I know, I know...I haven't even finished the 2017 story! Or even the 2016 story completely. But I figure I need to start this one so the 2017 thread doesn't get bombarded with questions about this year.

It seems like these days the talk about the next Drag Week starts as soon as we leave for home from the current one. At least for my brothers anyway, for myself, I'm wrapped up in scouring the internet for as many pictures and tidbits of info on other participants that I can find. The internet moves fast anymore, and if I don't jump on it quick, it all disappears into the ether.

It wasn't that I was just resting on my laurels, or spending all my time chained in front of the PC. I had already loaded up the Valiant and took it to the West Coast Hot Rod Association event in Tucson October 27th and 28th. John Hindley and his Dad hosted me at the race, and dialed in the rear suspension to get the car to leave better than it has in quite some time, we also played around with timing and jetting, picking up a tenth and a half over the ten pass outing. Since it was an evening race we even took the time to cruise to a Saturday car show in the interim, so I was pretty happy with the Valiant when I returned to Phoenix.

I was barely into Monday at Cordova on my Drag Week 2017 story when Hot Rod announced the tracks for Drag Week 2018(Dec 7th), they also announced some of the changes they were proposing for the upcoming 2018-2020 rules package. The southeast was appealing because it would be four new tracks, but the distance was a serious hurdle. The proposed rules were a joke, so I had to fire off several scathing letters in rebuke to HotRod.com!

It’s way past most of these guys bedtime you know... but type on! I’m here!

Billy, I took quite a few pictures this year. Let me know if you need any for this years story, and I'll send them to you.

I can't wait! Lots of drama this year, including a hurricane of all things!

SUBSCRIBING!

Billy, I heard about what happened. Sorry to hear that and I wish your family members a full recovery to great health. I look forward to reading your DW thread each year. Get to typing powder-keg......!!

Wes

Billy.. you need to finish up your other 2 years
so you can put your time into this years run

I'm looking ahead to this story!

What a cool car! Love those early Valiants, '62 V100s especially.

I hope everyone is alright. I heard about the crash and it sounded really serious.

Since Dale ran the Gremlin NA at Drag Week 2017, he had a complete and ready to race car when he returned to Owasso. He wasted very little time taking advantage of that as he attended the Throw Down at T-Town event in mid October. He hooked up the twin NOS Big Shot plates under the Dominators on his Indy Tunnel Ram as soon as he got home, and drove the car out to Tulsa Raceway Park that Friday to join in on the fun.

The facility is only seven miles from Dale's house, so he enjoyed making a grand entrance, and driving through the gate Drag Week style to park alongside all the trucks and trailers. He raced in the 6.0 class, and found that about 1 second of nitrous on the timer was all he needed to be holding a little at the stripe. It worked all the way to the final, until he got treed and had to settle for a breakout runner-up.

Nice, runner-up!

In November, Boone and Dale attended "Mopars at the Park", also at Tulsa Raceway Park, and Dale took runner-up in Super Pro while Boone ran 10.55-128 in the Ruster, which was his best numbers with the car NA.

Then on December 2nd I got a call from Dale, and as soon as I said hello, he just blurted it out. "Michael is gone...he died of a heart attack last night!"
"Dear Lord...how old are the boys now?"
"Eighteen and Sixteen, they are staying with their Grandma right now. I just can't believe it, the last thing he told me before we left for Drag Week was that he would definitely have the new Duster ready for next year...and now he'll never get the chance!"
I rubbed my eyes and tried to comprehend what this meant, the boys had lost their mother to an industrial accident years earlier, now they had neither parent at such a young age. "Who is going to look out for their interests with all of Michael's cars and stuff? You are going to have to keep an eye out, so it doesn't all disappear from under them!"
"The Duster is at my house, in his enclosed trailer. I've already talked with them and let them know that I'll keep everything secure until they get their feet under them and are ready to deal with all this".
"He was only fifty", Dale exhaled into the phone, "what the heck".
"Monte was only fifty-three, Dale, we aren't promised tomorrow, none of us!"
"How close was he to going this year?" I questioned Dale, just because I couldn't think of another thing to add.
"He said a couple of hours, but I looked at it when he brought it to me, and it really needs a week at least."
"Take care of yourself little brother...love you", I croaked out.
"Dave, you need to lose weight again, we ain't getting any younger", he admonished.
"Yeah, yeah, I know!"

https://www.hotrod.com/articles/1962-plymouth-valiant-one-funkiest-cars-drag-week/

See you got some love on hotrod

They spent about 5 minutes interviewing me during registration on Sunday. I never really figured it would see the light of day.

I took the Valiant on a cruise in late November '17 with a few friends of mine, we probably had about 40 cars in all, and it was a 70 mile round trip to a small town drive-in on the outskirts of Phoenix. It was an enjoyable day, but a few days later I noticed the driver's side front was all the way down on the suspension stops despite the fact that I had screwed the t-bars all the way up before Drag Week 17. I knew the "drag race only" .810 bars had been getting progressively weaker after every DW, but it seemed they may be finally done. I had ordered a set of .960 bars previously, but changing them had proven to be a problem, as they won't slide out the back because they hit the ladder bar mounts! As I usually do when faced with a difficult repair...I put it off for another day...

Early December gave Dale one more attempt with the Gremlin at a "Tulsa List" race. Considering how the car had ran NA, and based on the way it reacted to the shot in the eighth, he was expecting to go well into the 8's, but his old 9" JW just wasn't up to the task.

"4.56s with the 440, 7500 through the traps at 148. 4.10s with the 440, 7500 through the traps at 152, 3.73s with the 580, 7500 through the traps at 158! The harder I load it, the more torque I apply, the more it slips! It shows 22.5 percent slippage now!"
He was complaining to me, but it was a discussion we had many times. I had implored him to get another converter for the last two years.

In January, he sent me a link to a post on Facebook, in our group text between the brothers. His caption read "Dave really needs this intake". It was Rick Finley (Charger453, Moparts), selling the top end off his low deck. Included was a low deck Indy dominator intake with an Induction Solutions X275 fogger installed. He wanted less for the intake than the cost of the fogger so that was a no brainer, but the Indy-1 stuff was reasonable too, and the package deal was just too good to pass up.

When it was apparent that I had purchased the parts, Boone and Darren both chimed in to ask how a big block Indy top end was going to improve a small block Drag Week street car. My only answer was, "It was a good deal"!

I have an app on my phone that shows articles from several car magazines and I opened one and an article on Billys Valiant appeared, Cool car! and these stories are great. Barnyard Viper is my favorite of your fleet.

Did they throw in the Craftsman creeper to sweeten the deal?