For reasons I can't understand, I woke up at 7:00 AM with a start. I quietly showered, and my phone rang, it was Darryl, and he was ready to head to the track. "Got to find a place to buy a sledge hammer, that quarter panel panel dug a groove in my tire".
"These guys aren't going to get up until eight, so we will be out later."
I watched out the window as he fired the Dart, and headed out of the motel.
I woke up Boone and Dale, and we all gathered around Rachael, who was still out, and started singing "Happy Birthday" at the top of our lungs. She looked up then put the pillow over her head, when we finished she said, "Great, just what I wanted, woke up on my birthday by 3 old men in thier shorts singing to me!"
Rachael hooked up her laptop, so I could check first day results. Our class was supposed to be only 3, so I felt like just a finish was good enough for at least a plaque, but the results showed 2 others had jumped into the fray, and 4th place was only a tenth behind me...Okay, now we have some skin in the game! Rachael's 12.17 had her safely into the quick 32 for Daily Driver, so we just needed to maintain.
Since I was the first up and around, I took bags down to load up in the car before breakfast, I tossed them into the back, then decided to check out the rear suspension in the daylight. Nothing looked amiss, except the driver's side street slick had scuffs on it that looked odd. I dismissed it to pulling into the motel fairly tight the night before.
We went in and polished off the continental breakfast while Rachael pulled out her smart phone and found us a Wal-Mart, and a parts store close by. The plan was, get to Walmart, grab oil, trans fluid, paper towels, and whatever else we needed, then get a filter and gasket kit for the transmission at the parts store and head to the track. Rachael jumped in the Valiant with me, whil Boone and Dale took the Belvedere and followed.
Something didn't feel right, still, in the back of the car, I spent the mile and a half to Walmart trying to figure out what it was. When I pulled into the parking lot and shut it off, Dale was right on my tail, both of them bailed out of the Belvedere with concerned looks on thier faces, "Your Driver's side rear tire is falling off!" Dale hollered as they walked towards it. I looked down as I got out and noticed one lug stud broken completely off and gone, 2 lugs so far off that the wheel was riding on the stud, and the other 2 so loose the wheel was just flopping around. My heart jumped into my throat, and suddenly the end of my Drag Week seemed a possiblity.

I just couldn't beleive I didn't see it before or figure it out! We unloaded all our tools and jacked it up to pull the tire and assess the damage. We had the tire nearly off when a slender guy about our age pulled up in a ten year old econobox, and got out to look at our cars. He struck up a conversation with Boone, and about the time I set the tire and wheel out so Dale could check it out I heard him tell Boone he knew of a place that just did rearends and might have studs. He was on his phone talking to someone and leaned over to ask "Screw in, or press-fit?"
I popped the rear drum off, and said, "Screw in, 3", 1/2 by 20".
"25$ for 10"
"We'll take them!" Things appeared to be taking an upturn!
He was getting directions for us when he suddenly stopped, and looked at Boone, "This guy has a Doctor's appointment in 30 minutes...you just better jump in my car and we'll run out and get them..."
Boone looked at me shrugged.
"My name is Terry and I'm a normal guy...it's not like I'm gonna take you out in the woods and shoot you or anything!"
That made me feel better, not sure about Boone. "Yeah, Boone, that'll work, Dale and I will get the oil changed, and get this thing torn apart while you are gone!"
They took off, and we changed the oil on both cars (no dipstick in the Valiant, and only 4 quarts of beat up oil came out), then pulled the axle out and went ahead and removed the other four studs as well.
When Boone returned with the studs, our good samaritan said, "See you at the track, I want to get out there and see what this is all about!"
I offered him money for his trouble, but he just commented, "Just tell everybody Terry from Texas gave you a hand when you really needed it"!
Darryl called and asked where we were, and I explained, then told him to just call us when they switched classes so we could get Rachael out there during the DD session.
Dale and Rachael left for the parts store while Boone helped me put in the new studs.
"Man, it was crazy, we went out in the middle of no-where, and then..."
"Boone, I appreciate you getting the studs, I really do, but whatever happened in the woods between you and Terry can just stay there, OK?
"What?, No!, You're sick!...anyway we walk into this huge barn/wharehouse, and there are just shelves of axles and Richmond gear boxes everywhere as far as you can see, this old guy sells on the internet, it's called Peyton Performance!"
"Yeah, I have heard of that!"
Dale and Rachael made it back, and Dale had 5 cheap, parts store .750 shank lugnuts with him.
"Those aren't open, how are we going to make those work", Boone asked.
"These cheap ones just have a thin tin or plastic cap in the end when they are chromed", he grabbed a screwdriver and a hammer and gave each a tap, "Wala, open lugnuts!"
Darryl called about the switching classes at the track, so we decided to send Boone and Rachael on to the track while Dale and I finished up the Valiant. Luckily my previous lugnuts were only .500 shank, so most of the damage to the lug holes were pretty much limited to the outer portion. Once we got it all in place and torqued down, it looked as though it had never happened. We went around the other 15, and then headed to the Texas Motorplex. We pulled into the left hand turn lane, to enter the track and watched car after car driving out of the gate, on thier way to Louisiana already!

Cool! That damaged section of road was a It took a few out and mine killed the rear springs.

We rolled through the gate like we owned the place, while the attendant was talking to a kid on a motorcycle, and found Rachael and the Belvedere.
"Where's Boone?"
"He's been up there trying to get gas for the last 30 minutes, there isn't anyone running the fuel area."
Dale started dropping the pipes on the Valiant, and I handed him a set of header extensions, "Brian Smith made these when he put the exhaust together, and I've never had them on the car, we might as well give them a try".
I met Boone halfway from the Gas depot and gave him some cash, "Is the guy coming? It's getting late".
"Yeah, we had to go to the tower to get his attention, just rediculous!"
We prepped the cars and managed to get around in the lanes when they started the final all-run session. We had decided since the Belvedere was nice and cool, we'd just push it up there and try one pass before the fluid change. I told Rachael, "Just get off the bottle before you hit drive so we can save the tranny".
I knew Dale had been in her ear and they had plans of thier own. She just shook her head and said, "No promises Dad!"

The pic below is Dale telling the Comp Cams rep, "It's just a 270/470 magnum cam, it's her 23rd birthday, and it's going to go 11's", which is how she ended up with her picture on the Comp Cams facebook page!

This is a pic of me, sitting right behind her, thinking, "What the heck are those two up to?"

The guy with the yellow coupe behind me walked up and asked who we were supposed to give our tech cards to, and I told him I never was given one.
Dale walked over and said, "Sure, Rachael has one, they handed them out at the gate and the lane director is picking them up!"
"Guess I shouldn't have blown through the gate then!" I shrugged my shoulders and hoped he would just think I'd given mine earlier.
This was the ragtag group that filtered into the lanes behind us, after that 380 mile whoopin' HOT ROD had given us the night before, everyone apparently wanted to get on the road quick today. OK by me, sharing the track with only 20 or 30 cars, meant we shouldn't have a problem getting another hit if we needed it.

I was in the water box waiting to start my burnout when Rachael's 11.86-109.60 flashed on the board, my first thought was that we didn't need another run on the Belvedere, my second thought was that I was going to kill my little brother! I did my burnout and looked over at James McEntire's SEERED Camaro (Whichdoctor, BangShift) , this was going to be an 8 second whippin', but I would have a great seat to watch it!

Here's a shot of Rachael holding off the 7 second unlimited car at the 330ft mark...or maybe he took a while to spool up, not sure which.

The Valiant layed down on the big end again, and I was already convinced I needed another shot before I even saw my timeslip.

The timeslip, and the sparkplug confirmed what I already knew, we needed a bunch more jet for this air. 11.61 at only 112.9.
Dale started jetting it up while I talked to Darryl, who was already loaded up and ready to roll. "What did you run?"
11.29-118.7, it actually bogged a bit out of the hole, so I could've went up with the tire pressure, this track has teeth!"
"Well, with fourth place only a tenth back, I need a similar improvement to yours to call it good at this track!"

"Fire it up", came the call from Dale. I just plopped over the bar in the seat, started it, and felt a shocking blast of exhaust on my leg. I killed it and looked under the car, those header extensions were in fact, old fashioned, almost weedburner or AAR style turnouts which exited just under the door, they gave the car an exhaust note that can best be decribed in two words, "Deliciously Obnoxious!", and I loved it.
That ole Brian Smith is always full of surprises, like when I asked him to solve a firewall leak issue, and came back to find he had took out the cowl vents, and smoothed that area. or when I asked him to re-radius the rear fenderwells and put lips back where they had been hacked, and he decided to eliminate and smooth the gas cap area as well!

It was 1:30 when I made it back around for another shot, and when I pulled into the water box, My buddy Michael Sporrong (Swede4, BangShift) pulled up in the 2005 Silverado that Boone and I had been talking about earlier! I knew the supercharged LSX was capable of going quicker than thier 11.50 no-bar cutoff, so I figured I'd better get this one right to avoid reading his tailgate at the finish line.
I picked up 2 tenths on him in the first 60ft. clipped 2nd at 6400, drive at 6300 and then took a look to see if he was coming around. To my suprise, the little smallblock pulled exactly the same mph at the 8th and finish line as the truck. My time slip read 11.40-115.7, that would work!

Mike came by after the run and echoed my sentiments, "Darn! That was fun!"
It took me back to the earliest days, when my car buddies and I would drive our street cars to Mokan, enter the trophy class and try to race each other every time run, just kinda stripped away all tension of serious competition and got back to the bare essense of why I enjoy this sport in the first place!

Unfortunately for Mopar fans, one of the competitors who didn't make it any further than Ennis was the beautiful SRT10 Ram Truck with the turbo. This is a pic of the cylinder head damage posted by Alain, who came over from the Netherlands to take in Drag Week!

It was a shame they weren't able to continue, the big Truck was an absolute work of art!

We were just about loaded up and ready to leave the Texas Motorplex, when Drag Week ended for another car that had everyone saying, "He's gonna drive THAT on the street?"
David Schroeder's wild 66 Stingray, with it's crazy roadrace graphics and massive, nitrous gulping big block, made the drive, had a 7.35-195.3 at Tulsa, and was surely on it's way to a better run at Texas when we heard a big pop at 900ft. and Darryl, who was watching the run said, "Wow, flames shot out everywhere!!" The scoreboard read 7.53 at only 150.8, bummer!
Minutes later we saw him being pulled through the pits on a rope from Rick Prospero's Nova Wagon...an 8 second car pulling a 7 second car, and do you think I was smart enough to grab my camera? Ah, no.

Not everyone who encountered problems at Ennis, let it end thier Drag Week, however. Casey Cunningham (Moparman63, BangShift) Had to do a 727 swap in the pits, to complicate matters, he had to rob parts from the broken one to complete the spare and make it fit in his 499 powered Plymouth!

Photo shamelessly stolen from our very own BBR!

Awesome pics keep them coming, and the story too. How fast was the srt 10 truck before it melted?

Thanks Brad,
The SRT made a conservative 9.09-148 at Tulsa, and was intent on stepping up, but only went 10.05 at a mere 113 on the engine killing run at Texas.

I want to thank HOTROD.com for the killer coverage they did at this event, and for making so many pictures easy to access. Also to Boone and Darryl, who each allowed me to copy thier sandisks. A big thanks also to James-BBR for putting the route sheets on PDF for me, after I misplaced mine.

I could spend literally paragraph after paragraph talking about how many awesome people make this event what it is. I can try to accurately relay my personal happenings in a semi-cronological order, but I can't even begin to cover everyone who makes this thing so special!

The first thing I looked at after turning in my timeslip, and showing them my pics of the previous drive's checkpoints, is the total miles on the route sheet! 229.8, and our motel was a good 18 miles before the track, so we were looking at a 210 mile jaunt to finish out the day, not bad!
The first thing that even looked like a gas station was about 10 miles into the drive on I-45. We pulled into the Chevron, and filed in around Steve Fagan (ProCharged509 BangShift), who was on the inside island, hood up on his S-10 Blazer, and in the process of removing his Pro-Charger! Steve had a pair of Low 9 second passes under his belt (pun intended), but now the blower bearings were howling, forcing him to continue sans boost.
A couple miles further down the road we drove by Eric Yost's "Dirty Bird" on a grassy knoll, with a red 4th gen firebird hanging out with him...they may have been working on the car, or just having a beer, but we headed on down the highway.