Mr Mopar Pudding?

WOW tough crowd today, no?

Don

That was an awesome looking wheelie. I'm glad nothing broke when your wheels were reunited with planet Earth.

Coming down hard causes lots of thoughts to run through your mind!

Don

Jay,
When I was racing Super Street full time, still racing local, and making about 120 passes a year, I became a slightly below average drag race driver. Now that I make about fifteen passes a year, I'm the duck that guys fight over to get beside in the first round!

Rachael and I decided to walk over and join Darren and Dad at the fence, so we could watch Dale and Boone.
"That was an awesome wheelie, man! Lohnes and Freiburger were bragging on you over the loud speaker", Dad crowed.
"It wasn't awesome in the driver's seat", I shook my head.
"Dude", Darren smiled and slapped me on the back, "Not one person is going to remember if you ran 10.20 or 9.60 on that pass...but they are sure going to recall that wheelie, that's how you make an impression!"
My phone went off in my hand, and I looked down to see the text from my wife. "Ben and I saw your wheelie on the live feed! They even put it on slow motion replay, Cool!"
I watched a set go down then checked my phone again. Two more friends had texted about the wheelie...apparently I was the only one who didn't like it!

Dale and the Gremlin left the line extremely soft, then I saw him lift momentarily and cram back on the gas. The nitrous finally activated at around a hundred feet out, then it ran hard to a 9.36-153.
"He didn't re-adjust the throttle again, so it didn't activate the full throttle switch", I shook my head.
"He's passing guys on the return road", Darren pointed, as Boone was backing up from his burnout.
"Yeah, he's trying to get back in line for another hit", I explained.
Boone left hard in the Duster, but it wiggled around at the shift to second. The popping on the nitrous didn't start until around a thousand feet this time, so maybe by the time Drag Week was over, they would have the carb dialed in. His board lit up with a 10.08-133.95.
"He'll be happy with that", Dad commented.
"Yeah...he'll save the attempt for a nine until tomorrow", I agreed.

Dale came into our pit area, already half out of the car, and asking for help with the hood. He grabbed tools and adjusted the throttle as I held the hood up, with Billy in the car going from idle to WOT. Lohnes had already made the call over the PA that lanes would close in ten minutes.
"It looked really smooth on the launch", I commented.
Dale looked visibly upset, which is a rarity for him. "When I was under the car putting the new bolt in the ladder bar, I realized Brian must've zeroed out the rebound on my rear shocks when he put the new front end under it last year! That's why it's been blowing the tires off and slamming back down...and I've been trying to fix it by adjusting the front of the car!"
"Why would he touch the rear shocks", I asked.
"Not a clue...probably meant to re-set them and just forgot, but I've been chasing it for a Drag Week and a half!"
I bolted the hood back down as he pulled his gear back on, fired the car, and headed back up to the lanes.

Dale was two cars behind John Faraone, who wasn't about to drive his Australian 72 Chrysler Valiant Charger to Columbus if there was still track time left to be had at Indy! The big slicks lurched hard until about twenty feet out, then the TT Wedge shut off clean and the silver beast coasted to a stop at 500 feet out. A track worker ran out and picked up a shredded cogged belt off the track which looked to be the size used on an MSD front mount distributor. By the time they pushed him off the track, it was 2:38pm, and the lanes were closed.

Dale still had the nitrous coming in later after the hit, and a conservative tune, so the Gremlin left very smooth once again with only a 1.40 60'. It began to pull really hard from there, and was 5.75-121 at the eighth, but there was a pop at about the 1000' mark, so the front dropped and he rolled through with a 9.15 at only 133.5 mph.
Dad groaned, "He didn't just drop another valve, I hope."
"He's still driving it", I answered, "but with Dale, that doesn't mean something isn't wrong!"

By the time Dale made it back to our pit spot, the last cars of the day had just cleared the traps and it was 2:50 in the afternoon. The Gremlin seemed to be on eight when he parked, but Dale had a very concerned look on his face when he crawled out.
"What happened up there?"
"Ran out of fuel."
"How the heck does that keep happening to you...this is the third time you've ran out of fuel on a nitrous pass in the Gremlin, and you got pistons on the other two", I shook my head.
"Got pistons on this one as well, hopefully not as bad, since it was a smaller hit, but she's hurt".
He shrugged off his jacket and tossed it on our pile, "I had one and a half or two gallons of 118 left, so I dumped it all in and was only expecting to make one hit."
I helped him pull the hood off and set it in front of the car, "This is an awfully big place, and with exiting on the opposite side, and driving all the way around the staging lanes to get back to your pit."
"Exactly", he shrugged, "and I was in such a hurry to get back up there, I never considered adding more fuel!"
"So how bad is it?" I blurted out, not really thinking.
"Don't know, I'm going to start by pulling the plugs and looking around", he gave me a sheepish grin.
I realized in that moment that he was internalizing the anger and disappointment he was feeling, something he's done his entire life, so I moved away from the situation so that he wouldn't have to keep trying to fake it in front of me.
Rachael, the taskmaster, was once again trying to get Boone, Billy, and I on point and organized so we could get our cars loaded up and ready to hit the road. She was putting stuff behind the seats in my Valiant when she looked up and suddenly asked the question, "Have we turned in our time slips yet?"
"DUH!" I threw my hands up, and looked around at everyone else, "We better go get that done!"



Pic. 1

John Hindley Sr. followed the entire route with us in 2014 when his son ran his 67 Valiant. This year he was in Indiana visiting family, so he came by and hung out with us at Lucas Oil Raceway! Definitely an unexpected bonus to our day.

Pic. 2
Darren and Shari applying warpaint. Sun screen is your friend on Drag Week...usually!

Pic. 3 & 4

Earl Shexnayder's Orange 2000 Mustang has a big inch Boss engine, and only made it twenty miles from Tulsa on Day one before falling out in 2014. In 2016 he had serious help in the form of Robert Robinson and his LUV mini-truck. Despite the fact that Earl's Mustang was hurt and slowing down every day, Robert helped keep him on the road, while battling Dale's Gremlin with his LUV for 7th place in Modified PA. Leaving Indy, the LUV's average was 9.257 to the Gremlin's 9.287. Their adventures included using duct tape on the inside and outside of an ET Street to keep air in it long enough just to make it to Indy!

That racer tape did its job.

We turned in our slips, picked up our route sheets, and returned to the pits to finish loading up all our stuff. A Division 3 official came by on his golf cart to explain that they were going to be letting racers in to claim their pit spots for the upcoming Division 3 Finals.
"I've seen rigs lined up since we came through the gate at 9 something, but you don't even do anything on Thursday", I shook my head, "I've ran 4 or 5 of them in Division 7."
"No, no, but we told them we would open the gates for pit parking at 1:00 pm, and we didn't realize your program was going to go over, so they are getting anxious!"
"Yeah, I understand that but I guess I don't get the need to show up a whole day early just to be first people through the gate", I shook my head.
"The sooner they get their pits staked out, the sooner they can start drinking, I guess", He laughed, "We are just asking the Drag Week guys that are doing major repairs to move over to the staging lanes."
"We are just finishing up", I explained, we'll be out of here in an hour or less."
"Ok, no big deal then, just know that they will be streaming in!"

A 3/4 ton pick-up with an open trailer and a well-worn Nova pulled directly beside us and stopped. His buddy with a Class C motor home, and an enclosed trailer pulled next to him and they got out as well.
"You guys gonna be here a while", one of them asked me.
"Yeah", I nodded, "Are we in your way?"
"Naw, we was trying to figure out how to save a few spots for our friends through this initial rush, but you're doing a heck of a job at that right now!"

I shrugged, and continued to prepare my car for the trip when five minutes later I heard the awful screech of metal on metal, and looked up in time to see a guy dragging his enclosed trailer over the nose of the Gremlin, narrowly missing pinning Dale between the two vehicles. He continued on for nearly two feet with people yelling at him and waving before he stopped. I was already around the Valiant and headed for his driver's door when he stepped out with one leg, looked back at the Gremlin, then put the truck in reverse and tried to back up to free the trailer from the car.
I slapped both hands on the door sill of the open window and yelled in his face, "If you move this truck another inch, I'm going to drag you out of it and beat you to death!"
He looked up at me slack jawed, with eyes as big as saucers, like he'd just seen an alien. The passenger told him to shut the truck off, just as I was about to reach in and do it myself.

This last part REALLY SUCKS..sorry to read
about this now Billy... I KNOW your brother
was PISSED

WOW just wow. That's a huge pit area, and this guy gets that close?
Don

unbelievable..... so with the AMC being a licensed and insured street car does that help in insurance matters?

How this even happened is beyond me. The Gebhart crew was in the middle of no where in the pits. We left fairly late and there wasn't a non Gebhart car within 50 yards or more of them.

The guy looked to be about 65, he got out of the truck slowly and walked back to look at his trailer, then glanced at Dale's Gremlin.
"I'm sorry guys, I guess I didn't see you."
"We're going to need your driver's license, insurance verification, and vehicle registration", Boone shot back, he already had his camera out and was shooting pictures.
"Now guys, let's not get the insurance involved, this is just a simple dragstrip accident..."
Dale, as I mentioned earlier, internalizes anger, and is usually calm and level headed, but he cut him off quickly. "NO! No it's not! YOU are in a street legal, licensed, registered, and insured truck, and you just ran over my street legal, licensed and insured vehicle, so don't even start that crap!"
"Well, I don't want this to go against my insurance, I'd rather just pay, I mean it's not that bad..."
"Get your information out NOW!" Boone was insistent, since it appeared the guy was going to be a jerk about the whole thing.
I was beginning to worry that it was going to be an "us against the trailer park situation", as the number of D-3 bracket racers walking over to see what was going on was increasing. The guy reluctantly handed over all his paperwork and Boone took photos of them.

Dad had wondered off somewhere, and was late to the party, so as soon as he saw what had happened he yelled at the top of his voice, "You stupid son of a, you just screwed up his whole week!" He was headed straight for the guy and Boone and I had to react quickly to screen him off.
"You think this hasn't messed up my weekend?"
Dad heard that and redoubled his efforts to get at the guy.
Dale looked up and pointed at me, "Keep him out of this!"
As if I needed a reminder, but the guy and the onlookers were oblivious to what we were up against. For 63 of Dad's 72 years on this earth, his answer to any conflict or confrontation has been a right cross, and if he got within arms length of this man, he was going to drop him like a sack of potatoes, of that I had no doubt. Boone and I had a good feeling things would escalate quickly from there.
A local racer walked up to Dale and explained, "We called the local police department, and they are going to send a unit out to take a report, if this guy doesn't want to cooperate."
"I'm sure we are going to be able to work it out", Dale gave a slight smile, "but I appreciate that, it might come in handy."

We had pushed the Gremlin back from the trailer, so the guy and Dale were looking over the damage.
"It really doesn't look that bad", the guy commented.
"The chrome around the windshield has been popped loose because you shoved the passenger's fender so far over", Dale pointed.
"This front-end is one piece and removable, with a fabricated tubing tree instead of a core support. All of that is bent, that in turn holds in the aluminum radiator, so the tabs on the tanks are bent, this radiator is going to leak and will need to be replaced. When was the last time you tried to hunt down 40 year old Gremlin parts?"
The guy shook his head, "I see your point, the best I can do is to give you three hundred cash right now, and we will settle up when you get home."
"If we can't agree to an amount then I'm going to turn it in to your insurance", Dale explained.
Boone and I had handed Dad off to Rachael, and she had him putting air in the Belvedere rear tires. Dale seemed to be handling the whole thing far better than I expected. When the guy moved his trailer to the pit spot he was going after it was clear to see what happened. He had been driving down the row beside us, and realized his buddies were one row over and back the other way, so the quickest route was a u-turn right through our pits!

Dale, Darren, and Boone were clearly in shock, and just had no idea where to start to get the Gremlin road worthy again. Luckily a pair of guys from the film crew which had been hired this year to handle the live feed, stopped by and helped out. Big props to these guys from J-Angel Productions, and MotorManiaTV.com for jumping in and lending a hand when it was needed.

ahhhh the "race car incident" angle. Thought he'd hold that card a little longer before he went "all in".

. Billy hats off to your whole clan for keeping a cool head.


and then?

Brian Kohlmann 31 Chrysler Coupe

Brian drove into the collective consciousness of Mopar guys everywhere when he was doing fire burnouts in his S/FX altered wheel base Mr. Norm's 65 Dodge. He showed up at Drag Week with a stunning orange and creme 31 Chrysler CM6 Coupe in 2013 with an early Hemi, with I believe, six strombergs and a stick. In 2014 it had a blower. After two DNFs he came back with his high school car in 2015, a low thirteen second 66 Chevelle, and got his first completed Drag Week. Then came the news that the orange Coupe had suffered a bad crash.

He rebuilt the Coupe in Green, with the outlandish plan of having a street driven AA/FA! Nitro on the track and pump fuel on the drives. His first attempt on day 1 came to a halt when the Bruno-drive on his Lenco transmission broke after the first burnout. He was once again saddled with a DNF, but he didn't give up. He made a successful half pass at Indy, and was trying to switch the car over and make at least one drive. Jim (Squirrel) had decided to hang around in the hopes of getting some road pictures of his A/FX Blown Chevy II cruising with a AA/FA, and Elana from RoadKill stuck around to document it.

When it became clear that Brian wasn't going to get the Coupe rolling down the road, we became Elana and Jim's back-up plan!

Elana did a quick blog on RoadKill.com about Dale's incident in the pits, along with one picture of the damage. HotRod.com shared it, guys shared it to the Drag Weekers page on facebook, next thing we knew it was viral. The guy who hit him asked Dale to please post that they had an agreement because he was getting flamed all over social media!

Jim came over and asked if we were about to leave, and decided he would hang out and drive with us for a while. He was about to find out that the stories of our woes were not exaggerations!

Brians coupe is totally nutso over the top! When it was orange, it was one of my favorite hot rods of all time. (it was 8 strombergs on a blower, then for his 1st Drag Week, 8 strombergs N/A to meet Hot ROd Class rules of no power adder) After he crashed at the RoadKill event at the silver DOme, he rebuilt it into the Fuel Altered Coupe in less than a year! Now it is for sure my favorite Hot Rod of all time! He completed one of the most epic thrashes in human history to make it to DW 2016, and it was still being assembled and completely untested when he arrived. Kind of Gebhardish, except he had been working on non-stop it for 10 months. It has a mechanical fuel injection system and magneto driven off the front of the motor, and that little fuel tank in the front for the Nitro passes. It has an EFI system and a distributor in the stock location for the gas on the street. That makes the switch over fairly simple; he pulls all the plug wires that are connected the magneto, ties them up, and puts on all the plug wires from the distributor. He was only running 50% nitro in the tank, now some dialing in has been accomplished he is ready to up the percentage. It should be THE car to watch in 2017, once the percentage goes up it will make ALOT of noise!