Joel, Sorry to hear it didn't work out. I know how much you and Jeff enjoy it.

x2. And since it was idling it didn't take out the shortblock so the fix should be relatively easy, it just happened at the worst possible time. I'm sorry Joel.

Somehow when that happens we find a way. Back in '08 when I was trunk monkey for Jay Brown, he had spent a year building his 64 Galaxy And it was a major thrash right up through the teck line at the first track in bowling Green Kentucky.

We left the truck and trailer at bowling Green and we raced at Steele Alabama, then on to Montgomery Alabama, and then we were on our way to Memphis when we had our final, irrepairable breakdown about 50 miles east of tupelo Mississippi.
Jay called AAA who towed the car to a hotel at the tupelo airport. Jay got a room there, and stayed with the Galaxie while I rented a car at the airport and drove it back to bowling Green. I stayed overnight there, then the next day I got my truck and trailer out of the fence at the track and loaded the rental car into my trailer and drove it back to the car rental place at the tupelo airport. Then we loaded the Galaxy in and hauled it home. So there's always a way.

On that trip we worked on the car constantly due to unanticipated rocker arm failures and a host of other problems associated with a brand new untested car. The night after we raced at Montgomery, we had another rocker arm failure and were pulled over in a parking lot in Birmingham fixing it and we were both exhausted and it was dark. Jay said "I don't know Joel, should we throw in the towel?" I thought about all of the work that we had done so far and figured why throw it all away? So I said to Jay "let's keep going until we absolutely can't go because of parts or being timed out. Let's not let our own will, or our fatigue be the cause of dropping out." Jay liked the idea and we decided that's what we were going to do. So I've kind of decided that's going to be my drag week policy as well. Keep going as long as I possibly can. In this instance there's nothing I can do to get this car done and on the track in time for drag week.

You guys should approach this like us weekly racers do. Work on it all winter then race and work on it all summer. Then all you would have to do is buy gas and load up for the trip. One Facebook friend was building his trailer this week for the trip. Lol. I do look forward to watching the last minute dash to you guys getting ready each year. It makes for some entertaining reading. Lol 😂

That was exactly my plan for 2022. But a whole bunch of stuff that is higher priority or beyond my control got in the way. So now it is the plan for 2023. Get ready, stay ready.

That sounds like a winning plan. Good luck.

That was my plan and then I took it all apart to change cams and barely got it together lol. Last year for DW21 I was ready and the car had been together from being ready(mostly) for DW2020 that didn't happen. It was a nice feeling to be ready and well tested going into the event. The feeling is also offset by wondering if it has been together too long and if something should be freshened up? Vicious cycle!

My Dad and I are at the hotel, we will miss seeing you and Jeff. You two should cannonball down to the closest track for a day.

Watching all the pre-race prep & carnage is unreal!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGEE9HtKxMc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DO9mRuOU2u0

That Finnigan video was pretty good.

We tapped out on testing today. Because of the schedule change tech day was on top of another event that was using the pits for drifting. Supposedly test and tune starts at 5 but that event was still going strong at 3:30.

I have had it on the converter, and have run it to 7100 in 2nd so I know the tune is close enough. EFI closed loop correction might just carry us through lol.

Saw Clark run a 10.58, nice clean wheels up pass!

As if Drag week isn't hard enough the weather is going to change quickly. High -low Tues 94-73, Wed 91-59, Thurs 67-45 ,Fri 65-57, Sat 82-58. Fuel injection is your friend. Probably a late start Thurs. and Fri. due to fog and dew.

The struggle bus is real!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZdxlotxrAQ

Can I get that wasted time back. Don’t these guys check anything at home.

lol....Its like everyone entered gets ready at the last minute.....

To even be track legal it has to have two springs on it. Is there zero tech at these events and do these guys race at all throughout the year. Or just go to “ the show”.

It amazes me how many people show up to this event w/ last minute rushed builds. If there was ever an event NOT to wait until the last minute to prepare for, this is it IMO.

If everything went good who would watch his YouTube videos.

People work on builds for years. You get to a point where you think you are close at registration time, so you pay your money and sign up. Next thing you know, life gets in the way, parts don’t fit, can’t get parts, etc… You’ve paid your money, and think this might be the only chance you can do this, and the next thing you know, you are installing parts in the tech line.

It’s easy to say how it should be done, but until you sign up, and go for it, a person just doesn’t understand.