Good ole' Red Light Ross was working his Road Runner hard at Cordova, trying to run that perfect 11.50 to stay in contention for the quick 32 in SME. After a pair of .51s the last two days, he and his crew really struggled with the limited track time we had due to the threatening weather. He had to settle for an 11.71-118, that effectively doomed his chances of making the shootout on Friday.

Dale was in the lanes with the Gremlin, so I made my way over to the fence to watch. I peered towards the Christmas tree just in time to see Charlie and Jason Ogle staging up their stick shifted big block E-bodies. I've been drag racing for nearly thirty years, and I can tell you in great detail, about every run I've made with one of my brothers or my dad in the opposing lane, so I'm sure that this run at Cordova is one that Charlie will cherish for a very long time. Charlie's Gold Challenger, with the slipping clutch, managed an 11.72-119, while Jason's Yellow Cuda went a Drag Week best of 12.19-111.

The pair directly in front of Dale was Teenager Alex Taylor in her "BadMaro" twin turbo first gen, and Doc McEntire in his "SeeRed" Camaro. While Glenn Bridger and I were clawing for every hundredth for the two remaining podium spots in Pro Street NA, Doc had us thoroughly outclassed with his 673 inch Goodwin billet Hemi. His three previous mid eight second blasts meant he had a six second cushion on us with only two days remaining. When he launched, it appeared he might need all of his cushion, as the powerglide turned into a mushbox in low, luckily it managed to hold on when he shifted to drive, and he motored to a high nine second run at 160 mph. Later in the afternoon we would hear that the 'glide would have to come out.
"What if he can't make it?" Dad would ask me later, "wouldn't it be cool if you are battling for a class win?"
"No Dad...I hope he makes it to St. Louis!" I smiled and shook my head, "because I really don't care that much whether I get the second place plaque or the third place one...but if I lose the class win by a few hundredths...I'm going to be second guessing everything I did all week!"

Doc and Jeff. 2 polar opposites that are best friends.LOL.

Dale pulled up into the right lane to do his burnout, under the watchful eyes of both James and John; each clearly concerned as to whether their handy work from the night before was about to be undone. To add to the drama Bryant Goldstone and his twin turbo BBC powered, tube chassis, all steel 73 Javelin was in the left lane beside him. Dale had to double step the throttle about 80ft. out but it looked like a fairly strong run, while the Javelin was spooling up for a few seconds before giving chase. Dale can forever brag about getting to the stripe first, while carding his best Drag Week pass ever.

Once he returned to the pits, I questioned whether or not he felt the need to chase an eight second slip at this juncture.
"Oh no", he shook his head and chuckled, "I'm not leaning on the old girl again until she is back in St. Louis, within walking distance of the trailer!"

Billy
At Cordova we could not run our number as you know. We were having an ignition problem and it was breaking up part way down track but not at launch. Every run was getting worse but not until we were down track a fair bit. On the last run I had an elctrical meltdown. I was the only car on the track so I let off and was coasting . I was also taking off my helmet when the car filled with smoke and that sickening burnt plastic smell. Well panic set in and all I could think about was getting the underhood battery switch turned off. I crammed the brakes on and finished pulling my helmet off but when I did so I sent my glasses on flying trip over to the passenger floor. I am blind without them. Any how I got my belts off and found the hood pins and switch by braile. Long story short ( no pun intended ) I had a short and my alt was out. I did not realize I had been working only on the battery and it had got low enough that the car ran alright until my nitrous solenoids kicked in and took to much voltage from the ignition. Got a little wet doing a quick fix under the hood to get us out of there.

You made her day by mentioning her.

Boone was in the lanes for his first attempt with the Barnyard, also both Rachael with the Belvedere, and John in his Valiant had returned for their second passes.
I explained to Dale my problem with the hesitation, and since he was calling it a day, he decided to look over my situation. After some tweaks to the carb, he instructed me to back onto the return road in front of our pit spot and give him a quick dry hop.
I gave him a blank stare, "That's the kind of stunt that gets you tossed out of a facility", I argued.
"Listen...we don't have time for you to make a pass after each adjustment, I just need you to back out there and whack it, then tell me if the hesitation is worse, or better", he insisted.
"I've seen guys get tossed out of NHRA divisionals for trans brake checks in the pits..."
"This aint no friggin divisional", he raised his voice, "this is Drag Week! Now back out and give me a five foot launch so I can see what it is doing!"
I complied, and reported to him that it wasn't any better than my last pass.
"OK, I need to make a big change to see if we are at least moving in the right direction", he decided. He was in the process of changing the squirters again when Boone pulled the Barnyard to the line.
Boone's pass was indicative of what most were experiencing at Cordova as the storm loomed nearer, his 11.396-116.8 was the slowest time slip he turned in on Drag Week 2015, but like Dale, he had no intention of running again.

Rachael was so leery of running under 11.50 on her second pass, that she backed completely off in the back half and ran 11.85-91. She was actually at 97 mph when the Belvedere hit the 1/8th mile. The smile was back though, and the argument on the road was a distant memory, so she was once again enjoying herself in the company of her Dad and Uncles.
John's M.O. of the last three days was an 11.0, followed by a quick tweak in the pits, then a high ten. Cordova was a struggle to find the number, as it seemed the weather was running away from his tune-up, and each adjustment kept giving him another 11.02 to 11.04. He was undeterred though, and kept diving under the hood after each pass.

That was one blurry morning.

too much ATF in your eyes!

Lol yup

I will cherish the whole 2015 Drag Week, and remind my self that I am very fortunate to have these memories with my brother. Thanks for the story, Billy , I look forward to every installment. I plan to do Drag Week every year that I am able, but as I said 2015 will always be special to me.

John Faraone's Valiant Charger, had failed to show up at Union Grove, but he had the twin turbo wedge on hand at Cordova making exhibition passes, to the tune of 7.43-192! In this picture he was squared off with Steve Fagan's big tire 94 Pro-Charged S-10 Blazer. Steve has brought the Blazer a number of times, but was thoroughly outclassed this year in Pro Street PA by the trio of seven second machines, along with Tina's Colorado solidly in the eights. He's a gamer though, and in the second picture you can see him slogging through the deluge that brought our day at Cordova to an abrupt end.

The Frost Green Demon of Paul Cornman had won Street Race Small Block NA in 2014 with a 10.02 average, then 2015 found the class stacked with 6 cars that ran 9s every single day. The proverbial punch in the mouth left Paul in 5th place after the first two days, but he just leaned on the Demon harder, and began clawing back ET on days three and four. His 9.81-136.8 moved him back to third.

After the third or fourth dry hop on the return road, Dale had determined that the 50cc pump Darryl had added to the front bowl of the HP 950 when he ran it on his Dart was just too much fuel for a clean launch on my car. Finally, he simply tightened the arm down to limit pump travel in an attempt to lessen the problem since we didn't have enough parts to convert it back to a 30cc pump.
My second pass resulted in a much better leave, but it seemed to flatten out on the big end, and the time slip read 10.57-125.8. Dale demanded a few more dry hops, much to my chagrin, as we contemplated what we needed to be satisfied with our attempt at Cordova.
I knew Aaron and Robert, as well as Jeremy and his Dad, had been at the track much sooner than we arrived, so I quizzed them as to what Bridger in the Camaro had ran earlier in the day. No one could quite recall, but Jeremy's Dad felt it may have been somewhere in the high ten forties. That assessment wasn't exactly filling me with confidence.

My third pass, I pulled up in the left lane, and looked over to see John pull his 67 up in the right. I smiled as I thought about how he drove away from me on the 428's maiden voyage last year...time for some redemption! He slapped a .110 light on the four tenths pro tree to my lazy .467 for a healthy three and half tenths head start, but the small block was reeling in his 440 by half track to the tune of .26 and 4mph. The little 62 had a bumper out front by .005 at the 1000ft mark, then stretched the advantage to 16 feet, nearly a full car length, by the finish line. 10.591-125.32, to 11.039-119.70. It didn't help either of us in the grand scheme of things, but it sure was fun!

John shrugged at me when he got out of his car, "What were you doing up there...spooling your imaginary turbo?"
"I was giving you the tree, just to make it interesting...then I still drove around you like that thing was tied to a post", I shot back.
"Yeah, sure", He shook his head and laughed, "I kept waiting for that all-powerful small block to make a move, and it just barely gained on me all the way down...finally I realized you don't have a bit more motor than this tired old 440, just a car that's 350 pounds lighter!
The verbal jousting was fun, but both of us realized we were running out of time, The Drag Week staff had already announced that the day was officially counted as complete at 12:15, but they would continue to run until Two PM, weather permitting. From the looks of the black clouds arriving, and the sudden change in the wind...the weather was not going to permit any such thing!

Rachael's third run was an 11.71-100, and she started packing up the Belvedere, as well as organizing my stuff for a quick getaway as the impending rain loomed ever closer. John made his last attempt a keeper as his well worn drag radials finally managed to grip the Cordova starting line, rewarding his perseverance with a stout 10.92-120.

I looked at the small block, elbows on the flat expanse of the driver's front fender, and contemplated my next, and possibly last attempt of the day. I was discussing it with Boone and Dale, but something John had mentioned about my car's weight was still bouncing around between my ears.

"Boone, why don't you take a pass in it...couldn't hurt to drop a hundred pounds out of the car!"
"More like a buck, twenty!" Boone was shaking his head, "I've never ran this thing through, and I doubt I could improve on your times in one hit!"
"It's worth a try", Dale agreed, "what do you weigh right now, Boone?"
"Around 180..."
"...and I'm about 280!" I interjected.
"You're a hamburger short of 305!" Dale started laughing, "grab your helmet and jacket Boone, it's worth a shot!"

I had Aaron crawl under the dash again, to adjust the rpm for the shift light. Previously I had it at 6K, and I would hang on the light a bit before I shifted, but I wanted Boone to just grab the next gear as soon as he saw color. Boone drove straight to the water box, as the lanes were completely empty, so I grabbed a spot on the fence to watch. He was far too conservative on the burnout, and the Valiant predictably spun. I could also hear the rev limiter get tickled before each gear change. The 10.61-127.7 was nearly two mph better than my best of the day, but 4 hundredths slow.
"He needs another run! It'll give us the number!" Dale exclaimed as he ran up to me breathlessly. We could see lightning strikes a few miles away as Boone seemed to be taking his sweet time on the return road. He was taking forever crossing the scales, and both Dale and I were waving demonstrably for him to head back to the lanes.

"Guys...nothing scares a track owner worse than the threat of lightning striking his timing system, so we are going to pull the plug right now", we heard Brian Lohnes announce over the loud speaker, and just like that our chance for another pass was over.

That was a fun 30min or however long it was as you guys were trying to get the car to run the number. And luckily we got back to our cars before we got soaked!

Very true Jeremy, it seems that's the way Drag Week is at times, just a flurry of activity and urgency.

When Boone brought the Valiant back into our spot, Skippy and I immediately jumped on the exhaust, figuring we needed to get that done before the rain hit. I asked him where Rachael was, and he explained that she had went to the tower to have Brian Lohnes wish Opal Hindley a happy Birthday over the loud speaker, and then turn in her time slip. Rachael and Opal both have Birthdays during Drag Week, so that has been fun to share with them. I figured I had time to turn my slip after the rain arrived, so I just kept working on the car.
Suddenly I noticed the Hot Rod staffer who had been manning the scales standing near me. When I acknowledged him, he bent down and asked, "Did you switch drivers on that last run?"
"Uhh, yeah!" I confirmed. Boone was a registered driver in the event, so I couldn't think of any rules violations that we had commited, so I didn't feel compelled to shade the truth.
"OK", he smiled and straightened up, "That explains it! I've been weighing this Valiant all week at 3140-3160 depending on the scale, and when it came across at 3020 on that last run it freaked me out! You guys were pushing that 3K limit for all it was worth!"
He spun around and headed for the toter home before I could compose a witty response. It was just as well because moments later we were getting pelted with quarter sized rain drops.

Billy, that's funny! I'm glad you are back to telling the story, I was having withdrawals.