After changing out the shaft, resetting the timing, and dropping the jets four sizes all the way around on the Dakota, John, Dale and company felt like they finally had the thing ready to make a representative pass. Darren had nothing for Tina Pierce and her twin turbo S-10 of Street Outlaws fame, but ran a best ever 10.490-126.9 in taking his beating.

As I was pairing up with my first round opponent, Jerry Lambertz, and his 12 second DD 86 Monte Carlo, Rachael walked up to me with her shoulders slumped down.
"What's going on?"
"I've walked the entire lanes twice", she explained, pointing back at the other cars, "And I can't find the car I'm supposed to race."
"That's alright, maybe he's broke. Just wait until the end, and pull up behind the last car, if he doesn't show up, you will get a competition single, because we are already on a ladder."
"Ok, I'll do that", she smiled and headed back to the Belvedere.

Even though Drag Week was over, and the Averages were final, I was still interested in how the Ross family's gold Falcon wagon ran, and was surprised when Addie went 10.63-127 a few cars in front of me. The Valiant answered with a 10.628 at only 123.88 to make it past the first round.

To their credit, most of the Mopar contingent stuck around for the Shootout, Ross and his yellow Road Runner went 11's in the first round, Eddie and the Duster broke and lost in the first round, and Paul Cornman's Street Race Small Block NA winning Demon advanced with a single.

Mitch and Brian Horn's SS Small Block NA Winning Challenger also advanced in the first round with a 10.62-124.76

Rachael took her first round single, and ran 11.743-113.8, her opponent was scheduled to be a blue 86 Mustang with a 9.50-144 best, but he didn't show for some reason.

Dale's first round opponent was Clark, and his blue Barracuda. Dale decided the proper thing to do would be to run Clark without his N20. It nearly bit him, as he had already retarded the timing to 18 degrees total for the big hit! The Gremlin labored out of the hole, and didn't really start pulling away from the small block until the eighth mile. Below is Dale and Clark's run, as well as Boone's.

Rachael's second round opponent was another of the slower half of the field who had advanced on a single, Paul Nichols and his "drug it out of a forest 8 months ago" low-buck 55 Nomad Gasser. She advanced to the third round on the strength of a 12.172-111 to Paul's 13.72-97.6!

The rules for the 2014 Hot Rod Drag Week Heads Up Shootout featured a little blurb that basically read, "Cars that ran in an NA class during Drag Week, can't add a power adder for the shootout", even though in the next line they encouraged All the power adder guys to "Turn it up!"
That seemed unfair to me, and I had been quite vocal that heads-up to me meant run what you brung. Since my Valiant has a plate, I fully intended to use it! So, knowing I going to be outmatched in the second round I put the bottle in, and turned it on! There was a slight problem in that I had never used nitrous on this engine, and had never used it since I re-wired the car and moved the buttons around!

In the picture below, you can see me approaching the beams, while trying to find the nitrous button with my helmet on!

The Valiant had been begging for a squirter change in the front all week long, I just didn't have the size I needed. With the warmer air, and a little more heat in the engine, it once again hesitated at the hit, killing the 60ft time. when I grabbed the nitrous, the shift light, which was set at 6200 (I didn't bring any higher RPM modules either), came on instantly, I banged second immediately, and the shift light stayed on! With the terrible 60ft, all the nitrous did was even up the 330ft to my better NA runs. The stretchy truck with it's twin turbo BBC drove by me as I clicked it in drive with the shift light still shining in my face. At 1100, it popped back against the 7200 top end chip a couple of times, so I lifted off the nitrous and drove through the traps on motor. That ended Drag Week 2014 for the Valiant, with the disappointing realization that my little JW 8" converter that works so well on the street, and strip, was definitely NOT a nitrous converter!

My Shootout passes are in the picture below.

Billy I've really enjoyed reading this thread, as I do all your threads.

2 questions.... What mufflers are on the Valiant? Sounded kinda like Borla XR1's.

Also, I see several cars with headers exiting the side of the front fenders, how do they muffle those cars to drive on the street?

Dale got lucky in the second round, but not in his actual race, he only needed another NA eleven second run to advance, the luck he needed came in the form of the second round race to determine his third round opponent.
Glenn Hunter's killer blown 56 Chevy had just wrapped up a runner-up spot in Pro Street Power Adder on the strength of an 8.20-166 run earlier in the day, and he was matched with Jim Forbes' 62 Chevy II AWB which was coming off best of 9.96. The 56 faltered at the hit, and Squirrel took the win to battle the Gremlin in the third round.

Bob,
The Valiant has Stainless Steel Pypes mufflers, 3 inch center inlet, 3 inch offset outlet.

Most of the fender exit group are turbo, and are quiet enough in street cruise mode.

Ok I figured some of them were turbo cars but didn't think all of them were.

I ran the Pypes mufflers on my 69 Dart and loved them, I'm gonna have to buy them for my Duster.

Addie Ross and the gold Falcon wagon ended their day in the second round, but ran a personal best of 10.527-128.24, so clearly they were figuring out that car as the week progressed, like many of us!
Paul Cornman and his green Demon had been on the same plan as Dale in the first two rounds, running in the elevens without hitting the finish line stripe at full song. In round three he was racing the Stretchy Truck, that had already feasted on my small block NA Mopar, and did pretty much the same to Paul's! 588 with twin turbos had us a little outclassed!

Dale, with all due respect to the AWB Chevy II, brought the house in round three, with a full 300 shot out of the hole, and bumping the second system in the middle of the track. When he returned to the pits, his hand was shaking when he read the slip, "9.14-141.8, whew! It makes a wild sound in the engine when I grab the second one!"
"I call it a wail, myself, I know exactly what you're talking about!" I added. John took on the unenviable task of cleaning up the engine, and engine bay. The Gremlin doesn't have a vacuum system, and on a hard bottle pass pushes oil out of almost every crevice on the 440, Dale likes to refer to it as "horsepower sweat".

neat pic of my last race of Drag Week! Here's the slip...he had me from the get go. But it was my second quickest run in the Chevy II.

Another surprise of the third round was that the Heavy Twin 57 Chevy had a bye on the ladder, and the Lutz family decided to switch drivers in mid-stream. Jeff had ran the car in the first two rounds, but when they came around for the bye Jeffrey, his son who had driven the car during DW, was again behind the wheel, and put down an easy 7.77-150 to show why they were still the dominant favorite of the shootout.
Rachael pulled around in the third round, fully expecting to face off with Carl Stancil's wicked little flat black 84 Blazer, which had ran 8.53-156 earlier in the day, but he was a no-show, and once again, she got a competiton single. She ran an NA 13.21-107.5 to move into the final 12 cars.

For round four, they threw the ladder in the trash, and parked the six fastest cars on one side of the staging area, and the six slower cars on the other side. Then, starting with the #1 car, allowed the faster guys to personally choose their opponents. Freiburger and Lohnes made a big production of it, bringing their mics down and talking with all the participants left. As you can imagine, Rachael was basking in all the attention. This picture shows her, and Alex Taylor, two of the three women still left in the final dozen.

Jeffrey Lutz chose to race a 93 Firebird called Nanner, out of the Eric Yost camp, wheeled by Andy Williams, that had finished third in Street Race small block power adder with a best of 9.00-150.
I was worried when Jeffrey turned on both bulbs before spooling up, and sure enough he pushed through the beams, handing the win to the wheel standing 4th gen F-body.

The second choice went to Shane McClelland and his 64 Chevy II, known as the "Crusty Nova", and the crew of the big GMC 1500 extended cab truck known as the "White Rhino", didn't look too happy when he picked them.

The BBC digesting huge gulps of N20, got the tree, and held off ole Crusty to about 500ft., then it was all turbo LS to the stripe 8.38-167.4 to 9.03-152.6

The next choice went to Clark Rosenstengel, whose 95 Camaro with twin turbo LS had finished 2nd in Modified Power Adder with a best of 8.84-155. He decided to race Rachael in the Belvedere. She courtesy staged, then lit her second bulb as soon as he turned on his first, so as a turbo guy he should have been pleased with that arrangement. He spooled up, then promptly bumped through to a red light, and Rachael ran a personal best for both her and the Belvedere, an 11.54-110! When she got to the pits she jumped from the car and yelled, "I kicked his A....", then she was immediately embarrassed when she realized he had followed her through the pits to congratulate her! We first met Clark on DW06, and he handled it with a laugh, a smile, and just added, "That's racing, you just never know!"