! We all know, once a poor tortured soul starts down that slippery slope...
Ray (sixpackgut) came over and talked to us for a while. I was immediately jealous, here's a guy who is 42 going on 27, and has such a zest for living and enjoying everyday that I found myself wondering what I was so upset about. Rachael thought I needed some cool Mopar tatoos like his, so I had to remind her that Mom was waiting for me to come home in a week and that wouldn't work!!
I dropped the pipes off the Valiant while Dale jetted the carb up. "You better check the timing on the Belvedere before she runs it on the bottle", I reminded him. He came back shortly, "It was at 30".
"Nitrous and street driving ready! Guess that explains why it was so lazy yesterday."
"Yep, jetted you up 82/90..."
The guy was plum wrung out, don't know what was keeping him moving. He had made the comment on Saturday, that if the Gremlin or Truck niether one made it, he was staying home. Seeing all the cool cars on Sunday had changed his mind! He walked over to where Darryl was messing with his carb after two dissapointing 11.60ish passes with 1.8 range sixty foots on Sunday. Darryl was explaining his problems when Dale leaned over the fender to peer into the top of the carb. "One of your back air bleeds is plugged completely up, ya need to blow them all out." Dale commented flatly and moved away. Darryl looked at me, "Dang it! He hasn't slept in 29 hours, and he sees that, after I've fought with this thing..."

I pulled up, easy burnout. Staged, transbrake, but two step isn't hooked up with all my wiring mess, so I softpeddle the throttle to about 3K, bang, I felt the ole vaguely familiar feeling of the front end getting air, geez, it's been...Aug 08?...rpm's coming up quick, bang second before color on the shift light...you ever driven a smallblock car before Moron?...shiftlight barely blinks at 6200 and into drive, better than yesterday, but still feels like no fuel up top, just seems to level out, shutdown, feels good...2 weeks ago I didn't even know if this engine would hold water, be happy with the run...11.62-114.5..OK, better than any pass on Drag Week 2011 with spray, Let's get to Texas! I headed for the tower to turn in my slip, and get the map to the next track.
"You happy with that run?" Tonya Turk asked as I handed her my timeslip.
"Well...I.." I contemplated.
"Sheez, Tonya", a HOTROD staffer chimed in, "You never ask a drag racer that!"
Darryl staged, the Dart moved around a little and ran 11.43-117.4.
"Well, that was my best buddy and he's got me covered by two tenths", I sighed, "So I'll have to listen to that all the way to Ennis!"
Tonya and the staffer laughed, then she handed me the route instructions...380 miles, ouch, now Drag Week REALLY begins!
I went to our pit area to prepare Rachael for the Daily Driver session upcoming. Darryl loaded up his other set of tires, "I'm heading to a tire shop to swap to the M/T's, be back in a bit".

Shade tree engineering at it's finest!! Too cool,Billy!!

"Fire it up", I told Rachael as I turned on the bottle, "Now blip the button".
She tapped it with her thumb, and the 440 jumped to 3000 Rpm. "Again", I added. The same result. She looked surprised, which was the effect I was hoping for. A couple of people standing around looked surprised as well, perhaps this demonstration should have been performed before she was halfway through the staging lanes, but I wanted it fresh in her head.
"It's not a toy, this is serious stuff...roll out of the hole aways, then hit it. If for any reason you aren't comfortable just let off the button, but stay on the throttle, then you can try the button again later in the pass. Let off when you shift to drive, there isn't much to gain in E.T. that far down track, and we risk taxing the fuel system".
"I know Dad, I've got it", she looked me in the eye. This was about the tenth time I had given her the same speech. Darren and his Charger were 6 cars ahead of us and two lanes over, but I could see Dale working the lane director, and I knew he was up to no good! We watched Dale's orchestrations work out in front of us until the Director pointed at the Tan Charger and the Blue Belvedere...here we go!

Darren dropped an .021 light that had him out in front a full half second on her at the 60ft, but he woefully shortshifted to second about the same time she found the button. The belvedere had made up the ground and had 4ft on the Charger by the 1/8th. She pulled well past and lifted off the button as instructed...12.17-105, I gave a fist pump and a whoop, that was a number we could live with! Dale didn't look happy with the 13.07-104 that Darren had put on the board, but I assured him it was a good enough start.

I'm posting this pic twice, I know..but I really like it!

you have created a monster with Rachael.LOL.When I walked over to talk to you at the first of the week the look I got was"Great,we are here to race and here comes "another" guy dad knows". You done good.

Ok, everyone in our party had turned in thier timeslips and had been given directions to The Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas; another hurdle behind us. Our pits were a mess, Darryl had returned with the M/T's on, and gave his old Goodyears to Dale, they wouldn't be making the trip with us, no room. Darren had intended to go back up and try to make a nitrous pass, but Dale talked him out of it, "Darren, it's 2pm, and we're looking at a ten hour trip, and niether of us have slept in 30 hours, we have to get going."
Rachael was concerned about the Valiant trunk situation, so her Grandpa dug around in the tools out of Darren's trunk and handed her a cordless drill with a step bit on it. "Stick this in the key hole, and drill out the lock cylinder, then we can punch it out and get in the trunk".
"Really Pop's? Show me how", she asked him.
"Are you crazy? Your Dad would kill me if I did that to his car!" he replied.
"I ain't scared..we have to get it open right?"
She unceremoniously jammed the bit into the 50 year old lock cylinder and let it rip. A few minutes later she walked over to where I was talking to Darren and Dale and handed me the mutilated remains of my trunk mechanism, "Got the trunk open, now let's get packed up and go!"
"Good grief girl, what did you do?"
"You weren't doing anything, somebody had to do it! By the way, after my pass, when I went to back into my pit spot, reverse wouldn't work right away...it took a little bit."

Concerned, I went over and fired up the Belvedere and tried reverse and low..no problems, so I chalked it up to her being jacked up after that pass, and not getting the shifter in gear.
Since I knew we were going to be a while getting everybody packed up and ready to roll, I convinced Darryl to head on out on his own.
"Call me when you get to the first checkpoint", I asked him as he headed out on his way.

Dale was in his 1 ton, and had Cody with him, he was heading back to his place to get packed up. Darren had to go home and get his stuff packed, and get Jamie. I had to go pick up Boone, and his stuff, and Rachael had to take the Belvedere to Dale's to pick him and his stuff up!
The first order of business was for Rachael and I to leave the track and head for the closest gas station. When we were full of 91 octane, we jumped out on I-169 backtracking to Owasso. I had went about 3 miles when my phone rang, it was Dale, "Darren broke down, and needs someone to bring him some gas..I didn't want to stop in the 1 ton 'cause this is the truck that towed him in the track."
"Call Rachael" I directed, "She's got the fuel jug in her car".
Just what we needed! When I arrived, Boone was up and showered, and had most of his clothes ready to go. Mom, Dad, and Jamie were there also, so I told them what was going on.
Rachael called later and told us they had put in fuel, and discovered it was out of water as well, once they filled it up with water, they realized the battery was low, so now they needed jumper cables.
"It's just you and Darren?"
"No, Dale is here, he had Cody drop him off."
"Ok,...Boone and I will bring the cables!"
When we arrived, I quickly realized this was not a good situation. Darren had the Charger on the shoulder, but was nosed right up to where the solid white line ended and people began moving to the right to hit the turn onto the highway (see picture below). People were flying down this road and traffic was really thick.
"Dale, why is traffic so heavy here?" I asked.
"Direct route from Port of Catoosa."
"We need to wrap this up, somebody is gonna get hurt." I pleaded.
I'm one of those guys who will ruin a tire driving to an exit rather than fixing it on the side of the road, seen one too many extreme police videos, I guess, or as a truck driver, just have no faith in my fellow drivers!
"Cables aren't gonna do any good...he burnt the starter up before we got here.."
"You HAVE to be kidding..."
"Nope", Dale shook his head, "he thought it was just vapor locked, was worried about getting off the road, and melted the starter to the ground!"
"Alright...Boone and I are packed and ready. You need to take Rachael and the Belvedere to your house and do the same...We have to get moving! We'll take care of this"
The guy was truly dead on his feet, It didn't take much convincing, and I was happy to have my daughter and at least one car out of this situation.

The drama starts..... good job so far Billy

First thing we did was push the thing up the road a couple hundred feet to get it away from the exit. Then we started discussing solutions.
"Call Mom and Dad...have them hook up the trailer, and come load it up, then I'll change the starter at the house." Darren suggested.
Boone got on the phone and put that plan into motion.
"If we put it on a trailer, you're done." I told him.
"I'll change it right here then!" he shot back.
"Be serious", Boone added "You haven't slept in a day and a half, and it'll be dark out here before you get it done!"
"Fine, I'll call Jamie and she can tow me home with the Dakota...it's okay to get towed to a safe place to work on the car." He walked away with cell phone in hand, and put that plan into motion.
Boone and I walked to the back of the Valiant and I showed him the Summit box with the spare starter I had brought. He shook his head, "We need to convince him to throw in the towel, it's late, and he's shot already". I nodded in agreement...and we proceeded to put that plan into motion.

Mom and Dad arrived first, and pulled in front of Darren's Charger, which put the front of thier truck into the turn lane. Mom was on the passenger's side of the truck, but instead of walking in the grass, she came around the front and set off towards us in the first lane of traffic. No sooner than I finished yelling at her to get out of the road, Jamie pulled up behind the Valiant, stepped out of the Dakota, and nonchalantly walked toward us in the traffic lane as well. Next thing I know I've got five Okies looking at me like I'm the crazy one, because I keep telling them to get out of the street!
A lengthy discussion ensued, in which Darren resigned himself to loading it on the trailer. "You're on your third Drag Week...it's an easy call for you, you've finished before, this is my first, I'm not ready for it to end!"
Dad was particularly upset with my "If it goes on the trailer it's done" attitude. "What about in '06, when I snuck off to the parts store in Cordova, and brought you parts in the bathroom! You weren't interpreting the rules so tightly then!" He had Boone and I in his steely gaze, searching for a reprieve. I gave it my best Val Kilmer/Doc Holliday impression, "My hypocrisy only goes so far...".

We pushed the Charger onto the trailer, (for hopefully the last time ever in my life) and loaded everything up in the trucks. Dad gave Boone and I each a big hug, and said, "You boys be careful, and have fun, Ok?"
"All right guys, you better get moving..." Darren said.
"You gonna have that thing running when we get back here Friday?" Boone asked him.
"Heck yeah..I'll be there, call me with updates!" and he headed back to the Dakota with Jamie.
Boone and I watched them drive off, and then headed back to the Valiant when I got a phone call from Darryl.
"Took my pics at the first checkpoint, and fueled up in Muskogee, good thing too because there isn't much out here once you leave there."
I told him we were just leaving, and explained the added problems.
"Wow, you better get moving or you won't get there 'til midnite!" He added
Actually I was thinking to myself a midnight arrival would be a best case scenario at this point.
We fired up the Valiant and jumped on 169. We passed back by the track and surveyed the pits, still a few guys not on thier way yet! A mile and a half later we were doing the stop and start, bump and grind of rush hour Tulsa traffic at the 3 large freeway crossings. Last year we spent a great deal of time at 210 degrees on the old mechanical water temp guage, this year's magic number on the electric guage seemed to be 215, which is where it locked in at even after we jumped on 51 and started moving again.
The 51 morphed into the Muskogee Turnpike, and it was just plain HOT out on that stretch. At 2600 the temp would drop a shade under 215, 2800 it would hang right at it, 3K, it would start moving up, but Boone and I had window vent wings and life was good! One underpass featured a couple of Buicks and an early 60's Impala pulled over, but we rolled on figuring 3 was enough to handle it themselves. A couple miles later and the underpass featured the beautiful Orange Unlimited 2000 Mustang Cobra, with it's front-end removed. We pulled over and Boone ran back to check. He came back a few minutes later, "They've got someone bringing another electric fan, he said when it hit 225 he figured they better check it out!"

The Mustang would be no-show at Ennis, so we never knew if they made it any further than that underpass. Dale called us shortly after that stop and said they were rolling, and would catch us soon enough. We stopped for gas in Muskogee, and answered a bevy of questions about the car, and the event. Then we pulled into Okies Steakhouse a few miles further down the road..Checkpoint #1! 46 miles down 334 left to go!

These guys were apparently inside eating, relaxing, and waiting for the heat to die down...I was jealous, thinking that was a great idea!

Hey Billy,thanks for all the great updates and stories,Hot Rod really should put it to print,let people who don't the trial,tribulations...and fun of course of Drag Week.Being out on the left coast,I never paid alot attention to Drag Week,but now,after reading your stuff,I sooo want to do it at least once.
I,like all of us on Moparts,are looking forward to each and every post..

Another call to Rachael confirmed that they were eating up the Muskogee Turnpike at nearly 80mph and would be with us shortly, so we decided to wait it out at the checkpoint. Boone and I again found ourselves answering questions for interested motorists who were just pulling in and asking what was going on, and why had they seen all these cool cars for the last 30 miles!