Darren finally made it to the lanes for his run at 2:15, losing to Boone yesterday had clearly stuck in his craw, and he took the extra time to make sure he felt the Dakota was dialed in for this run. The truck left soft, but pulled hard in the middle before showing a combination of blue and black smoke as it ran the last 320 feet. The 11.133-120.94 was an improvement, and he seemed satisfied enough.

We decided to open up the headers on the Belvedere, and Dale coached her up on the importance of getting on the bottle right away, since I hadn't returned the Valiant to street trim yet, I decided to drive up with her for a just for kicks pass as well. I ended up ahead of her in the lanes, and spun hard off the line for a 10.91-122.97, exact same MPH as the earlier pass. Rachael nailed the nitrous right at the hit, and blew the drag radials off, fish tailing three times before grabbing second. The 12.37-111.6 was pretty good considering the spinning 2.064 sixty foot time!
When she returned to the pit, she jumped out and said, "The back end got all wiggly in first gear, but I stayed in it!"
Clearly, we need to work on her drag racing slang!

Ten minutes later, as the day was winding down, I was shocked to see Hemi Joel pull his Olds convertible into the water for another pass, as I figured he'd be 100 miles out of town by that time, he laid down a 13.85-95 that was the pass he claimed for Great Bend, but I have no idea why he ran so late in the day.

Thanks Billy and Rachael needed a good laugh after my day at work, and when it got all wiggly that brought a smile to my face.

Maybe we should use Rachael's terminology. I kinda like it!

Billy, you are doing a great job with the story. You are filling in so many details that to me all seem a blur if I try to remember without looking at your story. I find myself checking in here several times a day, hoping for another segment of the story.

At Great Bend, I ran a late pass because on the prior 2 passes, the 455 was breaking up at the top of 3rd and 4th gear. I did not know why, and didn't have much time for thorough diagnostics, so I drove to town and bought a set of new spark plugs, since the plugs in the car were 3 years old. My car was too slow to be in the running for the quick 32, so I was just running against my own goals, and I wanted to get kicked off the track for running too fast for my tech. (13.50 in a convert with no roll bar) Well, the plug change did me no good, the car performed the same on the last pass. This Olds was my last minute, "Drag Week plan C", after my "plan A" Mopar and my "plan B" Mopar projects didn't get done in time. The car had never been raced on the track before, and the last time I had the 800 spread bore Holley apart for a jet change was 1986, so I didn't have a clue anymore how the carb was set up.
As it turned out, the carb was jetted way too lean. It still ran clean when we were in the 90 degree air at the previous tracks, but now with the cold air at great bend, it went way lean and couldn't keep pulling. But I didn't figure that out till the next day, when jetting way up solved it. There' a story on the Olds for anyone interested: http://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum/ban...ernation-update

Rachael, Boone, and I decided to take advantage of the on-site shower facilities at the track while the drama of the last ten minutes of runs played out without us for a change. Both Lutz and Cline made last ditch runs that greatly improved their positions, and set them up for a showdown in Tulsa with the overall win hanging in the balance. By the time we were organized, and ready to leave, we were still among the very last cars to leave SRCA Dragstrip.

Traditionally, when we raced Divisionals in Great Bend, we always visited the local Great Wall Buffet, so we stopped there once again, and celebrated Rachael's 25th birthday as well. There was actually a pretty large contingent of Drag Weekers already on location when we arrived, so it was quite enjoyable.

I didn't make it two miles from the restaurant, before my electric fuel pump sounded like it was starving for fuel...that's when I remembered that I hadn't added race fuel at the track, and had simply ran on 91. I bailed into a Casey's General Store only to realize they only had 87! Oh well, I had to put fuel in, so I went with seven gallons and hoped for the best. I passed the rest of our group at another station two miles down the road, but figuring I would have to stop again at the next town to add 91, I just kept motoring. Five miles out of Great Bend, it was dark enough that I turned on my lights. Lyons Kansas was 31 miles down US-56/KS-96, and thankfully KDOT had outfitted the road with centerline rumble strips, as I was clearly in "driving by braille" mode at this time. I'd attempted to get the guys to hole up in Great Bend for the night, as Friday's race in Tulsa was scheduled for the afternoon, but they were so gun shy from our Topeka-OKC debacle, that they all vetoed the notion.

If you look closely at the pic, you will see a fender skirted 53 Chevy still in the nearly deserted pits with us as we were ready to leave. They were changing out a piston/rod on a junkyard 5.3 LS, and yes, they made it to Tulsa!

Cant believe Scott found what he needed to fix the 53.LOL.Even funnier was who gave him a ride to get what he needed.Chinese food in Kansas?Might have been one of my cats. Just saying.

In Lyons, I stopped and topped off the fuel cell with 91 octane, and was quite pleased that the 428 didn't complain about the 87 for the first leg of the drive, I'm sure the cool night air probably helped get us through that little experiment as well.
Just as I was exiting the station, Darren drove by in the Dakota, so I jumped out and followed him. With a cold soda in my hand, and the excitement of watching Darren weaving all over the road, I didn't struggle at all to stay awake for the next 20 miles until we drove into the small town of Nickerson Kansas.
He hastily whipped the Dakota into an empty parking lot to the left of the road, and nosed the truck up to the sidewalk, so we could see traffic coming down the road. I parked right beside him, and jumped out to ask him what the problem was.
"The battery is pretty much dead, Boone's going to have to pull over and we'll have to charge it with the generator."
His miscalculation was parking on the left, within a mile or two of a right turn on the route sheet. Boone, Dale, and Rachael all blew right by us, intently looking at the other side of the road.
"Dang it!" he hollered, throwing his hands in the air, then reaching for Dad's cell phone in his pocket.
"Don't worry about it, Darren, we can handle this", I interrupted him.
"How? Boone's got all the stuff in the trailer!"
"We'll just swap batteries, my alternator works, so my car will charge that battery, while you use up my fresh one, that way we can keep going instead of sitting around waiting on a charge."
"Why didn't we think of that before?"
"You didn't ask!"
He muttered something under his breath, and we finished the deal in ten minutes and were on our way.

Boone called a short time later, "We are shot, this is getting ugly, you guys need to look for a motel in the next town".
"You passed us in the last town, so YOU need to find one!"
"OK, I think it's Hutchinson..."

Did you know Hutchinson is the Home of the Kansas State Fair? We didn't either.

Did you know the Motel rooms are about double the rate when the Fair is in town? We didn't either, until we asked for two rooms!

I was a total slave driver all week with our gang. They were probably all tired of me saying "We gotta go!" by the end of the week. We're definitely going to run in smaller groups next time. It's just too hard to have a travel group of 5+ cars.

Since I'd already showered at the track, I walked in the room, dropped my bag, piled my clothes on top, pulled on my shorts and crashed in the bed. According to reports, I was snoring 2 minutes after we slid our key card and opened the door.

I awoke with a start at 4:30AM, took a shower, and got dressed. Rachael was next up, and I told her to get Dale in the shower after she was done. I stepped out of the room to check on the other guys, and found Dad ready to get moving, but he said he was having difficulty getting the other two around. I went out to put my bag in the Valiant and walked straight into a bad case of deja vu. The lightning flashes showed off the thunderhead cloud that was rolling over us, and it was obvious that rain was imminent. Apparently the Drag Week Gods had decided to punish us with driving in rain for every decent amount of sleep we took this year!

Rachael brought back breakfast from McDonalds at about the same time the Motel breakfast room opened, so we doubled up! Just as we fired up our cars to leave, the rain stepped up it's tempo considerably. I followed Rachael out onto KS-14, and it wasn't bad for the first five or six miles, then we transitioned onto US-50, and it was a completely different road surface that definitely didn't agree with the M/Ts and the rain, it was white knuckle time until we jumped back on 14 a few miles down the road. The few minutes head start we had on the brothers stretched with every phone call I made to Boone, as it sounded as though they were getting more rain than we were. With the storm traveling the same direction we were, Rachael and I cleared the leading edge a good ten miles earlier than they did. By the time we drove through Haven Kansas on KS-96, the roads were pretty much dry. KS-96 dumped us off on I-235 so we could skirt around the southwest edge of Wichita, then the route sheet called for us to exit onto US-81 South, which is a small two lane that basically runs parallel with I-35 Kansas Turnpike. Rachael and I pulled into a gas station just after exiting, and I called Boone. We decided they would stay on I-35 to Wellington, so they could get Darren's E-85, since the only station was on the turnpike, and then they would re-join us in Wellington.

She pulled out of the station, and continued in the direction we'd been traveling, and three miles later we ran into a t, with still no US-81 in sight. I pointed to a parking lot across the road, and motioned for her to park there, then I pulled alongside and parked the Valiant. I could tell by the way she way looking at the route sheet, and not meeting my eyes that she was steeling herself to get yelled at for getting us lost. Every Drag Week, the brothers and I tease her unmercifully every time she has missed a turn. Instead I grabbed my camera, backed up away from both cars, and shot a picture.
"What did you do that for"? she looked at me from the drivers window.
"Look at the sign!" I pointed.
She turned, and laid over into the passenger seat to look up at it, "We are at a strip club aren't we."
"Sure are, Rachael, way to go!"

LMAO!.Since we didnt enter we drove the the quickest way.Closest we ran to the route was from Noble to GB. Got a taste of KS Hwy 50?.I hate that road rain or shine.

"I'm pretty sure we were supposed to go left at the intersection we bought gas at, but we drove through the light to get to the station."
"So", she dropped her hands in her lap and her voice softened, "we just turn around and drive back to the station?"
"Naw", I laughed, "Where's the fun in that, have you ever been down this road?" I pointed to the right.
"No"
"Me neither...this is supposed to be an adventure, so let's try it out. It should run parallel to 81, so we'll cut back in a few miles and see what there is to see."
"Sounds good, let's do it, but you lead, that way it'll be your fault if we get lost again!"

What the road we chose ran parallel to was the Wichita Valley center Floodway, so when it next hit an intersection at an odd angle, I lost my bearings. Eventually we ended up at a lonely farm road four way, in which the three choices in front of us were all dirt road.
"We have to go back to that last place I turned left, I'm not trusting these ET Streets on a dirt road", I told her.
Finally I got us back to civilization, then I pulled into a convenience store and told Rachael to go in and ask for directions, "I can't do it, I'm a man!"
She laughed, and ran in the store with her route sheet. I could see her through the big front glass looking out on the pumps. The two girls behind the counter were close to her age, and they were very excited to look at the sheet, and I could tell Rachael was having a good time explaining to them what we were doing. She came out with a big smile on her face, "One more mile, then turn right on US-81!"
"You lead the way!" I told her. There are certain opportunities in life where you have the chance to make a positive memory with a loved one, that will stick with them after you are gone. I've learned not to pass those up. We'd just spent 20 minutes and a couple of gallons of gas wondering around aimlessly in a pair of old hotrods, and I figured it was worth every second.

Why worry about the tires?Those roads are mostly sandy dirt not gravel.I said "Mostly" lol.

The 191 mile leg from Haysville to Tulsa Raceway Park was easily the most enjoyable road trip for us, for several different reasons. It was daylight, we were awake, and heading home were just a few of those, but it was also some of the roughest road we ran on all trip as well. US-177 South from South Haven Kansas to Blackwell OK was a stretch of road that was definitely noteworthy for it's ability to punish the kidneys! Which must've been why Rachael pulled into the gravel lot in front of a rundown automotive/farm implement shop just after we crossed the state line, and ran towards the open sliding door to the surprise of a couple of old mechanics hanging around the place. I pulled in beside the abandoned Belvedere, shut off the Valiant, and waited for her to emerge from the building a few minutes later.
"I had to find a bathroom bad!" she laughed, and waved at the group gathered at the shop entrance.
The Dakota drove by just as we were firing up to leave, so we gave chase. Ten or fifteen miles later, I could see the Barnyard Viper gaining ground behind us.

The four of us stopped in Blackwell for fuel, and to cool the Dakota off.

"There are certain opportunities in life where you have the chance to make a positive memory with a loved one, that will stick with them after you are gone. I've learned not to pass those up. We'd just spent 20 minutes and a couple of gallons of gas wondering around aimlessly in a pair of old hotrods, and I figured it was worth every second."

That right there is the coolest thing I've read from you yet, Billy. And that, my friend, is saying something. So cool how you guys operate as a family. Even cooler yet that your daughter has become part of this family tradition. Well done, good man!

"Where is Dale and James?" I asked Boone.
"They're out in front of us a little, said they'd wait in Pawnee, if they get to the checkpoint before we catch them."
"Alright, everything ok so far?"
"Yeah, pretty much, Dale is complaining that the Dana 60 is starting to make some gear noise."
"I was thinking you might be ahead also, until I saw you catching us back there."
"Dad and I were laughing back in those rolling hills. Every time you guys would crest a hill we would see Red, then White, then Blue, for about ten miles across there!"

We entered Pawnee Oklahoma an hour and a half later, then parked in front of our 8th and final checkpoint of Drag Week 2014. This was only the second checkpoint where we had all five cars together at the same time, and definitely the first that we were all coherent!

Once we got everyone's pictures taken, and the cars parked, we wondered around the town square, and had a little lunch, while Dale jacked up the rear of the Gremlin and had a look.
"It's full of lube", he reported, "but it has plenty of shiny metal flakes in what ran out as well!"