I gotta stop looking at that Charger before I start cruising Craigslist for one.....

Go for it James.Make sure it has the PROPER motor in it.

The Belvedere features low back bucket seats that look close to original, but are actually out of a later model mustang. The headrests were removed, when they were re-upholstered, but the best feature is they fully recline... at least according to Dale that's the best part! He was fully stretched out and barely coherent when Rachael pulled in for her checkpoint picture. We jumped back on the course, and successfully made the next cloverleaf, when Rachael decided to take the lead. A mile and half later, Boone and I turned right on 64 East, while Rachael continued on down SR 165. A couple miles later Boone had a phone call, "That was Dale, he said they figured it out, and would catch up!", Boone laughed!
The temp guage was directly between 190 and 215, as the shadows grew long and US 64 morphed into OK 2 as we eased through Warner Ok. The next call from Darryl came in, "I was working through these twisties down here on OK 2, and I couldn't keep up with that darn Pro Mod Camaro...that thing moves like a slot car!"
"Really, that's crazy, wouldn't have expected that".
"Yeah, he pulled off at a little casino a few miles back, guess he wanted to do some gambling...Then I ran across this stretch of road down here where they dug out about 20 feet of the asphalt in our lane, stuck up a bump sign and just left it...luckily I drove into the opposite lane and missed it...keep an eye out!"
When I hung up, Boone asked about the Camaro, and I realized he had missed the track action today. I mean, we had talked about what we done, but I hadn't brought up any of the other cars.
"He went 7.00 at 193, but I never figured it would make the drive...Darryl says he's moving right along!"
"That's cool, I saw it in tech on Sunday and thought it was pretty much on the ragged edge of something I'd attempt to drive on a public street!"

Dave Ahokas and his Pro Mod Camaro were also a No-Show in Ennis, later in the week we heard a vague reference to "charging system issues", but all we were left with was a feeling of "What if?".

Alot of people missed the sign and carnage ensued.
Then I ran across this stretch of road down here where they dug out about 20 feet of the asphalt in our lane, stuck up a bump sign and just left it...luckily I drove into the opposite lane and missed it...keep an eye out!"

That Camero is a good looking ride... to bad he had
to drop out

Boone is the best navigator to have with you, I can just drive, and enjoy the scenery when he's in the jump seat reading the instruction sheet. Which leads me to a couple points. I was surprised earlier in the day when Darren had commented about this being his "First Drag Week", when essentially he co-drove with me last year. The guys who've done dragweek will consider this a redundant statement, but this is clearly an event best enjoyed by two people in the car. Whether the second person is refered to as the "Co-Driver, Navigator, Mechanic, Side-kick", or the one we picked up on BangShift earlier this year and abused all trip long "Trunk Monkey", it's just great to not only have someone to help you out, but someone to share the experience with. When Boone was struggling with the decision to give up on the truck, I reminded him that I was his co-driver in 06, and he owed me one, so I was calling in those chips in 2012!

"Did you see Lane's Truck yesterday?" Boone asked as we cruised along.
"Lane's Truck?"
"Yeah..you know, the Baja Chase Truck, we hung out with them in Amarillo last year, and at the Awards in Topeka."
"You mean Mike? Swede on BangShift? with his son?
"Yeah, they had the Banner we signed last year copied and made into a decal on the door, it's really cool!"
"I did see something on the door but I thought it was just a Drag Week sticker like guys put on thier trailer, I didn't realize it was a copy of the banner!"
The perspective stuck me as odd..brothers, who had shared the same event, and to me it was "Mike and his Son in the Truck", while to Boone it was "Lane and his Dad in the Truck"!
Boone's phone rang, and he looked over at me, "Dale says the Belvedere is running on fumes."
"They didn't fuel in Muskogee...what do we have coming up?"
"10 miles or so to Wilburton."
We were working through Robbers Cave State Park, and it was twisty switchbacks and undulating terrain, the ole headlights were barely adequate, even with 4 of em. I would oversteer at the beginning of the curve to set the spool moving in that direction, then slightly steer back to control it, almost dirt-tracking each one..I was actually enjoying it now that the sun was down and the temperature had plunged to a comfortable level, both outside, and on the guage.

We pulled into Wilburton, found a small gas station slash casino and pulled up to the pumps. A latemodel Chevy pick-up and a 4th Gen Firebird were there, both DragWeek entries.
I pried myself out of the seat, and hobbled around the car, it was going to take a moment to limber up! As we filled both cars, the two Buicks and the Impala we had seen earlier drove past with a honk and a wave.

"hardy hand shakes"

The ksj Challenger at Memphis, surrounded by guys who are not ksj.

The anti-ksj Challenger. Er, I mean the carbon copy ksj Challenger, or the negative copy ksj Challeng...
Ok kids, cameras used to have this stuff called "film" in them, and the "Negative" was the opposite of the picture you got...carbon was this stuff you used between two sheets...
NEVER MIND, I'm old ok...basically I'm saying this car had the colors reversed from ksj's ride!

I like what the announcer said about the pro mod car.

"what we have here is a full on Jerry Bickel pro-mod that this gentlemen has crafted a 68 camaro grille onto"

His big advantage is certainly aero and probably a little weight. My dad has pics of both larsons and lutzs cars(winner nova and runner up 57 Chevy) with the left front off the ground at 1000ft.

Did you happen too notice what was in the dirty bird's (white firebird)trailer that helped them win their class?

liquid courage in "DirtyBird"

The "Dirty Bird" pub:

Rachael was laughing at me, "Dad, how come in the straight sections I'm on your tail at 2500 rpm, and when we get into the curves you run away and hide frome me?"
"I was wondering why you kept fading back, figured you were getting tired", I replied.
"She wasn't fading back", Dale added, "You were speeding up, just tossing that Valiant into those turns!"
"Oops!" I shrugged, "Maybe I was enjoying them more than I thought".

I had completely forgot about Darryl's warning from our last phone call by the time we got rolling, and was just trying to get some miles under our belt on this lonely straight stretch of two-lane, when I noticed a barely flashing construction sign on the side of the road. The asphalt dissapeared beneath our tires, and we bottomed out both the front and rear suspensions, just in time to slam back into the asphalt on the other side, and get beat up again. I had bottomed out the rear once already, and was thinking of adding a few clicks to the rear shocks, but I don't think anything would have prepared me for that!
Boone vocalized what I was already thinking, "Hope that 440 Source oil pan on the Belvedere survived that!"
"Call Dale and tell him to keep an eye on the oil pressure".
He pushed the pad, and looked over at me after a brief conversation. "Dale says everything is fine, it just rattled thier teeth pretty good!"

Darryl called about 20 minutes later, "Made the second checkpoint, Freiburger was there taking pics, it was pretty cool, lots of people around". It sounded like he was enjoying the trip so far, "Darn M/T's are taller than the Goodyears though, driver's side is rubbing on the quarter, going to have to try and fix that in the morning".
"Well, if you don't hear from me before you get close to Dallas, give me a call and I'll give you directions to the motel." I instructed.
I turned to Boone, "How far are we from the 2nd checkpoint?"
He consulted his sheet under the phone's light, "About 60 miles or so".
"Darryl just left there, so we've gained a little on him I think".

Paris Tx. is a college town, and our checkpoint is on campus, a mini-Eiffel Tower with a cowboy hat on top of it. I know there is an eighth-mile strip somewhere around there too but by the time we rolled into the area, I didn't plan on searching for it.
Hot Rod's directions had us go right through the heart of town, including town square and the police station, which made me nervous as heck. Finally I pulled into a Kroger grocery store parking lot, "Boone, something doesn't feel right, I swear this thing is getting louder, let's just go over everything, and see if anything is loose, or if we've blown out a collector gasket maybe".
Rachael headed for the store as soon as she shut the 440 off, Kroger is the parent company of the store she works for, so she couldn't wait to see how they differed.
While Boone and Dale gave both cars a cursory once-over, I called the Motel I had paid for in Waxahachie. I learned on the last Drag Week, that most of them won't give you your room if you don't register before a certain time, or at least call and make arrangments, so I wasn't going to take a chance! A man with a pronounced Asian accent answered the phone, took all my info, and was so helpful, and efficient I was shocked, almost made me worry if he wrote anything down or just wanted to end the phone call!

We rolled into the parking lot, and saw the tower on the other end, the 2 buicks and Impala were just leaving. We pulled up to that end and staged the cars for our pictures. In the sample pic on our sheet, the girl was leaning against the fender like a model, so Rachael decided to jump up on the front fender, and lay out so Dale could get her picture, this was met with rousing cheers and whistling by the 15 or 20 college guys who were standing around, drinking in the parking lot, and watching all the cars come in! She seemed to really be enjoying herself, I was just happy to make one more hurdle on what was turning into a VERY long day!

We headed out of Paris, started up a long hill, and I noticed a truck stop at the top, so we decided this would be a good time to fuel up for the stretch run.
Rachael pulled up to the right of us, Dale crawled out and greeted us with, "Man, this transmission is COOKED!"
"What?", Boone and I questioned in unison.
"Yeah, I was just getting comfortable again when we started up that hill, she shifted from 2nd to drive, and it flared up then slipped for a ways before it finally found 3rd. I asked her what that was and she told me to go back to sleep!"
"Great", Boone muttered and walked over to open the hood of the Belvedere.
Dale kept going, "Yeah, she's only been using 2nd and drive, said her DAD told her not to use 1st on the street".
Boone spun and gave an accusing glare.
"I don't trust her driving without low band apply..which is why the other transmission was supposed to be in here!" I tried to push Dale under the bus.
"You Moron", Boone wasn't biting, "3750 lbs. car with 400...(he took an appraising look at Dale) 450 lbs. of humans, 600 lbs. of gear, a stall convertor, and 2.76 gears; and YOU have her taking off in 2nd and short shifting to drive?"
"It sounds much worse when you put it like that..." I squirmed.
I was still fueling the Valiant as Boone pulled the trans dipstick put a small amount of fluid on his finger, rubbed it between his finger and thumb, and smelled it like some Native American tracker on the trail.
"It's burnt pretty good, but I don't think it's toast...probably make it if we change the fluid tomorrow" he spent 15 years building automatics so I trust his judgement on such things.
Rachael walked out of the convenience store without a care in the world, and was blindsided by both of her uncles telling her what a poor job of driving she was doing, and explaining thier interpretation of how she should shift the car. I expected tears, anger, something, but she stood there and listened while keeping her emotions in check. She opened her mouth to say something, then just pointed at me.
Boone just looked at her and said, "You're an adult now, 'my Dad is an idiot' is no longer a valid excuse!"
I walked over to intervene, and looked under the hood of the Belvedere, to my surprise, I saw two stock, steel lines bolted into the bottom of the radiator...now it was my turn!
"I thought you put a cooler on this last year!" I exclaimed.
"We put one on my Satellite, remember", Dale piped in, while Boone just looked at the ground.
"What kind of MORON puts 2.76 gears in a full size B-Body, straps a bottle in it with the intent of running 11's, and doesn't upgrade the trans cooler?"
"It's just an 11" convertor..if you drive it right it shouldn't be a problem", Boone muttered, I'll ride with Rachael, and coach her on shifting it."

Dale jumped in with me and we headed on down the road.
"We're pretty close aren't we?" Dale asked.
"If you consider 140 miles pretty close".
"Good Grief....I'm gonna have to re-think some stuff on the Gremlin, even if I woulda finished it, I don't think we'd have survived this first drive!"

30 miles into the drive, Dale was already dropping the route sheet, and his eyes were rolling up in his head, so now I was down a navigator.
Darryl called and said he was close, so I gave him the motel number, and told him I had called and they were expecting him.
I just kept trying to put miles behind me, but I was really tired, and feeling like we would never get there. Saw an Orange 70 Chevelle on the side of the road, flashers on, and the driver looking like he was doing something under the dash...I didn't stop, too hammered, all I wanted to do was keep moving.
We pulled into a convenience store about 40 miles from the track. Decided to go ahead and get fuel, but really I was just needed a very large coffee!
I stuck the screw driver in the trunk hole and turned it, but nothing happened, so I pushed on the trunk lid, and shook it, finally it came loose, but slammed up against the stops and something popped. After fueling, it wouldn't close, so Boone and Dale ended up pulling the torsion rod and roller on that side, we must've messed with it for 30 minutes before we managed to get it to shut properly.
I noticed Boone was paying to fill up the Belvedere and saw he put 89 in it. "You filled it up with 89?"
"Yeah, it'll run fine on it", he looked at me exasperated.
"Sure it will, but we're 40 miles from the track, and 3/4 of that will still be in the tank when she is spraying it!"
"Dang it! Didn't think about that...guess you'll just have to buy more race fuel to sweeten it", he said with a smile.
15 miles down the road, the Orange Chevelle was on the side of the road, flashers on, driver in the same position...felt like a Matrix moment.
The new suspension which had felt so good at the start of the day, now didn't feel quite right, but I couldn't figure it out. When I drove through construction and was getting sound reverberation from close proximity to the concrete barriers, I heard a clack, clack, clack, like you will hear when a bolt is stuck in the tread of a truck.
As is usually my luck, the motel I had chosen because it was only 7 miles from the track, was seven miles on the other side of the track from the direction we came in from. Doesn't sound like much until you are trying to finish off such a long day.
We pulled in, shut the 2 cars off, grabbed our bags, and went in barely saying a word to each other. Rachael who had driven all day, had finally gave Boone the wheel for the final juant, and she looked beat. Once in the room, we agreed that we didn't need to be the first guys at the track tomorrow, and we set the alarm for eight. The clock read 3:30 AM, wow, 25 hours from when I had first heard Darren's Charger fire to life! Seemed like a week ago.

Some good reading Billy