I guess I should have made another pass on friday, it was flooding the whole pass as the float had a hole.

Reality is I'm not even a mopar lol

Your related by the way of an arranged marriage lol.

Monte,
The story is about my feelings, and the feelings of those around me in the moment. As you are well aware emotions can get pretty raw in that moment, and I do my best to convey that in the story. Doesn't mean they are right, or justified, simply reporting how it went down.

I'm sure the spectators love seeing Dave and Jeff make passes. As a competitor, those passes mean nothing, and accomplish nothing...if you can't finish the event, they are completely irrelevant.
Many of the cars I was referring to that took advantage of the situation were 10,11 and 12 second cars.

I wasn't calling anybody out specifically, I was trying to convey the feeling of Friday at St. Louis gave many, that felt it was poorly handled from beginning to the conclusion of the joke of an awards ceremony. If that hurts feelings or makes people uncomfortable then I'm a better story teller than I give myself credit for (which, with an ego like mine, is pretty much impossible).

I love the fact that you are as involved as you are Monte, overall, and with the individual cars, and I hope the enjoyment outweighs the effort, although I can't see how.




I love your line about "not bother coming"!! The NHRA used that on us for years when National and Divisional events had swelled to enormous numbers...now, they are seeing the results of that.

On building a faster car:

My brothers and I sit around and laugh about all the good stuff we leave at home, and ask ourselves constantly, "When are we gonna swing for the fences, and bring a max effort type deal to Drag Week"?

The truth is we've done the NHRA thing, competed at that level, won some, got our teeth kicked in plenty. Drag Week is about fun, comaraderie, finishing in one piece. I respect those guys who are throwing down big numbers, but to me it's like throwing a 99mph fastball in beer league baseball. Relax guys, it's all good, that's too much like real work!!

Haha, yup

I must apologize, in my haste to pick on Tony because I had a .001 better five day average, I forgot to congratulate him on winning the plaque for "Quickest AMC", the award Dale took home last year because none of the AMC powered cars finished.

We like to be those in-laws that just don't know when to leave, my friend!

Thanks, I think lol

one more pic of Tony....sorry, I had to!

No Billy..........I really don't enjoy Dragweek at all. It's just not my thing. I might feel different if actually competing, but I doubt it. I go because my boss wants me to.......we are a sponsor and several of my customers go and need help

Thank you Monte for helping your customers,non customers etc.And thank NOS for all that they do for DW.

During the eight minutes between the end of round two of the Street Machine Eliminator bracket race and the beginning of round three, Boone and I entered the tower suite to hand in our time slips. Tara Fling and Tonya Turk are absolute sweethearts, but they genuinely looked worn down by the long day, and long week. I was reminded immediately of the "get some rest Pam, you look tired" line from the Bourne movies, and I chuckled to myself thinking it was a line they probably felt like using more than once looking at a never ending line of dirty, sweaty, beat up Drag Weekers filing in front of them for the last five hours.
"Are you guys attending the Shootout tomorrow?" Tonya asked as she filled out my Official Drag Week Time Slip.
"Yeah, we plan on it...how many signed up?" We were near the end of the line, so I figured they would have a good count by then.
"Not many", Tara shook her head, "You guys make like 38 or so?" She lifted an eyebrow towards Tonya, and she nodded in affirmation.
Boone and I exchanged surprised looks, but said nothing. Last year over a hundred cars took part, but we needed Saturday just to finish the event, and the Awards ceremony was after it, so maybe that helped inflate the numbers.

The four races of the third round took place while we were getting our final slips and conversing with those left in the suite. The two quickest cars left in competition, #1 qualifier Adalie Ross in her nitrous assisted SBF powered 63 Falcon Wagon, and #2 qualifier Michael Peevey in his nitrous assisted BBF powered 73 Ranchero both lost on hole shots, despite making nice 10.0 runs.

The Gold(brown?) 79 LeMans of David Burke also advanced. He had qualified 27th with an 11.34 dial in, and had pretty much disappeared into the background most of Drag Week, but he was showing off his bracket racing chops when given the opportunity. Of the nine or so body styles produced on the GM A/G-body platform from 1978-87, I always felt these were the homeliest...but I drive a 62 Valiant, so my opinion on body styling is probably null and void!

The fourth and final set of round three included the white 66 Mustang of Jeff Gallagher, who once again approached the water box by himself, but this time the lane presenter walked under the tower to wave someone up instead of just giving a quick look and calling for a single.

With the benefit of hindsight, and watching the live replay, I can give you the breakdown on how the Gateway employee handled both situations.
At the end of round Two, he sent the Mustang to his burnout on a single 62 seconds after the previous pair cleared the finish line, and a scant 20 seconds later you can hear John pull the Valiant out from under the tower.
At the end of round three, The Mustang sat, ready to approach the water, while the track worker repeatedly motioned to Jeremy Wilson in the Chevy II to come out from under the tower, where his crew appeared to be changing the nitrous bottle. The two of them pulled into the water box 48 seconds after the previous pair cleared the traps.
Using my mediocre math skills, I presume that John missed his opportunity to repeat as winner of the bracket race by about thirty seconds, which is pretty tough after running all over four states for a week just to get to that point.

Gallagher had a chance to take the NHRA Super Street racer out, but the little Mustang broke out by a scant three thousandths.

Boone and I moved over to a side table in the suite, and decided to hang out there to watch the next round. If I could have scripted it, I would have had Passerby and Wilson matched up in the final, but they ended up paired in the semis.
"I'd put all my chips on Passerby if this was on a sportsman tree, but Wilson has made thousands of runs on a pro tree", I explained to Boone.

My analysis turned out to be wrong, as both guys deep staged, and both cut identical .037 lights. The difference was Passerby's normally aspirated 70 Nova just couldn't overcome the deepstage, the hotlapping, and the tenth under dial and still run the number. He went 10.86-127 out the back on his 10.79, while Wilson fanned the brakes and went 10.82 on his 10.77 for the win.
The second pair in the semis looked like a bad three stooges skit.
Burke cut a horrible 1.1 second reaction time, which meant Nick Taylor's faster 80 Malibu was on him by the 60ft. clocks. Nick became so enamored with hanging a bumper on him though, that he rode him all the way down the track only to give up the stripe by two thou, and run a full second over his dial!

Randy Heinselman has brought his 70 'Cuda on Drag Week four times, and finished all four. His first attempt was with a small shot of nitrous, but he settled into the Super Street Big Block N/A class for the last two trips, netting a runner-up in that class, and a third place finish this year. Sandwiched in between was a shot at Street Race Big Bock NA which also resulted in a third place plaque in 2013.

Outside, it has all the visual cues of an AAR Cuda, but it packs a drive train featuring a 535 BB stroker, 727, and Dana 60. Best pass in NA trim is 10.39-128.3, in 2014. This year he had more mph, but couldn't improve on his ET.

#7 Randy Heinselman Plum Crazy Purple 70 Plymouth Barracuda
Day 1 10.43-130.6
Day 2 10.50-129.7
Day 3 10.55-128.4
Day 4 10.75-126.1
Day 5 10.67-126.7
Final Average 10.583-128.33

This is the final page of the Mopar Muscle article, and if you think I was a little upset about the fact that they messed up my average by two hundredths, imagine how the other two Mopars who had ten second averages felt about being snubbed for an 11.20 car!

#8 James Reeves Black 86 Dodge Omni GLH
Day 1: 10.89-130.2
Day 2: 10.95-129.0
Day 3: 10.70-135.2
Day 4: 10.72-133.1
Day 5: 10.67-139.6
Final Average: 10.792-133.46

James and the Omni finished DW13 with an 11.56-117.1 average, so 2015's numbers were a huge step up. Nothing compared to what he did during the Shootout on Saturday though. Clearly his DW aspirations were to finish, so he was being kind to the little front scratcher, On Saturday though..he ramped it up big time in a bid for the nines!

Check out the BangShift.com article below, and be sure to watch the awesome video by 1320 Video. Kyle does a better job of telling the story than I can!

http://bangshift.com/general-news/car-fe...drag-week-2015/

I guess one front scratcher four banger turbo Mopar was all MM editor Johnny Hunkins could care to give credence to in his magazine, besause they skipped right over the ninth quickest Mopar at Drag Week 2015.

#9 Jason Trotter Red 87 Dodge Daytona Shelby
Day 1: 11.02-138.7
Day 2: 10.51-140.7
Day 3: 10.64-139.1
Day 4: 11.49-133.9
Day 5: 10.75-140.1
Final Average: 10.886-138.56

Much like Matt Blasco, a bad day at the rain shortened Cordova kept him from possibly having a better average than the GLH of Reeves, but those booming 140 mph top end charges show the power on tap for this beast.

Those Daytonas have ALWAYS been my favorite Pro Stock cars!
I always wanted one for a bracket car. Like Sheldon Gecker.
Cool cars.
Don

Boone and I headed out of the tower, and were walking back to our pit spot by the time they ran the final. Wilson treed Burke so bad he took an easy stripe despite easing off by two tenths.
They were pitted close to us, so I walked over to offer Jeremy congratulations, then looked up John to find out what happened in the second round.
"I had to come back to the pits and try something", he explained, "I just felt like I was a sitting duck pulling up there two tenths slow, so I came back here and changed tire pressure, added fuel, timing, and even some weight in the trunk...the track had completely went away. I guess I should've sandbagged one day like most of them did, but I wanted to run tens all week."

John, Opal, and the 67 Valiant did end up as the 10th quickest Mopar at Drag Week 2016.

#10 John Hindley Jr. White 67 Plymouth Valiant
Day 1: 10.95-121.8
Day 2: 10.92-121.4
Day 3: 10.95-121.3
Day 4: 10.92-120.7
Day 5: 11.00-120.9
Final Average: 10.954-121.24

I have one for sale.. its just a gutted body with ground
effects.. cheap

As consistent as John's Valiant was, with only an eight hundredths spread from Monday to Friday, the eleventh quickest Mopar was not! His final average was a mere two thousandths slower the John, but he took a very strange route to get there.

This was Ryan's third trip on Drag Week in his Jeep, and this year he really stepped up the performance of his luxury SUV!

#11 Ryan Anderson Red 08 Jeep Grand Cherokee SRT8
Day 1: 10.66-133.0
Day 2: 10.82-126.5
Day 3: 11.35-95.6
Day 4: 10.67-131.8
Day 5: 11.25-121.3
Final Average: 10.956-121.69

Boone and I were hanging out in our pit area, watching Aaron cleaning up the rest of the Gremlin engine, and begging Rachael to track us down some food, when it hit me.
"Where did we leave the Spirit of Drag Week Award"?
Boone paused for a second, "You left it in the cab of your 1 ton, in impound right?"
"Yeah, I think so...we better go get it and drop it off at the tent where the awards ceremony is being set up."
"What should we drive down there, Darren and Dale are still gone, and the Belvedere is out of action..."
"Let's just walk", Boone decided, the exercise won't kill us".

We had to walk directly by the large commercial tent which had been erected for the awards ceremony, so we took a peek inside. They weren't even remotely ready, so we decided there was plenty of time to walk the length of the circle track to where our impound pit was located.

"Should we load everything and take the truck to our pits?" I questioned Boone, "I'm just not sure about leaving everything out here tonight with all these drifter clowns, and the local crowd".
"Lets just take the plaque, and we'll worry about all that after the awards are done", Boone decided.

When we returned to the tent, with the large plaque in hand, the raised platform was still in disarray as all the awards and giveaways were being staged at the same time they were trying to plug in the sound equipment and rig lights. We walked up to Hot Rod Editor David Kennedy, and handed the Spirit Award up to him.
"What's this?" He asked with a puzzled look on his face.
Boone and I looked at each other in amazement.
"Uh, it's the Spirit of Drag Week Award...it's the traveling trophy that's handed out every year, then returned for the next winner..." Boone explained.
One of the girls that help out every year came up behind him, and motioned for him to set it down next to the boxes of other awards. "That's the last one you will hand out", she explained to him, then turned to thank us for bringing it back.
"This event might be in trouble if he's in charge of it next year", Boone shook his head as we made our way to the exit.

Elana Scherr caught us at the exit, and took the time to introduce us to the new Hot Rod guys whom we had provided all the stats to online. They were both young, intelligent, enthusiastic, and well spoken, so our faith in the future of our hobby was instantly restored.