Hot Rod Drag Week 2017: The Experience.

Since the natives are getting restless, and are more interested in talking about the road ahead than finishing up last years saga, I may as well relent, and start the next chapter.

My July 4th visit to Oklahoma was interesting. Even though our family is planning to return with vehicles we've taken before, we are still going to have our hands full at the last minute as always, Dale is juggling 4 or 5 projects right now, and is already putting off stuff that is going to bite us during hell week.

Last night he began re-assembly of the 572 (now 580) for the Gremlin.

Sorry Billy. I'll stay quiet...

No, not at all Jeff. I LOVE input from everyone else, sometimes when I write six or seven posts in a row and no one comments I think I've lost the room!

Nonsense, we're all still listening. I certainly am... So thanks for sharing Billy!

Always reading your stuff, most my comments would be asking for next installment, so I stay quiet an read on

Well then Billy, for myself, since Monte passed I really now only look forward to your DW posts. When you write late at night, there is nothing better to start my work day by turning on my computer and reading the latest installments. After being very lucky to be able to live and experience DW with Joel, its great hearing what others go through during the week.

....and I'm still curious Billy. Where do YOU draw the line. We've seen your brothers beat some of there big blocks into submission, or close to it. Where do you draw the line on your small block? How bad would you want to finish??

Fair question, Jay.
My philosophy about engines has always been conservative. I know myself, and my expectations. Give me a well founded path to follow, with proven parts that provide reliability and durability. I absolutely hate valve train issues of any kind, so give me a tractor motor with plenty of piston speed at moderate rpms and I'm a happy man. Truth is, I'm much closer to a purple shaft, 906, TRW piston guy than a W-8, Gen III, Predator type.

The foundation of the Valiant combination is the X block, it's a really nice piece, and if I felt that I was risking damage to the block, I'd likely pull the plug. To deny our egos is folly however, and the Valiant is a perfect 5 for 5, with no DNFs, so I can't be sure until I'm faced with the situation.

The 440 from your Challenger notwithstanding?

Kevin

keep it coming billy ! i enjoy your sagas immensely, plus i learn things, so definitely continue on the path !

I for one truly look forward to reading the Gephardt Chronicles of Drag Week.
I would really love to try DW once, I enjoyed the Drag Weekend, meet some good people, before it being replaced with the Zip-Tie Drags out here.

Okay.... Based on the pics, the motor has been pulled apart and cleaned up.

And the metal was coming from...???

I guess I didn't realize that motor was built with a good block.

Fast68,
The pics are the engine from the Gremlin.

The 511 in the Duster was built from parts I traded to Boone for the Barnyard Viper. 230 400 block, Program caps (3 middle ones, cross bolted), the home ported max wedge Indy SR heads from atoetly (Dale purchased his engine then sold the heads to me), a 440 source kit, and a Hughes flat tappet cam.

Actually Kevin, the two 440s that made most of the passes in the Challenger were perfect examples of how conservative I am.

The first one was a stock block (filled) with stock caps (main studs) and rods (good bolts), TRW 11.5 pistons, ported 915s, a Hughes hydraulic 555/570 lift cam, with an M1 and a dominator. It's best pass was 10.74-123 or so at 2950, sometimes in the heat of the summer it wouldn't run fast enough for SST. It really liked the bottle though, and so did I. 9.60's were so easy with my cheater plate...then Mike Gray sold me his O'Malley competition dominator to standard flange adapter with two sets of spray bars, one front to back, the other side to side.
He should have been ashamed of himself, it was like selling pure heroin to an addict. I blew up that poor 440 in two passes when I turned on the second system, but it went 9.23-142!

The second 440 started out as a straight up copy of an engine Chuck Senatore built in a magazine, I even ordered the Ross pistons and the Ultradyne flat tappet cam from Muscle Motors. The path got changed slightly because I picked up a set of aluminum main caps and BME rods, only 81 passes on each for dirt cheap. I also got a break on a set of NIB Edelbrock RPM heads which my machinist cleaned up the ports slightly, certainly not a port job (these are the heads currently on the 508 in the Barnyard Viper). That engine had the same Isky ductile rockers, intake and carb off the old 440. It lasted 800 passes, ran a best or 9.96 (usually 10.20s) and took me into the eights on both systems, but it was a basic, no frills 440.

I'm curious Billy, how many Gebhart cars have been to Drag Week? How many times have you gone?

I know you said the Valiant is 5 for 5. Have you ran another car?

The Belvedere

Dales Gremlin

The Ruster Duster

The Barnyard Viper

The Dakota

The Charger has made it to the St.Louis Tech line. Any others?

Drag Week 2006 was our first, Boone took a 78 Dodge 1/2 ton short bed with a 493, and I was his co-pilot. We split the expenses of the trip while Dad and Darren followed the route in a PT Cruiser.

We finished 3rd in the 12.0 Daily Driver class with a 12.0023 average. Among the guys we beat in that class that year were, Tom Taylor, Vince Rasch, Ross Dudley, Radar Watkins, Steve Atwell, and Troy Scott. Tara Fling, who now helps Tonya with the time slips, whacked Boone on the tree in the first round of a four car bracket race.

We were a bit put off by how the return group from 2005 were being coddled, and congratulating themselves all week, that combined with the distance to the starting tracks, and the fact that Dale, Dad, and I were still actively racing NHRA Super Street kept us away until 2011 started in Topeka.

Boone traded the 493 out of the 1/2 ton, and an enclosed car trailer for the Belvedere.

The Belvedere is 5 for 6, Boone drove it to a 12.01-107 average in 2011, then I traded him out of it in July of 2012 in a three car deal including money and parts to revive the Barnyard Viper. Rachael has driven it for the last five events, with a DNF on Day 1 in 2013 due to a clutch pack issue in the 727.

66 Plymouth Satellite Dale drove this car to a 12.72-107 average in 2011 to complete his first Drag Week. I ended up with the car, and took it in 2013, where it averaged 12.28-108. I sold it in 2014.

Darren's 73 Charger is officially 0 for 3 on Drag Week, but it's really 0 for 4, if you factor in last year. He says it's coming in 2017, but he didn't get pre-registered, so we will see.

Ok,
The boys dropped the pan on the Duster engine today, and all the rod bearings looked good, but they spotted what appear to be chips missing in the noses of several lobes on the flat tappet cam? What do you think now Fast68?

Interesting, if it wasn't so close to the nose I would wonder if the lifter was coming off the cam on the downside and bouncing. I have seen some data of that happening but its all on roller cams and its never that close to the nose. The cam in my 360 has visual evidence of where that happens but you can't feel it only see it, that was after drag week 1 so I just used it for 3 more haha.

The lobe circled looks a lot worst than the other one next to it as far as lifter contact across the nose
Any chance they may have nicked it up installing it?

Hard to tell anything conclusive from a pic on the net, but what it looks like to me are little "dents" that got smoothed over from the lifter sliding over it. Could be pits too I suppose.
If it's pitting, that's usually from high spring loads and a small nose radius on the cam.

It just seems to me like there was more metal in the oil than what I'd expect from just that.
Unless all the lobes are like that, with similar wear on the lifters.

But it is what it is........if that's all you find, then obviously thats where it came from.

It might just be the lighting or something, but the edge of the lobe on the other side of the rod looks worse to me.

What do I think?
Well.....how about putting a mild roller in it?

I know that won't happen.......just throwing it out there

Well...
I did mention at the first of the story last year that Dale was putting together 3 engines in two weekends. I ordered the Hughes STL6872 with lightweight cool face lifters, custom ground on a 110 lobe center. Dale got a spring, locks and retainer package from competition products based on the numbers I gave him, which was .632/.639 lift. Seems the used Racer Brown rockers on Atoetly's SR heads were 1.6 ratio.

and... While they had the pan off it appeared the crank had excessive for/aft movement. Measures out at .009, so now they may need to check the thrust bearing.

Dale is putting a roller in the Gremlin engine, and Darren is putting a roller in the Charger engine...we've lost our way somehow!!

I don't need to tell you guys what to do...... But what "I" would do is check the net lift at the valve(with the correct lash), then double check the spring installed height and see what the actual open/closed pressures are, along with verifying the coil bind height.

A fast rate .421/.426 solid cam with 1.6 rockers is going to be challenging from a spring pressure/rpm/durability standpoint.

Uh oh, it sounds like the old trusty TCI converter might need a look.

When my 360 murdered a thrust we never figured out why and it was REALLY bad. Since drag week 14 was just 7 days away Dad and I just jammed a crank and bearings in it and hit the road. It has done two drag weeks since then and it still measures at .005.

Don't some of the factory service manuals call for .004 to .010 and some call for .006 to .012 ?

informative bump: was Dale able to find Gremlin parts? ....or is he sporting the pirate look this year?

It was probably cheaper to buy the car then the individual parts. Billy delivered it over the 4th.

Whats up with the 67-69 Valiant on the trailer?, parts car?

On the cam situation:
The springs check out ok to handle the added lift, but at .690, they are at 425 lbs.. The "pits" on the lobes are all, while close to the nose, on the backside ramp.

Cab,
While .009 doesn't necessarily spell death to the thrust bearing, we are searching for clues as to why there was a large amount of metal in the first oil change.

Jay,
Dale made a trade for a new grille and headlight surrounds prior to me picking up the green car from John in Tucson. How he proceeds for 2017 might be different than what he does with the Gremlins in the future.

You kind of need that much spring pressure to maintain control of the valvetrain at high rpm's with that type of cam.

How do the bottoms of the lifters look?

Does it appear that little pieces of the cam have just fractured/broken away?

If you're going to swap out the cam, I'd suggest something smoother with a little less lift.

A little less power sure, but you should be able to juice it back up again.

Have you pulled the thrust bearing out yet?
The hopes would be that if the high-ish thrust clearance is the result of wear, that the bearing took the brunt of it and that the crank thrust surface is still good.

Johnny,
The 69 Valiant is a very nice project car. Slant six is gone, but all the AC stuff is still in the car. Originally Sunfire yellow, with black interior. The hideous green is a later scuff and shoot. Extremely solid, virtually rust free, took it back to Oklahoma where hopefully someone will appreciate a truly dry, rot free Plymouth to build into their own.

Fast 68,
I'm sure decisions will be made this weekend..if they drop the center cap, and don't like what they see, I'm sure it will come out of the car.

Dale is closing in on having the 580 nearly finished for the Gremlin, and Darren just modified the K-member and torsion bar cross member to allow easier installation of the engine and transmission in the 73 Charger.

Billy, what happened to your old Super Street Challenger? I know you sold it, and the new owner was maybe prepping it for Drag Week? Did that idea get tossed out?

Hey Billy, cool deal on the Valiant, I'm finishing up one myself, B5 Blue, Pro Stars, Calvert Suspension, 408 with a A500 trans, kinda looking for a few small pieces.

Jeff,
James has big plans for the Challenger, and those plans keep getting adjusted, which result in the completed date being moved out. When I was back there for July 4th, the Koleno block 572, and JW case Glide with Gear Vendors is in place. He recently purchased an RPM Performance data logger with just about every option, and a grid, so Dale has a bunch of wiring to do.

HEY BILLY
Not changing this thread. BUT has Rachael had that new grandchild yet? Us Granddad's want to know how they are doing.
Jerry

Jerry,
Lorelai Grimes showed up on February 20th, then Rachael and Skippy had their marriage ceremony on Apr 29th, even though they took care of the paperwork before the birth.

She's a very happy baby, and hardly ever cries! Since my Grandmother is still alive, as well as Skippy's Great Grandmother, Lorelai makes 5 generations on both sides of the union.

The Belvedere has developed an engine noise, and I haven't delved into it, so it's definitely not going in 2017. With the birth and the wedding, Rachael is out of vacation, but keeps hinting that she'd like to ride along...we will see. I tell her that as a wife and mother, fun time is over now, but she isn't buying it.

62 Valiant
After Drag Week 2016, I took the Valiant down to Tucson for a no-prep 1/8 mile deal, then tried to run brackets on the quarter afterwards, but kept losing fire. We thought we had it fixed by replacing the MSD cap and rotor, but problems persisted. A month later I was attempting to go to a car show and it died in the driveway. As a last ditch effort I reached under the dash where the bulk of the wiring is and shoved it up closer to the ignition box, it re-fired and hasn't given me problems since.

I drove it to Wild Horse Pass on December 3rd for the Street Car Takeover event and ran five passes, but on the drive home it had a horrible exhaust leak, and the tag light wire shorted out, then caught the old cloth style insulation on fire in the trunk, and very nearly melted through the plastic insulation on my main battery cable. A couple of weeks later, I pulled the hood off to replace the header gasket, and found a chunk of one header tube had blown out. It's been sitting in that exact spot ever since.

Today, I jacked it up and put it on stands. Removed the header for repair, and started making a list of other things I need to do. I crawled under to check the tires and decided to replace them. Two Drag Weeks, a couple of cruises and trips to work and back, four races and a couple car shows. I probably should have swapped them around on the wheels earlier and maybe I could've got one more, but since I drive on the same rubber I race on, marginal is probably not a smart idea and that one is ate up! The big surprise was my 9" housing. The last alignment showed that it was toed in slightly on the passenger side before Drag Week last year, and I've debated whether to replace the housing or straighten and brace this one. Today, I realized there was a crack in the weld on that side where the rear cover is welded to the housing. A good cleaning and some JB Weld should get one more year out of her.

Looking forward to checking out that Valiant of yours at Drag Week.... I should have my car running this week and if nothing leaks or smokes want to get it to the drag strip next week-end.

No back brace on the 9" with ladder bars? I bent the tubes on a 8 3/4 over 3/8" forward after only a handful of passes with ladder bars. I could hardly get the axles out.

Fantastic! Good for all of you. My wife's grandmother made it to 102, had everything upstairs until the end.

I put a strap across the back of the 57 9" housing in my Chevy II, after it cracked there a little and started leaking. No problems since. The strap is welded at the ends and center only. Easy.

I'm sure you are kidding about the JB Weld. That cover is a structural part of the housing and the crack is likely why that tube is toed in.

I would either move that battery cable or put some kind of armor around it so that bracket it's against doesn't eventually rub a hole in it and burn the car down.

Kevin

Billy my friend that is awesome to hear. Glad she and the newby are doing well..

Well apparently James Pranis is going to have to change his Moparts handle from 572Charger to 572ProCharger, as he appears to be leaving the nitrous camp for boost...

Ok, Fast 68, they finally broke the 512 out of the Ruster Duster and found the problem. When peering into the cylinders with a borescope they saw what appeared to be a scratch in one cylinder.

When they pulled the piston out, part of the bottom oil ring had been pulled out of it's groove and had been eating into the cylinder wall. Once the block arrived at the machinist it was discovered that cylinder was actually cracked.

Assembly error caused the problem with the ring and led to the crack, or the crack grabbed the ring? Don't know, but the block is getting a sleeve as I type this. Hell Week as officially began!

Feel your pain, thinking the slow 72 fury might being making the trip for us unless we get lucky.

Say it ain't so!!

The Gremlin...

He's seriously thinking about running NA this year.

Is the TR new for this year?

Billy if you guys need any batteries or any help let me know. I work by the track so Owasso isn't to far for me to help out for an evening or two. I'll PM you my number

Thanks Clark.

Yeah, tunnel ram is new, and the carbs won't clear his little bolt on cowl scoop, so the Gremlin will have a different look this year. 580 inches, Indy -1 heads opened up to 355cc, 760ish roller. Good tractor engine.

Will see what I can get done, about to go start removing the trans now. Still need to get windows removeable and figure out a hitch and a small trailer to take extra tires. Road tuning will be on dragweek, Did get o2 hooked up friday before we went to the track.
Car was a tenth off with new tires.

My job is busy and going thru a corperate reorg also, and thats never good.

Back to the orginal story, sorry for hyjack

Boone's 511.
Block made it back from the machinist with a new sleeve Friday afternoon. They reassembled the short block with a new oil ring, but something was still scratching the bore. Removed the offending piston, and realized the expander was damaged. Before you ask, yes, Dale is so cheap that he tried to replace one oil ring in that hole instead of replacing the whole ring pack on that piston!

Since they've decided to go roller cam, they needed to switch everything over on the heads, then discovered the rockers needed clearancing to fit the new retainers. Engine started going back in the car Saturday night.

They probably would have had it fired last night, but just like at Drag Week last year, Little Billy just can't hang!

Wow ONE ring?! I hope it stays together, it sounds like new bests for that Gremlin!
Damn I hope I can make it to see you guys.
I learned a long time ago, despite the fact that I am a MoPar man. Being cheap and race engines don't mix!
For me anyway?

Don

Fogg it till the crank falls out !!!!

Holy crap!!!
Does that mean there are now two roller cams in the G Clan?

Joel and I have been working away on his coupe. We are WAY behind. Joel is finding out that wiring the car at the last minute isn't a good plan.

Of course in these photos you can see Joel's natural position. "Are you sure you did that right?".

But one way or another we will make it to Drag Week 2017...

Is the battery charger on the convertible yet??

I am going to try to make it out to Great Lakes Dragaway. I've heard the turnout was stellar in previous years for Drag Week!

Huge crowd there! get there early, by 8

The convertible is officially retired. The red GTX is by all means ready to go as a back up. Joel has his heart set on the coupe, and I can't blame him. With another full day tomorrow, we could possibly hear the coupe run.

at least you guys don't have a 3 day drive to get to Cordova!

Every time I sit down for 2 minutes the paparazzi show up!
We made lots of progress today. The car is now 30 to 40% wired, the throttle linkage and gas pedal is done. There is hope!

A Iowa buddy and I are wanting to come to Coradova. I can't take any work off during the week, will it be worth the trip to roll up on Sunday? As a spectator can we walk through the pits and talk to you guys?

Yeah it will be worth it, walking the tech line is the best way to see all the cars up close, its the only time they will all be together and not trying to leave to get to the next track.

registration line is the best car show ever

GLD was incredible, everyone is still talking about the crowd at 8:00AM on a weekday.

Two shots attached, one from inside Clark's car one from outside.

Bill

That is an amazing amount of people!! Will definitely shoot for getting there earlier rather than later. Last year Martin had more people than Norwalk, but no where near that many.

Fingers crossed the coupe makes it, Joel and Jeff! It looks much closer in Jeff's facebook updates.

Hoping to fire the coupe up tonight. Joel is off work the rest of the week, and is finishing up the wiring.

Plan to catch up with everyone at Gateway Tuesday.

Mike

Has the red GTX been fired up and had a few miles put on it...... Recently?

Erie silence from Oklahoma.......I suppose the Gebhart thrash is in full swing about now. Any word from the clan?

Any hemi-esque pops or sputters from Minnesota to disturb the quiet?

We are all on the edge of our seats!

The red car was Oh so close last year. We fired it up around 2am Saturday morning, the day before tech, and the engine had almost zero oil pressure. The lifters were grooved and with the cam lift, it was bleeding off from there. It was too big of a risk to load it up and drive the 700 miles to Columbus and hope a set of new lifters would cure it. Joel replaced them after we got back, and all was well. He drove it maybe 10 miles, then has not touched it since. He was so bummed about doing all that work, and spending a ton of money on it, to even look at it again. Can't say I blame him. I'd actually feel more comfortable bringing that car then the coupe, but IF we make the entire week, it's going to be one epic trip.

I'm off now to get race gas, and with fingers crossed, we should have it fired up tonight.

....and the red car is here, Joel didn't make it with the coupe. Something about too many things going wrong.

Saw Billy and the brothers, they were not last in line this year. Great job!

Good to see all of them made it there in time.

Keep those torque convertor bolts tight!

Terrible news on Joel's Coupe, they were sooooo close! Glad to here Gebhart clan is good to go.

Looks like something went away in the Gebhart clan '73 Charger - lots of smoke.

Talked to Joel about the coupe.Few unexpected issues.I was confused about the GTX. It still had his FAST number in Dial In Marker on the windshield but had slicks on the back.LOL.Had to leave before they made a pass today.

he sprayed fuel out the back in the last couple min.

Billy ran 9.65 I think
gremy 9.85
ruster 10.0x
charger 11.xx and smoke

I have to think they were looking for more(a lot more??) out of the Gemlin.

580 cubes, ported 440-1's, roller cam, tunnel ram.

he only got 1 shot right at the end of the day. don't know the back story but they rolled to the lanes late. Ruster took 2 passes, charger tried to but was leaking the first time. Valiant and gremy were 1 and done. Gremy looked ok, nothing obv wrong with the pass.

I was watching the replay of the live feed last night..... It made a run in the first session..... I thought it was like a 9.79.

wow, somehow I missed that jumping 5seconds at a time thru the cars I didn't have time for :P

We had clutch issues. Bottom line, do not bring a untested car to Drag Week.

Are you guys out then?

The purple '70 cuda (Randy Heinselman) and the green '71 Demon (Paul Cornman) running Super Street Big Block N/A stepped up this year...both running 9.30s N/A! They are 1 and 2 in that class after the first day.
Anyone know what combos these guys are running?

Randy has an aluminum Hemi but indont know how big, it sure picked up this year.

Paul's car is supposed to be in small block. We talked to him today and he said they are supposed to fix the class listing. He moved to a Brett Miller w9 combo this year.

Is there some sort of cube limit to still be able to run as a "small block"?

I think Randy's motor is a 522, I talked to him a few times the last month or so, I think the max on small block cubes is 440".

427 cubic inch I believe.Might be 430.

Limit is 430 I believe.

Didn't see Joel or Darren make a pass today. Day two results show them "Out". What a bummer.

That said, day two brings the total number of "Outs" to 37 and puts the Quick 32 bump spot in the 10.90's.

Drag Week has no mercy.

The purple AAR Cuda just became my favorite running 9.30's NA super street followed by the 64 0r 65 Plymouth that ran an 8.80 NA!

Wow! Go Mopar!


What tires for super street?

ALL cars on the track are suppose to be on
DR or slicks.. most are on drag radials

Billy 9.46?
Dale 9.43
ruster 9.97 sounded like it was breaking up?
Farone 7.48 but down 20mph and is now hurt
blasko went 7.71 I think after a crazy sideways pass

They were both smiling.

Hot Rod publishes the results daily, yesterdays results and a download of all the runs and averages is available.

Here is the link for yesterday...

http://www.hotrod.com/articles/drag-week...umper-dragging/

I just finished watching the day 1 replay last night.

You could clearly hear Billy's car on his run( other car wasn't in the frame)...... Sounded real strong.

The Gremlin just seemed soft out of the hole.

I'll start in on day 2 tonite.

Is Randy Heinselman on Moparts? I talked to him a few time at San Antonio Raceway and Texas Motorplex?

Talked with Farone yesterday and he said the first day it pushed out the cam plug on the back of the block and he was able to get that fixed but it was eating the bearings so it was turned way down for his run at Gateway. He was going to work on it all night and hope to make it today.

I didn't see Dart451's red RR make a run on Monday....... I guess they didn't make it??

What about JYRKI (the Swede) and his VIP. Is he running or out? Any times for him?

He's out but working on the engine to try and finish (no pun) the week.

he made passes Mon/tue. I didn't get to see today's.
JYRKI didn't make runs today?

Yes, we are out. Here is the story:
I was so confident that I would have the Coupe ready, I never tested the GTX since we finished the changes to it last fall. Everything I did on the coupe took longer than I planned. This was a complete build from a frame and body shell, so there was a ton of small things to fabricate, and the last 2 months was a major thrash. Jerico GTX helped a lot, and I’m very thankful for that. The last few days I did almost nothing but wiring. Finally saturday evening, 18 hours before we had to be in the tech line at Cordova, I drove the car for the 1st time. The fuel pressure gauge (with an isolator) was not working right, and upon an attempted restart it hydro-locked the engine. Too much pressure had blew fuel past the 8 needles and seats and filled the engine with gas. Then we pulled the plugs, cleared it, and one of the plugs wouldn't go back in the head right. I had to run a tap into the head, then got the plug back in. Got it started, and then it started spraying gas out of one of the fittings that connects to a carb. When I tried to tighten it, I could feel the threads pulling out. It has those stupid hard nylon washers under the fittings, and they just don’t seal well without a lot of torque. But you can only put so much torque onto threads in an old pot metal carb body. How could I safely race this car? There are so many unknowns to sort out. The test drive made it clear that this car still needed a lot of work. And there was no time to do it. I sat down and contemplated everything I had sacrificed to get to this point, and I didn't want to give up. I didn't mow my lawn, go to church, hang with friends or family for 2 months, or go to our car club events all summer, or back to the 50's, and I missed the eclipse. I was numb from fatigue and every fiber of my body hurt from the wiring thrash, especially my chest from laying across the door bar of the cage while working inside the car. The realization that this wasn't going to work out for 2017 slowly started sinking in, and it was hard to accept.
With 100% of the car unproven and untested, and no time to find parts or fix it, and not knowing what the next issue would be, it would be best to just stay home. I felt a small bit of relief that it was over, and I could rest. (haha)
Then I wandered over to the corner of the shop, where the GTX sat. I hadn't really even looked at it in a year. It hadn't been on the track since 2010 when I blew up the motor at a FAST race. The new combination with the slicks, caltacks, quicktime bell, fuel system, etc was untested. But I should take a closer look, I figured. So I started moving junk out of the way, and Jeff joined me. 15 minutes later it was out in the middle of the shop and an hour later it was running! OK, we are going to Drag Week 2017 after all!
Packing tools and supplies, my brain was in a fog from lack of sleep in the last few days. I couldn't even think of what I should bring. But we were on the road for Cordova about 12:30 am. After 2 hours of driving I had to stop and sleep for a few hours, then we continued on. A 20 mph headwind slowed the progress of the old 1st gen Cummins hauling the big camper and the trailer, and put it in fuel guzzle mode. We finally got to the track at about 12:25 on Sunday, unloaded the car, and made it into the tech line at 12:45, 15 minutes before the cut-off. By the time I got thru tech about 6 hours later, the staging lanes were closed for the day, so no test passes for me. I spend most of the time in line fixing blinkers, figuring out the fuel pump switch, and sitting in the car resting. Jeff installed the seat belts that we had robbed from the coupe before we left. I didn't get out into the lanes and meet and greet and ogle the cars like I usually do. But I did talk to a bunch of Drag Week friends who came by the car. It was great to see them all, and helped wake me out of my stupor.
After tech, we found a water hose behind the mens room and used it to wash the GTX. It was filthy from a year of storage without its cover. (my bad). Then out for dinner in town, (chauffeured in a Lincoln by my friend Kevin) and then back to the camper for the night. I slept like a log.

Monday morning, Jeffs alarm didn't go off because his battery was dead. He had plugged the charger into an inactive outlet. So we got up late. I was thinking the drivers meeting was at 9, but it was at 8. So a last minute rush happened to pack the car and get out of the camper and trailer.
My first pass, the car laid down right after launch, then picked up, then died, then restarted. I aborted the pass and motored easy down the track. Also, the GTX pushed to the right, I had to correct a lot.
Back in the pits, we checked the fuel pressure and it was fine. Maybe a needle and seat is sticking from a year of dormancy? So I pulled the carb tops and all 4 bowls of the dual Carter AFB's were well stocked with 112 octane. If the fuel is OK, then it must be ignition. How shall I diagnose this? (At this point I was discovering how poorly I had selected my tools and supplies when packing) But after another hour of messing around, And Jeff adding some preload to the right caltrack to try and make the car go straight, we were ready for another try. I got into the staging lanes 10 minutes before they closed for the day. I dumped the clutch at 4000 RPM, and it felt strong! The tire spun a bit, then grabbed. With the force of the launch pushing my head back, the tach (with integral shift light, which is mounted too low) disappeared from my field of view. By the time I was able to glance down, the shift light was on, for I don’t know how long, so I grabbed second. The car lurched forward at the shift, and the 2-3 shift went well except the shift light never went off, but I was too busy correcting to the left to pay attention to it. The car was going right, towards the wall. It was definitely out of the groove as I passed the 1/8 mile, so I aborted the run. The time slip showed a 1.59 60’, and a 7.004 1/8th. I was happy with that for an initial test pass, it showed a lot of potential. The pit stop gas cap was open when I got back to the pit. Later I learned that it dumped fuel on the track like the Exon Valdez into Prince William sound. Reviewing the in-car video, we saw that the rpm never dropped on the 3-4 shift. The clutch was on an initial, break in setting with maximum spring pressure and no counter weight. The cure for the 4th gear slippage is counterweight on the levers. Due to the rush last year, I didn’t have time to order a bellhousing with a window, I had to use an off the shelf unit. Adding weight to the clutch meant pulling the trans, and I didn’t have nearly enuff tools. I was talking about quitting, but Scott Abbot came by and gave me a pep talk and offered to help with tools and stuff. That got me motivated to find a way. When I looked in thru the clutch fork hole of the Quicktime scattershield, I figured there was a slight possibility I could add a bolt and nut to each lever without pulling the trans by working thru the fork hole, but unfortunately I could also see the levers had been hitting the inside of the bellhousing. The ends were scuffed and bent. Adding weight would only make it worse. (lesson: Quicktime bellhousings do not have sufficient clearance for an adjustable clutch) The only solution I could think of would be swap in a Lakewood bellhousing. To find one and install it could be 5 or 10 hours. It just wasn’t going to happen on DW17, when we still had a 6+ hour drive to St. Louis. So reluctantly, I threw in the towel, and we loaded up and slunk home.
Good luck to all my fellow drag weekers who are still in. I will definitely be back for 2018, much more prepared!

Our Drag Week pit at Cordova

Trunk MOnky working

Spectacular effort, Joel! Sorry for the outcome, but you sure gave it your best. so glad I got to talk with you for a while Sunday

Thanks Squirrel. Writing the story helped me decompress and relax. You make drag week look easy. But I know it's not. Good luck for the rest of the event and safe travels home.

Too bad you didn't make it to Byron, I have a nice Lakewood bell sitting around doing nothing.

Hell of an effort Joel! Hope you get that badazz coupe sorted out for next year!

Thats a major bummer Joel... sorry to hear that

Billy, don't know if you noticed a guy in a Ram pulling a trailer with a bunch of engines in it waving frantically at you going the opposite direction after you got through Antioch, IL heading back to Byron, that idiot was me! Saw the Gremy about 5 miles before you too. Hope you had a good day today.

fun race this year!

We're still on our way home.

I have a question about the late model cars running, in some instances, well below the 11.50 cut off before needing a roll bar rule.
I know at one point there was a lot of banter on the net about interpreting the wording that allowed "stock" late model cars to run quicker than that and not require the roll bar.

However, "stock" Hellcat Chargers don't run 10.0's...... Nor do Caddys and Mustang 5.0's run high 10's.

Did those cars have roll bars?
If not, I'd be interested to see how that rule is interpreted for the late model entries.

I also noticed that during the DW staff Hellcat challenge races that no one was wearing a helmet.

Is the helmet rule not 13.49 anymore?

Jim and Kim made it. They killed Drag Week, didn't look like rookies at all. Guess all that Moparts advice paid off!



C'mon Fast, This ain't your first rodeo...
The first rule of Drag Week is we don't talk about the Drag Week rules. Track officials are human beings too you know, and human beings like free pizza and beer...I'm not saying, I'm just sayin'

At DW16 there was a little kick back on the late models at St Louis, but not anywhere else. This year I don't think it was an issue but there were "rumblings and discussions".

Don't ask, don't tell??
A secret hand shake? And maybe some window tint?


Well...... Except for the fact that Freiburger pointed out numerous times during the live feed how the cars could only run as quick as they were legal to run.
Correction......they could only turn in a time slip that was no quicker than they were legal to run.

I was watching the live feed replays later at night, and I think on each day other than the first......... It seemed like there were a few cars running that I hadn't recalled seeing the day before.
Its entirely possible I had nodded off and missed them the day before(obviously).

I did see the Jim and Kim show on day 3 and on, so I musta just missed the run on day 2.

Nonetheless, I'm looking to forward to reading the official MoparBilly "Drag Week 2017: Hey, we're starting to get the hang of this" thread.

I too am eager to read all about this years adventure, since we packed up and left on Monday.

I didn't take Monday off this year, so Rachael and I pretty much had to drive straight through. I managed to put in my forty hours, but didn't really start feeling like myself until Friday! Been gathering pictures,(and my thoughts) to start writing again. It's amazing how many memories and memorable moments can be packed into two weeks!

Hindsight being 20/20, there are so many things I would have done different...

I'm gonna say.......makin sure the "plan b" ride has been thoroughly tested well in advance would be high on the list.

As in........ You should be making sure it's all sorted out now....... In case it needs to be pressed into service for next year.

Fast ,
Aren't your nhra rules for modern cars good to 10.00 no cage ?
Down here that is the go for post 2008 cars , as long as no cutting on body such as tubs . Power adders dont seem to matter.
Go figure not even any safety clothing .

Tex

I'm not sure you'll be able to read it..... But:

Kool
Looks like you are strickter . They run bracket here , no one worries . At least till someone gets an eye out 😅

Tex

Sounds like Billy is saying they might have adopted the Aussie late model rules for Drag Week.

I think that rule is loosely enforced in lots of places. I know a guy here with a Hellcat Challenger that has run in the 10.0s at 140 and he has raced at several tracks with no problems.

Maybe the Tracks/NHRA are realizing this is bringing more people to the track?

I guess my point is...... It's clearly an NHRA rule that the cars aren't allowed to run that quick with any mods other than different rear tires.

So, someone can blow past the 11.50 rule to the tune of 1.5 seconds in a late model car, and it's all good.
But if someone were to run a totally stock appearing car(think FAST), they're "done" at 11.50.

I wonder if any new Demons will show up next year, and what will happen if they run quicker than 10.00.

I'm not a big fan of "selective" rules enforcement.

Don't tout repeatedly how the cars can only turn in time slips with an ET that's slower than the rules say the car can go........ And then have numerous cars making runs, and turning in slips where that isn't the case.

If you're going to deviate from the NHRA rule book in certain classes....... Then make it clear what the rules for those classes are.



I'm sure the same could be said for not enforcing the roll bar rule for any cars running quicker than 11.50.

Is it possible that the OEM crash protection specs meet or exceed NHRA roll bar specs?

Kevin

I would guess that a modern car is a heck of a lot safer inside, than the junk we build that meets nhra rules.

Maybe that should read you hope the modern cars are safer
I've seen some horrible crashes at the track that the drivers didn't get hurt, I've also heard of drivers dying in a car from tire shake that didn't wreck before the car hit the guard rail after doing a burn out like Eric Medlen died of
I'm a firm believer in having the best safety equipment you can get in a race car and never testing it

I had to chuckle while I was watching the nhra race today.

Remember the add in the magazine after the testing was done on the new Demon where it was too fast to be running without a roll bar, and there was a copy of the letter from the nhra saying the cars wouldn't be allowed to run?

I guess when your a race sponsor......... That stuff just gets totally forgotten....... As I watched Leah Prichett and Matt Hagan having a little Demon match race.
They didn't show the scoreboard too well on TV, but it looked like they conveniently didn't show the ET's.

As Gear Vendors Hot Rod Drag Week presented by Dodge becomes larger and more heavily sponsored year after year, there is a certain amount of kickback against the original premise that David Freiburger laid out twelve years ago which was: "On Drag Week, there are no rules"! When there were 100 or less cars, running at smaller facilities, it had an almost outlaw feel with only cursory tech inspections, and everyone was lumped together in just a few classes with a "let the drives sort them out" attitude. The 11.50 no-bar vs. 10.00 new car stuff is quite frankly a minor nuisance compared to some of the other stuff that goes on, but I've been getting my hands slapped for being a little too revealing in these stories. Watching the live feed is very entertaining for someone participating at Drag Week, who has intimate knowledge of what is going on, because DF and Lohnes are just spit balling up there most of the time on the mics, playing fast and loose with the particulars of everyone's combinations. "The time slips turned in must be above the competitors tech speed", is a very true fact, but many times those are the slowest five passes some guys made all week!

The core of Drag Week is that it is a showcase of fast Street Cars, driven by Street Car guys, so sure you have a handful of serious racer types that compete in various series of competition, but for the most part, many spend very little time at the track, and have little use for NHRA mandated equipment and licenses, so every year there is a crush of would be participants trying to jump through the NHRA hoops to be able to run their cars to their true potential. That situation became even more murky this year as we were starting at an IHRA sanctioned track.

Don't forget the live feed by Auto Meter!

...... Unless you're running a late model vehicle(then we're looking the other way).

Don't people get thrown off of tracks for running faster that they are teched for? None of them get thrown off-during this very specific event. If it were really about safety regs the first pass below the min ET or above the MPH the competitor would be shown the door until they could pass tech.

As was previously mentioned, You go through "tech" at check in, then show up at tracks and race. I suppose the assumption is that because you cannot hand in a faster slip, then you won't run faster. That being said, the tech inspector last year asked if I was going for 10.0 (even though I am in the "no bar" crowd)

If every track had to tech and police 400 cars, all rolling in at different times, the event could never happen.

The problem is, in Street Race classes, they are not allowed to have a funny car cage, or 25.X chassis. The cars have gotten to the point of easily breaking that 8.50 mark. For 2018 that no FC cage rule needs to be lifted IMO, and let the cars run what they can run. This is supposed to be a fun event, and it is. Kicking people out right away would sour things real fast.

The only way to REALLY complain about the rules though is to enter the event, and run it. Not much power behind a complaint written on a web forum.

I'm NOT saying anyone should be kicked out of DW for running faster than the #, far from it. My point is that this ISN'T an NHRA sanctioned event, so Hot Rod has final authority on what passes and fails. I'm sure that the track owners and the sanctioning bodies work behind the scenes to figure out what is OK. Between Billy and the live stream I've become a fan of this event and have put it on my bucket list, hopefully in the next couple of years I'll be a small part of the ongoing saga of Drag Week.

99% of Drag Week tech is just sitting in line.... the other 1% was spent making sure my trailer lights worked.

What class were you running in?

Just in street small block n/a... car only runs mid 12s but they never asked.

Good insight and explanation there Billy.

Cool. I'm thinking about Street Machine Eliminator. I know I won't stand a chance but throwing some juice on my motor to get it to low 10s makes me feel like a young(er) man. I'll probably have to have the IMM crew put together a new bullet for me.

The questions about whether an IHRA license would be accepted on Drag Week popped up about three weeks before the event on the Drag Weekers facebook site, so Hot Rod's social media-internet guru Phillip Thomas felt compelled to inquire. I could have told them NHRA wouldn't play nice, but just like the last 15 posts on this thread everyone wants to drag everything out in the light and get clarification. So to paraphrase the quote from Cool Hand Luke, "that's the way they want it, so they get it. I don't like it any more than you men". The answer cam back through official NHRA channels that the crossover license procedure must be followed, and a convoluted process was laid out by which participants could make one run on Registration Sunday test and tune, then count their Monday time run as the required 2nd pass. Then they would need to get officials to sign off when they arrived at Gateway on Tuesday, and carry the paperwork with them to Byron on Wednesday. It sounded like a disaster on paper, and I knew it would be far worse in actual practice, so there was no way I'd want to be one of those guys struggling to get that done. To make matters worse for those trying to get their licenses in order at the last minute, Hurricane Irma forced the closure of the IHRA offices in Florida, so those who had licensed the week before at an IHRA track couldn't get their paperwork processed!

Boone had managed to sneak through for Drag Week 2016 on the strength of Dale's license, and had used Dale's gear to make his first ever nine second run on the last day. Being of stronger ethical fiber than I am, it bugged him to do it that way, so he was determined to be legal and legit for Drag Week 2017. But, as I documented earlier, they received the 400 engine block with one sleeve back on Friday afternoon, and when calling around, the last chance to hit an NHRA track and make license runs would be that Sunday at Thunder Valley Raceway in Noble. I showed pictures of the quickie build process earlier, and now you know why Dale looks so rough in the previous picture working on the carb. When they rolled into Noble Sunday afternoon, the only sleep he had that weekend was on the drive down to the track. Boone had to pay the track handsomely to be allowed 6 license runs in one day, during a big money bracket bracket race, but he got it done. They had to rotate drivers several times just to make the hundred mile drive back home Sunday night.

I love the nitrous bottle tucked between his legs!

1962 Valiant
As I glance back to the beginning of this year's update, I realize the last mention of the Valiant is when I began to assess the repairs needed to make Drag Week 2017, after I had parked it with a blown out header tube in December of 2016. The easiest part of the repair was in fact the header itself, aside from re-installing it. I took it to my fabricator (Brian Smith, who built the fiberglass hood the year before), and he literally welded it up as I stood there.

The abused 9" rear end was a little more involved. I had to literally beat the axles out to dissassemble it. I dropped the housing off with John Hindley (johnnyrotten-Moparts, who took his 67 Valiant on Drag Week in 14 and 15) and along with his dad, they attempted to put it on their jig. One tube was three eighths forward, and the other side they couldn't get the jig bar through. The face of the housing where the third member bolts in was also deformed, and the jig plate didn't bolt up flat until the tubes were straightened. I had purchased an All-Star back brace from Summit Racing which looked as though it might need as much fabrication to fit as building your own and tasked them with installing it as well.

A week later I picked up the re-furbished housing in Tucson, with John just shaking his head and adding, "A new Fab-9 housing would have made much more sense at this point!"
"I know, but that would've required new brackets...at that point I probably would need to replace the old ladder bars!"
"Which would have been smart", he agreed, "All that stuff had fifteen years of abuse on it, not to mention five drag weeks!" He shook his head again, "none of those brackets are straight on that housing, the ladder bar mounts are 6 degrees out, and the shock plates are pointing in different directions!"
"I know John, but I'm out of time...again, maybe next year", I agreed as I loaded the housing.
"Yeah right, you won't even adjust the shocks!"

Once I began to re-assemble the 9", it was apparent I had other issues. The drum brakes that have been on it since I purchased the car in 06 were badly worn. One drum was heat cracked, the shoes were shot, and the offset appeared to be wrong as the shoes were riding about a quarter of an inch out of the drums. Searching the internet revealed all the parts were from the early sixties and obsolete. A quality drum brake upgrade was nearly double the price of a disc brake conversion, so it made the decision very easy. Of course, the one size fits all kit from Summit didn't fit the collared, sealed axle bearings, and my son had to put his dremel tool to good use.

Fab 9 for next year???

I think we aaaaaall know better than that

We had fun at Drag Week, even though we had to leave out of the competition after two days. Weren't prepared well enough.

Basically because of all delays with parts and mistakes in machining our scheduled dyno time in January changed in to a rush dyno session in May, and wasn't succesful.

Before shipping the car over, we run a couple of races with problems, changed the cam and springs but it didn't seem to work, so we ordered a new one and decided to change it in USA. Only had about 25 miles of street driving before shipping.

The converter also slipped too much, so ordered a new one to states from PTC. However, they shipped it to Finland, so had to order still another one...

Once there we got a great garage in Illinois that Tepens' family provided, and got the changes done before the race. Had to also do some tire work, get tools, chemicals, spares etc etc.

On Wednesday we were ready and drove the car 40 miles to Gateway for some testing. The test went well, got three runs, the A/F was safe and there wasn't a lot of boost. Still run a 8.28 at 160+ mph. The new converter seemed to have too high stall, but it didn't slip.Had a training session to convert the car to strip trim and back, and that worked out decently too. Drove the car back and no problems.

Comes saturday, and we were about to test at Cordova. In the second run, the car run 8.08, the best so far with the new set up (and weight). For the third run we put some boost in to it, but it run only 8.3 and every part of the travel was worse.

So, started to check things, #3 exhaust valve had lost the lash, and removing the rockers, the stem came up and up and... Next removed the header, and saw the valve head stuck in the exhaust port. We had a set of spare heads that we had bought but never seen until arriving..., so we found out that they would need a wider intake and 1/4" longer pushrods.

Couldn't get 11.5" pushrods on saturday, but luckily we found a local machinist, Layne Automotive, that said he could fit the exhaust valve from the other set to the other. The plan was to change them all, but run out of time since the other exhaust valves were slightly smaller, had .080" shorter stems and 50 degree angles... Got the head back fixed on sunday evening, but had to tech the car without it.

When the head arrived we put the upstairs back together, in a turbocharged EFI there is a little more involved than with a more traditional set up, but the engine run at about 10 pm.

On monday when the race started, we got in to line up pretty early. Still had to wait a couple of hours until we got to make a run. The set up was mild and safe, the launch was good and the car run 8.08/160 mph.

Back at the pits, checking the EFI's data we realized we had neglected something the previous night. The throttle cable hadn't been tightened and at the launch it was 75% open until 5.5 seconds, when it started to slip and was zero at the traps.

We were happy with the ET, and put the car back to street mode; air filters on, exhaust pipes & mufflers on, tire change, wheelie parts removed, changing to pump gas, packing the trailer and put it on the hitch, and on the road we go!

Got about 1/8 mile from the gate and the engine went silent. Some wiring problem, and soon we were running again. Getting a good data connection as a foreigner didn't seem to be easy, so we didn't have a navigator or other gadgets.

We made a "cunning plan", stop at the next gas station and follow some other racer. Except that the others followed us and waited until we decided to leave and followed us! The paper instructions were pretty good, except that we had no odometer..., but still found our way.

After some 70 miles, the bigger of the cooling fans quit working, so the engine temp started to go up. We stopped to let it cool down and then continued, could drive maybe some thirty miles until had to stop again. Then we removed the hood and put it on the top, that let us run for a longer while with the engine temp at around 220.

Got the first check point after which some oil steam started to come to the passanger side of the windshield. Added some water, but couldn't figure out where it came from, later realized that we had a temporary rad cap installed and it was propably Metusalems brothers old one. The mileage with the trailer was somewhere around 6-9 mmpg. Got to the hotel at around 8.30 pm, some small talking and a few beers and to get some sleep.

In the morning, to the track. Had things to do, the broken fan had to be replaced, luckily the spare one could be fitted although it was far from the direct drive Volvo fan it replaced. Also some problems with the overflow system that got fixed too. And that's when the troubles begun.

Janne, the driver, took the trailer out of hitch, and something broke in his leg. So, had to do the transfer to strip trim pretty much on my own. To our surprise, after the first day we were third in our class and were impounded at Gatesway, so after another problem had to do all by myself. Made one run, a bad burnout and the turbos not spooling in the line, 8.07/170.

When Janne came from the hospital we headed towards Cordova me driving, 'cause Janne was blind. After about 30 miles,the engine suddenly started to knock heavily. Stopped the engine and pulled to the side. Check; a valve is broken; towed to the next junction to the a gas station. This time the damage can't be repaired with a band aid.

Fortunately we are still about 40 miles from Tepen's, and can borrow their trailer and get the car to their property. Yes, it's way worse, have already called the personel we are out. After at Tepen's, we remove the other head and see we were right; no can do. Get some sleep.

Next day we decide to do what we can to get the car drive able again. After two days of the work and help from Performance Automotive, which we co incidentally found, we had it pretty much together again. The only thing still missing is the pushrods, but with Performance Automotives effort we can get a set of cut to length .080" wall pushrods to Laynes', at Cordova and Anthony will shorten them to desired length.

So, we start moving towards it. In the morning we get the pushrods, they are weaker than we have used but should work. The worse thing is that the press in ball is 3/8 instead of the 5/16 it should be. We decide that it may work putting the 3/8" towards lifter where the angle change is less. Install them and it runs again.

In the evening we get a chance to make an exhibition run, and decide to try a little more boost. Since the converter stall is too high we had decided to try a "trick", using thicker fluid, John Deere Hy Gard, in the trans to lower it some. After 0.3 seconds, no more pull.

Push the car back and tow it to the pits. Find a place to remove the trans; propaply the input shaft. Remove the trans, still hot, and the input ahft is ok. Tear the trans apart; the front band of the JW PG has lost all the surface.

Have a spare one, so after checking everything else is ok, put the trans together. Layne comes to help and decides we need another drum and rusher to his shop to get one. Get the trans together and installed, 3 min before the line up closes we lower the car down, still adding more John Deere to the trans, and start pushing it to the line up..., 30 second before it closes we are in.

Once we get to make the run it's very emotional. However, the run is not too spectacular. a 9.0. No boost except what the weak wastegates (4 x 60mm) produce, somewhere around 7 psi at max. Anyway, we did get to make still one pass!

At the pits, we test the boost controller again, seems to work just fine. So, in the night there is some nostalgia Pro Stock exhibition passes, after which we still can give it a try. A little more boost of course... With the same result as in the first try. The end of our drag week.

Still had some action on the following days, run a 9.3 at 169 at the radkill zip tie drags with the high gear only and a moderate leave not to heat the trans. Left Tepens' on Sunday with a tear in the eye, a big thanks for them and all the kind community around!!! Headed to the coast.

Afterwards, now I think I'm aware of the circumstances and the needs. I would change the old titanium valves to stainless, the engine shouldn't run above 7000 a lot, Get the converter tightened. The driving on the road was decent, rpm between 2400-2700, think can live with that. Cooling is an issue, an oil cooler should be added and pay attention where the air flows. Maybe an air/water intercooler to get verything out of the radiator, now the air to air is in front of it. Then some smaller things..., anyway I have an idea what should be done to make it.

Performance vice we did decently, the turbos are small and limit the potential, but we were nowhere near the edge with the boost they can produce. Both turbos were hurt after the first failure, and the turbine diameter was reduced about 1/4"..., got the other one fixed for friday, but no parts for the other. I'll put out a "diary" on our own topic after I get it figured out...

Anyway, sorry we were so busy that couldn't meet everyone around. Very happe with the people we met and discussed with, despite of all the problems it was a fun three weeks overall!

I admire the fact that you guys took on the challenge of coming over here to run Drag Week...... And did it with a combo that was far from what anyone would expect to be a "walk in the park" type of car.

Like you say, you've got a better idea on how to be better prepared next time.

Hopefully you're able to try it again.

Jyrki,
You guys are awesome!
Are you planning on running DW 2018 for sure?
Bill

I'm kinda bummed about the audio issues they have on the day 3 live feed replay.

After about the 1 hour mark, the sound and picture skips and jumps around, then when it gets back to looking normal, the audio is several minutes off from the video.
And it appears to stay that way through the rest of the coverage.

They have had that happen in the past to other replays. I watched it live and it was fine, must have gone to crap when they uploaded it for keeps.

I had some issues with the live feed as well, I started watching about an hour after the feed went live and it was so bad I just stopped watching.

I watched the live feed using the you tube site and it seemed fine. The Motor Trend/Hot Rod link was funky, so I went directly to youtube.

jyrki, it was great to meet you guys and thank you for the shirt! I will wear it proudly!

My big regret of Drag Week 2017 is that I never got the opportunity to introduce myself, and do some bench racing. I came by and checked the car out on Sunday, but with the head off and everyone scrambling, I didn't want to interrupt. Monday was nuts for us, trying to get 6 cars down the track, and most of our crew didn't arrive at the hotel in St. Louis until 6:30 AM Tuesday.

When you first posted on social media a year ago that you planned to do Drag Week, and then showed the condition of the car, I immediately thought, "No way they can make it!" Congratulations on a supreme effort, and the commitment to see it through against incredible odds, hopefully we get to spend time at a race track together some time in the future. The VIP is amazing in person, I should add, awesome build and car.

The live feed has really changed the way we take in Drag Week as participants. In the early years, you would get frustrated when you were in the pits or the lanes when one of the fast cars, or your friends, ran and you didn't get to see it. Now, even though you have one ear listening to the announcers, you can enjoy the rest of the event without worrying about so much of the ontrack action because you know you can watch the replays when you get home to fill in all the things you may have missed.

I have been guilty of watching it on my phone while stuck in the lanes.

I'm hoping that someone with the authority and access to do so fixes the day three live feed audio/video sync issue.

The sound is there.......the video is there........ I would think there would be a way to get the two synced up, if one had the desire and skills to do it.

I just can't enjoy watching it like it is now.

That would be great, but I wouldn't hold my breath. That kind of video editing takes time and $$. Day 3 has only 120K views- less than 1/2 of day 1 but not far off from the rest of the week, so probably not enough potential to offset the co$t.

happy to meet everyone. Met Efidart and Fuirous 70, and a lot others that I can't give a nick name to. I am am not so social person that I would try to search for everyone around, the others in the team were more capable of that. And we had a lot to do. At gateway, we took a trip to moparbillys pit place with my girlfriend, but they were working so only took a look at their cars, and left.Especially liked the early Valiant , the Duster and the Gremlin. I'ms Dart/Valiant guy, and we don't have a lot of '61-'62 2 d's here. ,64, and uo a different story..., even I have one. Mayde I'll bring it there nest year! And efidart, shared a few words with you, but would have liked more. And furous 70, what a gorgeous and quick car!

And I'm really happy with the performance with our early stages of development. Compared to the competitors, We were technically about 20-30 years behind. But the performance considering the weight was there with the modest boost. Maybe nest summer we'll see what the car is capable of. At the moment looking at my wollet I feel we will not return next year. Basically I invested one years wages to the project, and there is still the life to live. But..., we'll see.

Thanks all!

I won't hold my breath......but I seem to recall there was a similar issue in one of the previous years that eventually got sorted out.

hmmm, I didn't actually get to talk to you, I was only at Union Grove. Which car are you talking about? =)

Rick and Sharma Hardee
The Gebhart boys have known Rick since high school. Like most gear heads who grew up in the same area, and have a soft spot for the same type of cars for thirty years, sometimes the relationship has been friendly and helpful, sometimes it's very competitive. The yellow 70 Gran Coupe Dale owns now, once belonged to Rick, as did the Belvedere Rachael raced on Drag Week the last five years. Conversely Rick bought the 73 Cuda racecar that I owned before I got the Challenger.

When my brothers moved from Northeast Oklahoma to the Tulsa area they ceased to cross paths with Rick as often, then a few years ago we heard that he had lost most of his extensive Mopar stash in a messy divorce. He disappeared from the scene for a while until he met Sharma, a gal whose previous life experiences had brought her to the realization that she liked Mopars more than men. It was a match made in...I don't know Hamtramck? They seem to be great for each other at this stage of life, I mean to say.

A blown engine in Sharma's 70 Cuda show car right before Hot Rod Power Tour, led them to Dale's doorstep. He sold them a long block and helped them install it just in time to make the event. That started a dialogue about a quickie paint and repair job on the Gremlin. I warned against the plan when I dropped off the green gremlin in July, citing the lack of time, and pleading with Dale to just straighten the fender and start on a paint job right after DW17. Rick and Sharma picked up the Gremlin in late July, with the plan of just fixing and re-painting the fender. They executed the plan perfectly, and although the white didn't match exactly, the little car was whole again in a week.

It would have been a cool story, except Dale wasn't happy with that and got greedy. He decided on a full re-paint, and by the way, lets use the fender off the green car, and the doors off the green car because he wanted real roll up and down windows, oh and he purchased two perfect grilles so repaint one of those. This was around August 1st, and the happy couple had a two week Colorado vacation scheduled in August.

Then, just when you thought this tale couldn't get any more crazy, they caught Drag Week fever and Rick posted a picture of their stock daily driven small block 71 Dart on September 1st with the caption, "we're going to turn this into a fire breathing monster in seven days for Drag Week 2017!"
That was my last day of work before I was off for Hell Week, so I immediately called Dale and asked if the Gremlin was done.
"Nope, they're still finishing up the paint."
"Did you see what Rick just posted about their Dart!"
"Oh yeah, he just bought a 470 from Sam Barker (sam64-Moparts) for it!"
"So, what are you going to do now?" I asked.
"Well...obviously I'm going to have to spend some time at their shop this coming week to make sure I get the Gremlin in time to finish it up", he reasoned.

Will, Michelle, and Derik Heath
Will Heath was a friend of Cody, Dale's step son. He bought the big block Aspen that Cody and Dale built years ago. Then his younger brother Derik purchased the small block Mopar powered BMW from Dale. Finally, Michelle (Will's Wife) purchased the 70 Duster that was previously owned by Michael Beeler, from Dale. Dale kept the 572-13 mega block engine and tricked out 727, and sold the magnum force front end, 4 link Dana 60 pro street Duster less engine and transmission.

Michele and Derik both managed to get pre-registered for Drag Week during that hectic six minutes in March, so they were determined to make their first ever attempt at the event.

Now, you can spin this story several different ways depending on your perspective. It's either a case of my three younger brothers taking these bright eyed kids under their wings to provide them with the technical expertise and discounted parts to build cars far beyond what their skills and budgets would allow, or it's a case of three older hot rodders finding some awestruck young proteges to unload all their used, and possibly used up junk on! I'm eleven hundred miles away from the day to day interactions so my best guess is the reality is somewhere in the middle!

Derik wanted to bring the Beemer, but he removed the electromotive fuel injection and replaced it with a carb, and driveability wasn't sorted out yet. He also wasn't confident that the sketchy BMW IRS would handle repeated full throttle launches on drag radials either, so he elected to bring his daily driven small block chevy, short box, 14 sec., 79 GMC C15. While we were disappointed, a slower more reliable option was probably a good choice.

The original plan for Michelle's Duster was the Indy headed 440 that Dale had sprayed into the eights on two Drag Weeks, but upon close scrutiny, most of those parts fell into the "used up" category. The H-beam rods were combined with a 4.15 crank Darren had on hand, and she purchased a set of Icon flattops for 500 inches. One of the Indy -1 castings was damaged beyond repair, so a new bare head was ordered and all the hardware transferred over. Dale's old 272/640 Howard's Flat tappet was put into service, along with a set of Indy rockers that Dale had on a shelf. The barely used Cometic head gaskets Darren had were thicker than they wanted, but time and dollars necessitated their use, so compression came in at 10.4.

As it is every year, my plan was to be ready to roll out for Oklahoma as soon as I came home from work Friday afternoon. I remained a perfect 0 for 7 in that regard. Saturday was spent on the Valiant, and sorting out the things I needed to bring with me. Sunday was spent loading the truck and trailer, and I was very near leaving that afternoon when the AC went out on the house. A racing buddy who is an HVAC tech agreed to come over Labor Day Monday morning for a look, so I felt compelled to stick around until that was taken care of. With cold air restored to the house, the Wife released the leash and I headed for Flagstaff at around 1:30 pm.
Normally, I stop for fuel in Flag, just to check the rig out and stretch, but I had the bit between my teeth and kept rolling. Six and a half hours later I pulled into the Love's in Gallup NM. With only one car on the trailer, and averaging about 62 mph, the twelve valve had knocked down 16mpg on that leg, but twice it had seemed to die for a second then catch and keep right on going. I've never had it do that in the eight years I've owned it, so it had me concerned. Once I was rolling again, I was reluctant to stop and finally pulled over at the Pajarito Rest Area about thirty miles past Santa Rosa NM. I'd covered 620 miles in eleven hours and it was time for nap. I crawled onto the carpeted plywood bed cover under my camper shell, sandwiched between two sleeping bags, and popped my head on the pillow. I awoke four hours later, surprised actually that it was still dark. Usually in such instances I don't get up until the morning sun peeks through the camper shell windows.
"Dang, this trip is going pretty good!" I told myself as I decided to get up and head down the road once again. I laid on my belly and pushed my legs out over the tailgate until I could bend at the waist and gain footing on the bumper to pull myself out of the shell. My right foot found the trailer ball, and I eased out a little more until my left felt the bumper. I pushed myself out with my arms, transferring my weight to my legs and my left foot slipped off the bumper. I nearly crashed to the ground but my left foot caught on something momentarily, and that allowed me just enough time to catch myself before it gave way. Once safely on the ground, and now fully awake, I looked down to see what I had caught my foot on. As I somewhat feared, it was the trailer electrical cord, which I had just ripped out of the back of the 7-way plug! Had it already been sunrise, I probably would have tied it back and fixed it once I was at Dale's, but I needed lights to continue at this hour, and I didn't feel like trying to go back to sleep, so I dug the electrical tools out of the Valiant and repaired it on the spot. "If no-one else heard you say it, can you still jinx yourself", I thought, but I already knew the answer.

Here's another rules question for ya Billy.....or anyone else for that matter.

On day 2, Tom Bailey has an issue on the track, and the car is unable to get back to pits under its own power.
It appears to have gotten a tow back to the pits by the 1320video crew, and they were talking like he might come back for another run(this was before they knew it was doa).

I thought you could only get a tow back to the pits from another competitor, otherwise you are done.

Who is they?

Technically he should only have help from people in impound, but when no one is around what is a guy to do.

Maybe they can go back and retroactively disqualify him for pointing out that fact......

"They" are the 1320video crew....... Specifically, the "front man", who was at the top end talking to Tom, and it appeared he was driving the golf cart while towing Tom back to the pits.

I saw this on the day 2 recap coverage.

The reason I question it is because, I think it was day 4, there was a car dead at the top end, and the guys in the tower were saying if he got a tow back to the pits by someone other than another competitor he would be "out".

Kind of a moot point now, but something to keep in mind next year, in the heat of competition.

From the Hot Rod official 2017 Drag Week Rules
Doesn't say anything about tows on the track.

IF Hot Rod really wanted to push it they would
have said he was done... but we all know that
Hod Rod wants to put the big show on.. that means
the big boy WILL run.. all they had to say was
the group of people that pulled him back was
cleared to do so... true or not.. but the show
has to go on.. the 3 times I've been there Hot
Rod does close their eyes to certain things

they seem to make some impromptu rules as needed....if you read the rules again, you'll see that Keith Turk can do pretty much whatever he wants.

Suppose a car breaks or runs out of fuel on the tracfk, or on the return road. Can the driver, his trunk monkey, or other racers push it back to the pit? I thought it was OK.

He broke a rod in his billet engine, I am sure he knew it was done already or he wouldn't have parked it on the track.

There was a point a couple of years ago where DF and Brian Lohnes made an issue of it over the PA system. Next thing you know we had like five cars clogging up the turn-off and the return road. Twenty minutes later it was decided it was a safety issue, and they decreed that it was OK to get your car back to the pits by any means necessary.

At Indy in 2015, I actually got pushed all the way back to my pit spot by a track worker on one of those four-wheelers with the tire pusher like they use on the top fuel cars...those things work really sweet!

A car dead at the end of the track I would expect could qualify as a dangerous situation under the rules.

Kevin

Tree'd

Kevin

I can remember Randal Burns waiting a LONG time to get a tow back to the pits from Jesse with the John Deere truck.

'Cause Randall drives a Buick. It took Jesse forever to find a long enuff rope so he didn't have to get too close to it.

There is that.LMAO!

Wow, thats funny!, I know Randall from the Car Craft Anti Tours,

Randal is good guy. I just have to poke fun at anyone who drives a Buick.

Billy, on that old Cummins, clean the connector on the fuel shut off solenoid on the injector pump, where the ignition switch on provides 12v+.
That is a common cause of intermittent or steady shut off. Been there, done that!

Yep, Randall is a good guy, first Anti Tour I met him on, he was in like a silver '75 Skylark, had the hood opened doing something and he had a magnetic tray in front of the core support with a assortment of bolts stuck to it, said he kept it there in case he ever lost a bolt when driving, spares were easy to find, lol.

Randall's posts on Bangshift were one of things that got me Interested in the Megasquirt EFI, he had some great info for me when getting it going.

I am not real sure about that nova appolo thing he has though lol

I was trying to explain to a layman yesterday, the difference between a dart, demon, duster, valiant, and Hang Ten. I didn't get very far.

it's not just a GM thing.

(Randal has a Skylark)

Yep, knew it was a Skylark, had a 350 Buick in it. Actually haven't seen him in a couple years, on the Anti Tours.

it's had a 455 as long as I can remember....although it came with a V6 originally.

He's also working on a OHC straight 6 powered early Firebird

I was informed wrong on the motor,lol, yeah,last I talked to him he was doing the 6 in the Firebird, was going EFI if I remember right. It was a couple years ago on Anti Tour, at the time he said he might bring it on the next one, but didn't see him.

This car? He's from Ely Nevada if it is.

http://www.v8buick.com/index.php?threads/the-break-down-of-a-69-pontiac-ohc-inline-six.219250/

[/quote]
From the Hot Rod official 2017 Drag Week Rules
Doesn't say anything about tows on the track. [/quote]

What do you mean it doesn't say anything about tows on the track..... It says right there: "All vehicles must be driven under their own power during the entire Drag Week competition and may not be towed, trailered, pushed, or hauled at any time."

Explain to me how this does NOT mean on the track???

Hes from Ely.

That is Randall.

What do you mean it doesn't say anything about tows on the track..... It says right there: "All vehicles must be driven under their own power during the entire Drag Week competition and may not be towed, trailered, pushed, or hauled at any time."

Explain to me how this does NOT mean on the track??? [/quote]

Competitors are allowed to help one another. That rule is for outside help.

Good point, but the part you did NOT quote addresses that very clearly A breakdown on the track would seem to qualify. It doesn't say who can give assistance, or for exactly how long/far. It's up to the Race Director. The incident being discussed
really doesn't create a precedent because the racer dropped out. If he wanted to continue, that could be protested and possibly set the stage for further rule clarification.
I haven't been a competitor, so if you have some behind the scenes info to contribute I'd like to hear/read about it.

As I mentioned previously, the only reason I brought up Tom Bailey getting a tow from the 1320 crew, and wondering if that was "kosher" or not, is because on a different day, another competitor was stuck at the top end looking for some help, and DF and/or Lohnes said on the live feed that if that tow/help came from someone other than another competitor.........they would be out.

I think it's a great point of discussion, but Lohnes and Freiburger are NOT running the show. They can say whatever they want to.

I guess that might be a bit of a problem when the guys in the tower are making the call over the PA system relaying the info that a racer is at the top end in need of a tow, and it has to be another competitor who does the helping, or they're out.

IMO, this is an area of the rules that should be made perfectly clear next year.

It is my understanding that Freiburger is the judge and jury of all things Drag Week. Turk and Grimm are the cops.

Really, He gave (me) the impression that he wasn't part of it officially anymore, since he left Hot Rod. Thanks for the correction.

[/quote]

Wow, you really only see what you want to, don’t you skeptic...... it says right there “a short distance to a safe area”. That clearly means “get it off the road”, and it also is clear that a tow all the way back to the pits by a camera crew in a golf cart is WELL outside the rules.

You guys realize that Tom Baileys motor was blown up? I am sure he was well aware it was busted and he was out of the event before the 1320 guys hooked on.

Have you guys actually read any of my other stories?
For the most part Drag Week is live and let live. Protests are generally frowned upon by participants unless someone is clearly circumventing the rules with obvious intent.

I was trying to write these tales in an attempt to provide the texture and spirit of the event...apparently I have failed.

Billy, the tales of you and your family are why I have any interest in Drag Week. Watching the live feeds and following along online with all the struggles (and overcoming them) have fanned the flames. I realize the rules are intentionally open, and for me this is just some bench racing between friends. We don't always see things the same way, but no bad feelings, at least on my part.

I think the whole Drag Week thing is hard to understand, if you are not participating...

The a only time during Drag Week anyone seemed to care about rules was when you went through tech inspection... once that was over it was just go time. The firebird that got hit got flat decked from the accident to the track to get fixed ...no one cared.

My last thoughts on this issue. If Tom could have fixed his car, I'd let him continue. I can understand where someone would think otherwise. If it were me broken, I'd do everything I could to be sure I'd be allowed to continue before I'd let any non competitor move my car if there was any hope of fixing it.

Billy ,
I love your stories/recap
I get similar from Steve a mate who goes
I think some are overthinking the whole deal

Tex

Billy, even if you're​ a failure, at least you're good at it. Please keep going on the DW stories!

Yeah, you have left us without an entry for a few days and we have run amuck.

Billy please move the story forward.

Did the trailer wiring work out?
Is the Gremlin all one shade of White?
Are the brothers Gebhart still speaking to each other?
Is little Timmy going to get saved from the bottom of a well?

It was roughly two in the afternoon on Tuesday when I nosed the rig into Dale's back yard. Typically on Hell Week this would be a hub of activity, with my brothers and several friends thrashing away on multiple projects, but it was amazingly quiet, almost serene.
Boone was finishing up the installation of new axles under his small car trailer, a project he had abandoned almost exactly a year ago, when he realized if all his efforts weren't on the Ruster Duster, he wasn't going to need a trailer.
"Where is everyone?" I asked as I walked over to check out his progress.
"Dale had to work today, and it's his last day until after Drag Week...so it will be a long one I'm sure. Dad has been staying here at Dale's, but he gets up every morning and goes over to Darren's to work on the Charger."
"Why didn't he bring it over here?"
"Every year it's the same thing, he wants it over there so he has his own tools, but then he's constantly calling for help, or sending Dad over here for a part he doesn't have!"

Boone decided to help me unload the Valiant, so we grabbed the ramps out of the side holder and walked them around to the back of the trailer.
"What happened to your taillight?" Boone laughed as he set his ramp down in place.
"That Love's in OKC...the one right before you get on the turnpike, has a tight lot for someone with a two car trailer", I explained.
"Yes it does", he agreed, "hate buying fuel there."
"Well, I was trying to miss a car, and barely tale whipped the yellow pole at the end of the pumps. It caught that flimsy bracket just enough to bend it in and smash the light against the frame of the trailer!"
"Is that an LED?" he asked, bending over to examine the busted pieces that were still attached.
"Yes...I bought them through Amazon, installed them right before I left, and that one made it 24 hours and a thousand miles until it met it's demise!"
The amount of laughter he chose to use did not seem appropriate for my predicament, I felt, so I changed the subject.
"Are you going to help me unload this car or not? Lets get the straps off the back, then we will push it forward to undo the chain."

We pushed the car off into the grass, and had unloaded the coolers out of the back of the truck when Dale made it home from work. He came out of his truck like his hair was on fire and started grilling Boone on what he had set up for him to do on the Duster over the next few days to insure it would be ready to go.
"Where are you going to be?" I asked Dale innocently, not understanding his demeanor.
"I'm going to hook to my trailer, load up a bunch of parts and tools, and head to Miami so I can finish the Gremlin! First though, I have to run some parts over to Dylan's shop, so he can install them on Beehler's Duster!"
"Beehler? He's still trying to turn that Victory Chassis Duster into a street car and take it on Drag Week...THIS Drag Week?"
"Yeah", Dale shook his head, "and he wanted me to do the work, but I have too much on my plate already, so I hooked him up with this Dylan, who has a chassis shop in Tulsa."
"When are you going to be back?" I asked Dale, "I'd kinda like to put the Valiant on the pad in front of the shop, but if you're going to be back with the Gremlin, I don't want to take your spot!"
Dale shook his head and laughed, "You don't understand Dave...I'll be lucky to be back Thursday afternoon!"

Dale helped Boone and I get the Valiant located on the pad, and by the time I had it jacked up and on jack stands, he was leaving once again. A few minutes later Boone got a phone call from Dad asking for help to get the transmission in place on the Charger.
"Is he working on it by himself, where is Darren?"
"No, Darren has a neighbor that he roped into helping them, but he's not really a mechanic. Darren would have already left for work though, so it's just the two of them."
"Great, so Dad and another old codger are building the car, while Darren pops out there for a few hours each afternoon to check on them and order more parts", I shook my head, hands on hips.
"Yeah, that's pretty much it", Boone laughed. "You want to go with me?"
"No, I've spent enough time in a truck today!"

A few minutes after Boone left, Dale's Wife came onto the back porch to yell, "Got spaghetti and meatballs ready if you're hungry, Dave!"
Clearly a much better offer than I had gotten from Boone.

Uuuuummm.......Miami?

There are lots of Miamis, there's one in Oklahoma, and one in Arizona, and probably several more

Pronounced Myamah!

"What was going on over there?" I asked Boone, after he came back outside from eating spaghetti.
"They just couldn't get it lined up with the engine...those 73 Chargers are such a pain to work on, but I managed to wiggle it up on the dowel pin and get a couple bolts pulled up, so they should be able to finish it."
"Speaking of transmissions, what was the deal with the one in Michelle's Duster? I saw on Facebook they had to pull it back out."
"Yeah, it ended being a bad pump half, allowing fluid to bleed past and pressurize the front drum, so it was applied all the time." He shook his head, "I need more cores...I'm just running out of decent hard parts".
"Then there was a picture that looked like she did a burnout in the garage, and cracked the front bumper!"
Boone shook his head, ran his fingers through his hair and sighed, "Dave, don't get me started on those kids...they want advice, they act like they want to learn, but they just won't listen!"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, the first time they were ready to try out the 727, I told them to put it up on jack stands, and run it through all the gears to make sure it was applying them before they put a load on it."
"Yeah, pretty standard procedure", I agreed.
"Then you seen the video where she was driving it through the back yard at like twenty mph?"
"On Facebook, yes I saw that."
"That was the trans test when they realized it was pulling forward all the time and would lock up in reverse", he shook his head again. "When I asked why they didn't test it the way I told them to, they said they couldn't tell if it was shifting or not, but I think they never had the back tires off the ground."
"How hard is it to jack the car up and put it on four jack stands", I shrugged
"It's like they are allergic to jack stands, or only own two", Boone surmised. "I went over with another valve body to try, and they had the front on stands, and the jack under the rear end with the tires barely off the ground, and I guarantee you it was that way when the throttle hung open and shoved it into their toolbox on the second test!"
"Wow, why'd the throttle hang?"
"Something with the way Will had the linkage installed, I'm just glad none of them were standing in front of the car, or under it!"
"So everything works now?"
"I think they took it out for a short cruise today, and so far so good."

I had unloaded most of the stuff that was in the Valiant, and the Truck, but it was pretty dark outside by this point in the evening, and my four hours of sleep the previous night was used up.
"What have you got left, Boone?"
"Honestly, I don't feel like fumbling around in the dark. You want to call it a night, and try to hit it again early in the morning?"
"My thoughts exactly", I agreed quickly before he changed his mind.

My bad Billy! I must have been in a pissy mood and a ridiculous rules squabble clearly has no place in your tale, nor in any real drag week conversation.

Wednesday 9/6

Despite a solid eight+ hours of sleep, Boone and I lacked any sense of urgency Wednesday morning. We stopped for breakfast at Waffle House, grabbed some parts at O'Reilley's, then grabbed a few 20lb. bags of ice for the coolers. We've found over the years that the best way to keep everyone hydrated during Hell Week is to have six or seven coolers under a shade tree in the back yard stocked with water, soda, tea, energy drinks and the like. This cuts down tremendously on the traffic through the house, meaning Dale's wife is less fussy and more inclined to feed us. It was around ten before we showed up at Dale's, and his stepson Cody was the only other person around.

The weather was fantastic, a good twenty degrees cooler than it was the day before, and coming from Phoenix it was a welcome change.
"We may have overdone it on drinks this year", I commented as we stocked the coolers with ice.
"Yeah, if this weather holds, and it's only the two of us", Boone agreed.
"Dale came home late last night", Cody informed us, "just to grab a shower, some clothes, and some parts, but he made it sound like he wouldn't be back tonight!"
"What did he say about the car", I asked.
"Said he had a bunch of work ahead of him", Cody shrugged, "I told him I would come up and help, since my girlfriend wants to spend some time in Miami anyway."

I pulled the tires and wheels off the Valiant, so I could take them to Robertson Tire in Owasso to get the new Hoosier Quick Time Pros mounted. I was in possession of the tires for over two weeks, but Phoenix is suddenly without a true full service tire shop, and no one there wants to touch anything with a tube in it. Boone had pointed out a large bubble on the side of my bias ply trailer spare also, so I felt compelled to replace it as well. I had them loaded up, and was working on the hard brake lines for the discs on the rear when Boone walked over and explained that Dad wanted him to come over and help on Darren's car again.
"I'll ride over with you", I quickly decided, since I wanted to see Darren's progress so far with my own eyes. "Did he say what the problem was?"
"He said the engine just locked up, and they can't turn it over, so he wanted me to take a look".

The Charger was sitting half in, half out of the shop, at a weird angle, with parts, tools and debris strewn all around it.
"What were you working on", Boone asked Dad, who was leaning on one front fender.
"I tightened the first two converter bolts, then when he went to turn it with a bar so I could get the third...it just locked up!"
"Dang it Dad! Why didn't you tell me that on the phone", Boone tossed his hands in the air. I bit my lip to avoid laughing.
"Well...I don't know what happened!" Dad stated firmly.
"You pulled the converter into the flexplate and caught one of the other bolts against the block. How many Mopar torque converters have you installed!"
"Yeah, that make sense", Dad looked at the floor, "so I'll have to back those two out, and bring it in slowly until all the bolts clear".
I stood there in stunned silence. Finally Dad pointed out that they had yet to conquer the bolt that held the dipstick and one of the bottom bolts that thread into the transmission. Boone managed to get the dipstick in place and the bolt started, but quickly realized that the bottom hole, where he installed the heli-coil in the trans case slightly crooked, and it wouldn't allow that bolt to start.

We were several blocks from Darren's place before I addressed Boone. "What's up with Dad"?
Boone drew in a deep breath and paused before answering. "He's slipping Dave...he's 73! It really only shows when he's tired or stressed, most days he's good. He knows it too, and he gets frustrated and angry over it...it's been tough, and it ticks me off that Darren depends on him like this!"
"How long? This is the first time I've noticed!"
"No, it's the first time you've had to come to grips with it! You're not around him daily or weekly like we are", Boone let the harshness in his voice trail off, clearly not intending to attack me with his analysis.
I let the silence hang for a few miles. "Twenty years older than me, you know, so I often look at his life as a road map for mine...I'm not sure this is what I wanted to see."
Boone gave me a sidelong look, "As fat as you are right now...you don't have to worry about seventy-three!"
We both burst into laughter. "Thank's a bunch little brother!"

Gary,
No need to apologize. I love the input from everyone. The frustration stems from the fact that we have to "indoctrinate" all the rookies every year as well.

Most of us have grown up with the NHRA,IHRA, NMCA, PSCA, NSRA, UDRA and a dozen more alphabet soup and local sanctioning bodies throwing rules in front of us. Most of those rules regarding classes are designed to try and present a level playing field for all competitors, and it's tough to do, but paramount to building successful classes with solid car counts. In drag racing, if one popular combination is 2 tenths slow or another one dominates, the class quickly falls into disarray, and the rules must be adjusted. We grow up trained to pick the rules apart and look between the lines for any advantage or slight infraction.

This is exactly what David Freiburger was tired of in 2004 when he and a couple of close colleagues dreamed up Drag Week. "No Rules...let the road miles sort them out!"

It's about proving you have a legitimate street car, first and foremost. Then showing the world how fast your street car can run on the track. It's what he wanted with the "Fastest Street Car" format of the late eighties, early nineties but that quickly spun into just another race series and lost his interest.

He knew that if Drag Week were to ever work it needed a strong leadership, someone to handle the day to day operations and someone to police it with a gentle but firm approach. He turned to his land speed racing partners and East Coast Timing Association veterans Keith and Tonya Turk for the help he knew it would take to get this off the ground.

Keith would only sign on if the event took on characteristics that more closely resembled LSR racing. The classes have NOTHING to do with a level playing field, and were NEVER intended to have cars built specifically to the rules, they are only there to divide the field up and give more people a shot at a plaque or jacket. KEITH TURK is the reason Hot Rod Drag Week doesn't have payouts! He told DF from the beginning that he would be out if that happened. IT IS AN ADVENTURE, it's supposed to be fun, it isn't about winning and losing!

On this next statement, let me be as clear and precise as I can. KEITH and TONYA TURK ARE HOT ROD DRAG WEEK! Without their involvement and guidance this event would have ceased to exist years ago. Regardless of the sponsor money, regardless of the magazine and participant support, regardless of the contributions of another dozen or so very talented and dedicated people, they are the glue, and the energy that has drove this event to the popularity it now enjoys.

Now, if David Freiburger doesn't like rules, and Keith Turk or Lonnie Grimm aren't comfortable with beating people over the head with them, why does DF talk about them so much on the live feed?
Legitimate question.
David's "precious", that thing he clings to the most from Drag Week, is that it is the ultimate test, the crucible, the true mark of a real street car to survive it. So any rumors that they are lax on the rules of the drives, or that some competitors have large pit crews, or take short cuts and circumvent that "test" in any way, drives him absolutely crazy!
If you look at DF's career in it's totality, through Fastest Street Car, to Power Tour, to Pump Gas Drags, to Drag Week, and now Road Kill, the one principal he has always promoted and stuck to is this: Get those cars out of the garages and museums, off the show fields, and private collections, and DRIVE them, use them as they were intended and let the next generation see them out on the road! The interaction between the people we meet in small town America as we cruise from track to track is easily the most rewarding and memorable part of this deal, and something the live feed doesn't convey.

Sorry I rambled, I'll get off my soapbox now...

I like your analysis on this Billy, and I agree.

Very Good Analysis for sure.

You know without a doubt that after drag week passes through some of these towns that at least one person and probably more go turn a wrench on an old project.

Dragweek started like hell or it seemed like it for rookies like us.
Once we started driving thru small town America, with small groups of people cheering you on it renewed the enthusiasm

We look forward to seeing where 2018 tracks are!

Driving through the towns with the folks in lawn chairs waving at you is one of the coolest things that can happen on Drag Week.

Actually I do not think he got a tow. IIRC he had to fix it down there. Luckily it was something simple (loose crank sensor I think)

They repeatedly said he would be DQ'd if he towed it back to the pits.


That being said, I think they have changed their tune about incidents that occur at the track because you are displaced from all your tools & supplies.

I kicked Boone out at Dale's house, and drove his truck to the tire shop. I made it back about two hours later, as he was dropping his trailer down so he could weld the axles to the spring perches.
"Just got a call from Darren", he explained as I started unloading the Hoosiers.
"Yeah, what's he want now?"
"He wants me to unload the Duster off his trailer, so Dad can take it over tomorrow to get his buddy to weld the new fenders on it!"
"I thought you needed to take the Duster into town for an alignment...and...he's had those fenders in his barn for four years, and suddenly it's important that it gets done now?"
"Yeah, exactly", Boone shrugged. "But it's his trailer, so the Duster will have to wait until I'm finished with this one."
"Well, If we're going to unload it, I'd rather do it before it's dark", I pointed to the sun which was rapidly falling out of the sky.

I had the brake lines ran on the nine inch, and the new tires mounted. I was about to torque them when we heard a raspy big block driving up to Dale's house.
"Who's that?" Boone looked up from his trailer where he was attempting to re-attach his own fenders, because the new axles had an inch and a half more drop than the old ones.
It was truly dark so all I could see was headlights, but once they drove around into the back I realized it was Michelle in the purple Duster, with Will following behind her in their Silverado.
"Where's Dale?" Michelle asked as soon as she emerged from the roll cage.
"He's in Miami at Rick's shop working on the Gremlin", Boone explained.
"Is she ready for the trip" I asked Michelle, as I looked into the interior.
"Well", she looked perplexed, "Dale told us what alternator to run, and we bought the one he specified, so we need him to install it!"
"I can help you get it mounted", Boone explained, "But wiring it is out of my area of expertise!"
"When do you think Dale will be back?" Will asked, holding the alternator box out in front of him.
"Probably not until Friday afternoon", I laughed, "it sounds like he still has quite a bit to do!"
"Are you guys going to be out here working on your cars tomorrow?" Michelle asked.
"Yeah...all day!" Boone assured her.
"Okay, I've got tomorrow off so I'll be out here then so we can figure this out!"
They left the car where they had parked it, and Will dropped the alternator in the passenger's seat. They had barely left the driveway in the Silverado when Dad pulled his Dodge into the back yard.
"You calling it an early night, Pops?" Boone asked.
"Yeah, Darren's neighbor went home and I was out there by myself using a drop light to work and just decided a decent night's rest was more important than any progress I was going to make at that point!"
"Jacque cooked supper, and I think Boone and I may have left you a little in there", I told him.
"Sure you did...that would be a first for you guys!" He shuffled off towards the back porch.
"Boone, we could save ourselves a trip to Darren's if we just go ahead and hook his trailer onto Dad's truck right now", I suggested.
"Sounds like a plan", he nodded, "and after that we should call it a night."
"You'll get no argument from me!"

Thursday 9/7

Once again, Boone and I got a great night's sleep, and milled around his house for a couple hours before we headed over to Dale's. At this point it felt like the anti-hell week for us, it wasn't that we didn't have stuff to do to our cars or rigs to be ready to arrive at Cordova Illinois on Sunday, it's just that we were comfortable that we could finish up fairly easily.

"It did it twice from Phoenix to Flag, then it was fine until Texas, and it happened twice from Amarillo to OKC. Then it acted up like ten times after I fueled in OKC to Dale's house." I was explaining to Boone how the Cummins was momentarily shutting off going down the road.
"When is the last time you put a fuel filter on it", Boone asked.
"It doesn't feel like it's starving for fuel, it feels like it's electrical", I explained, "but I think I've replaced the fuel filter once, maybe twice."
"I change mine every other oil change, so I'd say you need a filter. I've had them jerk like that with bad fuel. How long have you had that truck?"
"Eight years, and fifty thousand miles", I paused to recollect, "it's been a darn good work truck, but I rarely drive it without a trailer on the back".
"I think you should definitely change the fuel filter, just on principle, might make the diagnosis easier anyway."
"So now we're Ford mechanics, 'replace with known good part' until the problem goes away?"

We stopped at several places for parts and stuff, then rolled into Dale's back yard at around 10:30. We were the only ones there, no Michelle and no Cody, just us. We grabbed a cold drink out of the cooler, sat on the park bench under the big tree and just soaked in the perfect weather.
"This just feels wrong".
"Yep...we'll probably pay for it on Saturday", he laughed.
"What have you guys done to the Duster, to improve on last year, other than repairing the engine of course," I asked him.
"Well, we put down dynamat and carpet, and Dale was determined to rebuild the front end, even though I told him it drove fine, but nothing has been done about the wiring or charging situation!"
"So you're going to be sitting around with the charger and generator attached at every stop again?"
"Most likely! When does Rachael arrive?"
"I'll have to pick her up at the Airport around four I think".

Engrossed in our own little projects, time seemed to tick away until finally it was getting close to Rachael's arrival, so I asked Boone to help me disconnect the trailer from my 1 ton.
"You can just drive my truck", he offered.
"You're going to be taking the Duster to get an alignment, and that sticker on the roof tomorrow morning right?"
"Yeah, that's true."
"So Rachael and I will need our own transportation, so I may as well do it now."

By the look of you two it's hardly recognizable that you really are having a good time. lol

We wear our weariness and misery like a badge of honor Ross! I'd rather spend two weeks wrenchin' and drivin' fifty year old iron instead of sitting on a beach somewhere with my toes in the sand and an umbrella'd drink in my hand!



Miami Oklahoma, The county seat of Ottawa County, and the cultural and financial hub of my childhood from age 6 until I moved to Phoenix at age 23. Census figures place it's largest growth at just over 14,000, but many people around that area live on rural farms and would commute in, so it had a larger feel. It was our "big town", it had two theaters, a JC Penney, and was anchored by a huge B.F.Goodrich tire plant that employed seemingly fifty percent of the people in the county. Goodrich pulled out in 1985, and the place has been a shell of it's former self ever since.

Notable's include 1969 Heisman Trophy winner Steve Owens, Internationally famous Native American artist Charles Banks Wilson, and of course Steve and Cassie Gaines of Lynyrd Skynyrd.

I went to Miami in 1983 to attend Northeastern Oklahoma Agricultural and Mechanical College to pursue my dreams of becoming a High School music teacher. I used to jump in Boone's 65 Dart, grab that Hurst Ram Rod shifter, and put that tunnel rammed 340 on 3K for ten miles from Fairland to Miami, thinking I had my world by the tail. As a Music major, you are required to have at least a working knowledge of all instruments, and we were broken up into small groups my freshmen year for each lesson. We learned piano, and harp from Mrs. Gaines. During one of those classes I made the comment that Doc Swanson (our strings teacher) said that the angels came down from heaven to listen when Mrs. Gaines played her beautiful full sized harp. She shook back her long black hair and gave me a sad smile, "That's the only time I get to talk with Steve and Cassie these days, so maybe he's right". That was the day I learned she was their Aunt. My sophomore year at NEO A&M, the piano lessons were one on one and I came to enjoy the time spent with Mrs. Gaines, though she always seemed to wear her loss on her sleeve, and some days were worse than others. On Monday, October the 22nd 1984, I reported to her studio/office at 4pm, I was her last lesson of the day. When I entered she was at her desk, dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief, but the tears were coming down faster than she could keep up.
She shook her head, "Saturday was the seventh anniversary of the plane crash that took them from us". She drew in a heavy breath, "I was good until I got here around the piano...I taught them to play, I fostered and encouraged their love of music!"
"Mrs. Gaines, I'm sure they wouldn't have changed a thing", I stammered, searching for words I didn't have.
"It's DeMaris...you can call me DeMaris, Billy! She pushed her hair back from her face and smiled up at me through the tears and the smeared mascara. "Sit down and have a drink with me", she reached in her drawer and pulled out a bottle and two shot glasses. "I hate drinking alone, and we should share a toast to their memory!"
I sat down and took the offered shot, afraid to refuse, and afraid to say anything stupid.
"To Steve", she clinked her glass to mine and downed the shot. I simply nodded and took a sip allowing the liquid to warm my throat on the way down. She filled her glass again and clinked mine a second time, "To Cassie", she whispered and downed the second while I sipped mine again. I was afraid she was going to toast the other four members of the band that lost their lives, but alas, she motioned for my glass, and finished what I hadn't.
"You sure can handle your whiskey Mrs. Gaines", I blurted out.
She smiled but her eyes drifted off somewhere else. "Cassie came to my house one day for a piano lesson, and I'd been hitting the sauce a little. She looked at me sideways and asked if I'd been drinking. I looked at her, shook my finger and told her if I'd drank enough whiskey to float a battleship around it wasn't her business to comment on it! She just laughed and laughed, she thought it was the funniest line she ever heard!"
I just sat there in dumbfounded shock with my mouth agape. She winked at me and said, "That's my best Cassie story, don't ask for any more...now let's get to that piano shall we!"

To this day every time I listen to Skynyrd's "Gimme back my bullets", I wonder if Mrs. Gaines ever found her peace talking with Steve and Cassie on the strings of that harp. I left Oklahoma with an Associates Degree in Music Education, and came to Phoenix to earn one in Automotive and Diesel Technology. When I'm rolling down an American back road, listening to that IMM small block bark along at 3K, I often think about the other paths I could've chose, and where they might've led...

Great story Billy.

My grandfather was a music teacher.

If you don't mind me asking, what ever became of the music education and what are you doing today? Sorry for the detour, just curious. -Trent

My Sister also holds a Music Education Degree, she went on to be in the Equestrian Business though.

That was an awesome anecdote Billy, thanks for typing that! My dad was a frustrated musician and my mom a singer who sang at night clubs in Chicago when they met. I always wished I had pursued music also, but engineering had a larger pull.

When Rachael and I returned from the airport to Dale's back yard, the first thing I did was reach into Boone's truck and hand her the large black camera bag that was on the seat. Boone had purchased a Cannon digital camera that came with two lenses, and was way fancier than any of the point and shoot stuff we'd ever had before. I figured she had the best chance of any of us to learn how to use it by the time we left for Cordova.
"Bob Brehm isn't making the trip this year, and he's been good for about five thousand shots a day, so you're going to have to pick up the slack", I told her.
"Well, if I'm babysitting the Gebhart brothers, I'm probably not going to have enough time to take that many", she retorted.

Boone helped me bleed the brakes on the Valiant, and I dropped her back on the ground. At this point, I just needed to repair the wiring in the trunk, and charge the batteries, and she would be ready for the first test drive of 2017.
"Dad called while you were gone, and said that when they drop the Charger down the front end goes all the way down to the bump stops! Apparently when they decided to cut that brace, it makes it so flexible that the torsion bars won't hold the front end up!"
I thought perhaps Boone was joking with me at this point. "Are you sure they have the bars set right?"
"Yeah, they tried it several times, and it just won't work!"
"What are they going to do?" I shrugged at Boone, trying to contemplate a solution.
"Darren called the guy that made the modifications, and I guess he's going to come back in the morning and weld it all back together until they find another piece to replace it with.
"Have they even fired the engine yet?"
"No...don't think so, just got the push rods yesterday, and he was probably expecting Dale to run the valves."
"Have you heard from Dale?"
"Yeah, I think he got a couple of hours of sleep last night on the shop floor, and Cody is up there helping him now, but he won't be back until tomorrow sometime."

Will, Michelle, and Derek showed up to work on the Purple Duster at around 6pm.
"I thought you were going to be here this morning", I shrugged at Michelle.
"Yeah, well, I had so much to do...trying to get packed, and organized for the trip", she explained. "Did Dale ever make it back?"
"Nope, and from what Boone told me, it'll likely be tomorrow afternoon."

Boone helped them mount the alternator, and Will finished up the welding on Boone's trailer, so it was an even trade. They left with the Duster about two hours later, but the alternator still hadn't been wired. Rachael and I helped Boone hook up his trailer and load the Ruster Duster so he could get it aligned the next morning, then we followed him to his house. We were in bed well before midnight once again.
"This just doesn't seem right", I told them.
"Never turn down the opportunity to get sleep during Hell Week", Boone laughed, "We'll be better off for it when the journey begins!"

Saw your brother and the Gremlin at TRP over the weekend.

Friday 9/8

Boone left to get the Ruster aligned before Rachael and I got around to leaving, so Rachael wanted me to take her out for breakfast on our way out to Dale's.
"You talked Boone and I into Olive Garden for supper last night, so we aren't going out again", I scolded her, "We have work to do today!"
"Well then, take me by Walmart so I can get some stuff to cook at Dale's, and to stock up for the trip", she countered.
"All right", I agreed, "but you brought a whole cooler of meat!"
"That's for the trip", she shook her head, "Besides, I'm sure you need something you are forgetting too".
She grabbed a cart and went one way, I grabbed one and went the other. When we met in the middle I explained to her that I needed jeans because I only brought two pair.
"Apparently I do too!" She turned around to show me her stretchy jeans had split next to one pocket. We were in Walmart nearly ninety minutes, and I walked out a tick short of two hundred dollars lighter...perhaps breakfast out might have been a better idea.

When we arrived at Dale's, I checked my phone for messages, because it had chirped at me several times. I noticed that Dale had sent a picture of the Gremlin around midnight. Darren had texted back immediately, "Does it Run". Dale's answer had been a cryptic "Some". That didn't sound encouraging, and a closer look at the pic revealed the Gremlin was nowhere near fully assembled, as the grille and headlight buckets were not on. The group of texts I heard were from Boone however. He had to wait on the alignment, so he had taken the car over to get graphics Dale had ordered applied to the roof of the car. When he was unloading it from the trailer he had discovered that in their rush to re-install the engine someone had kinked the oil pump feed line against the k-member, so that was an issue we would have to deal with when he showed back up at Dale's place.

I had the battery charger on the Valiant as I finished up the wiring that was burned in the trunk. When Boone returned, I helped him change the oil on the Duster, and we pulled the kinked line off and relocated it. The oil was nice and clean after his six license passes, so we were encouraged that it wasn't going to make metal this time.

Dale rolled into the back yard around 2:00pm, and went directly in the house for a shower and a change of clothes. When he came back out he was eating a plate of biscuits and gravy that Jacque had cooked.
At that point it occurred to me that Rachael never had fixed anything for us to eat, so I begged her to go scramble some eggs to go with what Jacque had thrown together.
"We were out of eggs", Dale shrugged.
"No", I explained, "We picked some up this morning."
"I was hoping for pizza or something, that's why I didn't eat while I was out!" Boone chimed in.
"Yeah", Rachael agreed, "It's too late for breakfast!"
"It's never too late for breakfast", I insisted, "scrambled eggs now, pizza in a couple of hours!"

Dale walked over and checked out the graphic on the roof of the Duster and shook his head, "That idiot put it on backwards, I told him I wanted it to face the back!"
Boone shrugged, "Looks OK to me..."
"I've got to go get the one installed on the Gremlin", Dale turned back toward his truck, "and grab some parts at O'Reilly, probably need to stop and check on Dylan and Beehler too."
Boone grabbed Dale's shoulder, and shook his head at him, "Those guys are on their own, you have to focus on your car now!"
"I know, I know", Dale agreed, but he didn't sound convinced.

As promised, an order to Pizza Hut delivery was placed, and when Dale came back with the Gremlin, I gave him the spot on the pad, and took the Valiant for it's first test drive. I was happy with everything except the way it drove, it was pulling to the left a bit, and just felt sloppy, like it was rolling around on the rear suspension. I chalked it up to 9 months since I'd driven it on the street, and convinced myself I'd just have to get used to it. On a positive note the engine sounded great, no exhaust leaks, and the new rear discs worked excellent. I pulled her over close to Dale's water hose, so I could wash the grime off in the morning before I loaded the old girl on the trailer.

At nearly the same time our Pizza Hut order arrived, Jacque came home with Little Ceasar's Pizza. She gave us a shrug, and laughed, "I didn't want to cook again!"
"Agreed, We didn't either, so, the more the merrier!"

That seemed to be the theme for the evening, it was as if the prodigal son had returned. Thirty minutes after we pushed Dales's Gremlin on the pad, an army showed up to help. Will and Michelle, Declan and Glade Evans, Kelton, Cody...suddenly it felt like Hell Week! Only so many people can crowd around a 90 inch wheelbase car and work, so Rachael and I were looking for things we could do away from the actual Gremlin. We decide to take the hood in the garage and mount all the new dzus fasteners. Not a complicated or difficult job, but it would be one less thing Dale would have to deal with.

With the hood done, we were looking for another project. So Glade, Boone, Rachael, Michelle and I decided to install the freshly painted, new to the car grille and headlight surrounds. It seemed like a fairly straightforward thing to do but we quickly came to realize it was anything but. The Gremlin front clip is all metal, but the inner fenders and radiator support are long gone, and the flimsy fabricated metal tree designed to hold everything in place had been on the car for fifteen years, three Drag Weeks and a wreck! In short, everything moved around, and we were trying to bolt up these nice forty year old plastic pieces which didn't remotely fit, with a bunch of irregular and mismatched screws thrown in a box. Michelle and Boone put about two hours into it, Rachael was on it for three, while Glade and I wrestled the sheet metal around for four! We had the headlight brackets out twice, slotted some of the mounting holes, swapped them side to side, and finally had to do some metal messaging to get everything in place, all very nerve wracking on fresh stuff!

The end product was significantly stiffer and easier to slide on the car afterwards, and that worried me that the plastic would get broken up at the mounting points by the end of the week, but so far,so good. It was around midnight when we finished it up, so Rachael, Boone and I decided to call it a night. It was pretty clear Dale was going to still be out there when we arrived Saturday morning, and we didn't want any of that!

"Gizmo X"? what happened to "Spike?

Great story as always!

This is definitely one of the gem threads/themes that I've come across on the Internet car hobby sites.

Always a good read.

"I was surprised to see Michelle and Will here at Dale's tonight, I figured they still had work to do on the purple Duster", I commented when the three of us got in Boone's truck.
"She posted pics on Facebook showing it being worked on at Pinnacle Performance", Rachael added.
"Mike Mayopoulos' shop", Boone nodded, "So she let a bunch of Ford guys work on it". He looked over at me as we eased out of Dale's drive, "I thought she was going to have you tow it up to Cordova behind the Valiant?"
"I asked her tonight and she said they had borrowed a trailer from Glade and were going to tow it themselves, and I guess Derek borrowed his mom's truck, so they are set", I explained.
"Did they ask you what time we were leaving tomorrow?"
"Yeah", I laughed, "I told them around noon...or four pm!"
"They seem to be struggling with the whole lack of a concrete timetable", Boone added.
"They'll get used to it", Rachael concluded, "Or they'll learn to leave us behind...one or the other".

Saturday 9/9 Moving day!

We arrived at Dale's the next morning, and found him and Kelton still plugging away on the Gremlin. We learned from talking to Jacque that they had slept about three hours each. They were getting help from Dylan Samaroo, of DS Race Cars, who had been working on Beehler's car. When Beehler pulled the plug on his effort, Dylan had been fully invested and was planning to ride shotgun. Since Dale didn't have a co-pilot, he invited Dylan to ride with him.
The frustrating thing for me was that the biggest problem they were fighting was making the tunnel ran linkage and fuel delivery system work with his two 4500 big shot plates mounted and plumbed. Dale is the only brother that has yet to win a plaque for top three in his class, despite usually bringing our fastest car. When we looked at the 2017 entry list we were encouraged that a couple of the guys who have dominated Modified NA weren't going to compete in that class this year, so we had all agreed this would be Dale's best shot. So if he was on board with running NA, why all the extra work to mount the nitrous when we were clearly running out of time.
"Why are you putting in so much time to make the nitrous functional when you already agreed to run NA?"
"Well", he gave me a dead eye stare, "I'm certainly going to spray it when I get home, and I don't want to do all this twice!"
"Monte made it quite clear to you that plates under the carbs was a bad idea with a tunnel ram, you should've just waited until you had time to do a proper fogger!"
"This is what I've got, and this is what I'm going to use", he shook his head.
"What about the 3.73 gears?"
"They are going in, I can't make another trip on the 4.10s."
"This is about the same time last year that you decided we didn't have time to put them in. All year you've whined about needing parts to fix the engine and needing parts to fix the front sheet metal and I've told you over and over to put the gears in and here we are right back in the same predicament!"
"It is what it is", he shrugged, "load your stuff and head that way."

I did exactly that, so Rachael and I had everything secure and ready to roll in about two hours. It was already noon, which was the time we had agreed upon leaving. I was helping Boone load the Duster on his trailer when he brought up something I'd been trying to avoid.
"You know Mom and Grand Mother are in the Motor Home over at Darren's, you better swing by there and at least tell them goodbye".
"You know that will take every bit of two hours to escape them", I complained.
"But it gives you a good excuse to get out of here", Boone smiled.

We went over to Darren's, listened to him fire his up for the first time, Mom fed us, we visited with Grand Mother, and were just getting ready to leave for Illinois when Boone called.
"The little trailer won't fit behind my trailer with the Duster on it, so we need to load the trailer on your two car!"
"You've pulled it behind there before", I protested.
"With the Gremlin...the Duster overhangs too much and the trailer hits the Duster bumper before the tongue makes it to the ball", he explained.
"Then load the Gremlin on your trailer!"
"That would mean I would have to wait for the Gremlin to be finished, and I'm driving by myself, so I need to leave just as bad as you do!"

On the way back over to Dale's, we happened to run into Will, Michelle, and Derek, who were loaded up and leaving for Illinois. I explained what we had to do, and discouraged them from waiting for us.
"We'll be a couple of hours behind you so stay in touch with Rachael and let us know where you are", I implored them.

Boone was busy loading and re-arranging things in the small trailer when I arrived at Dale's so I walked over to see if I could do anything to help Dale.
"Are you going to run these M/T 31X10.5W slicks again?" I asked pointing at the tires laying in the grass.
"Crud! No, they won't pass tech for the Modified class, they're too wide, I need to switch back to the ET Streets", He explained.
"When did you plan to do that?"
"Here in a minute...Robertson's will close in about two hours!"
I had Rachael bring me an electric drill with a 7/16 socket and I started removing all the rim screws so he could take them to the tire shop. When I flipped the second wheel over to remove the screws from the backside, I noticed it was soaked with gear lube.
"Is one of your sealed axle bearings shot?" I asked him, tipping up the wheel so he could see it from where he was working under the Gremlin.
"Both of the axles are over on the table have a look", he pointed.
Sure enough, one of them was very bad, with the outside bearing race cracked in several places, and for some strange reason, the press on retaining ring was backed up the axle an inch or more. He made a quick call to O'Reilly and they had one, but it didn't have the groove and o-ring on the outside. I handed him a Dana 60 axle seal a few minutes later and explained that would keep the lube from leaking, even if he broke the bearing again.
"Where'd you get that?" He laughed.
"Bag of stuff that was still in the truck, I bought them for the Dana that still hasn't made it into the Belvedere."

Dale left in his truck to get the tires mounted and pick up the new axle bearing, so I turned my attention to loading the small trailer. Boone and I unloaded the Valiant, then pushed the small trailer over to the back of the two car open trailer. With the help of nearly everyone left in the yard, we managed to push it up the ramps, all he way to the front position on my trailer and secured. We had the Valiant loaded again and were ready to leave when Dale returned, so Rachael and I put his rims screws back into the other tires before we pulled out and headed for Cordova.

I headed for Joplin up I-44 and fueled up just after we crossed into Missouri. The ole 12 valve was running good, and with the lighter load than the usual two cars it was making good work of the Ozark foothills as we were counting down the miles to St. Louis.

The first exchange of texts were with Will and Michelle. When we told them where we were, they asked why we stayed on I-44, explaining that they had turned off in Miami OK, and headed due north on US69 to Kansas City. Then they were taking I-35 to Des Moines IA, where they would catch I-80 East over to Cordova.

The second to tell us we were idiots was Boone, who explained that he was going straight north up US169 to Kansas City, then I-35 to Des Moines, basically avoiding all the hills completely.

Next was Dad, who reminded me that there was nothing wrong with my choice to take I-44, but I should have taken US54 through Jefferson City. "You're going too far east, now you will have to drive up through Peoria Ill. and actually head back west on I-74 to get there!"

Rachael asked me several times why I chose this route and finally I explained to her, "I didn't...I just started driving!"

This Thread is the best reality show on the internet or television!

I look forward to reading Billy's tales every year, because of his tales makes me want to run DW at least once.

I agree 100 % per cent, if you can't drive it you can't race it.

That's what DW is!

Yep, I ran the Drag Weekend in Arizona in 2015, had a blast, may try the Rocky Mountain race next year.

Just for kicks, Rachael kept texting everyone about their locations, and then she would check that against our route. Despite the fact that we were taking the long and slow route, it was fairly clear we would be the first to arrive at Cordova. At roughly 1AM she received a text from Michelle that Derek had blown the front transmission seal out of his mom's pick-up and they were pulled over at a station about 100 miles from Davenport Iowa.
"They can't be that close Rachael, we've been tracking their progress and they couldn't have made it that far since you last updated it!"
"I'm just going by what they said", Rachael shrugged at me.
"Get a location and send it to Boone, maybe he can stop and check on them", I suggested.
She was furiously texting back and forth between all the parties involved, but she was so tired by that point that she was literally drifting off between each reply.
Finally the phone quit going off and she fell asleep. I drove about another thirty minutes before the curiosity got the better of me.
I bumped her shoulder and questioned her, "what did they all decide to do."
It took a moment for her to focus, then she answered. "Will, Derek, and Michelle are going to sleep, and they will weigh their options in the morning. Boone says he can't make it to where they are, so he's going to stop and get a motel. He figures Dale and Dylan will stop with him later, at least to just get a shower." With that, she jammed her pillow between the door and the seat, then fell back asleep. At this point I was driving by braille, using the rumble strips far more than I was comfortable with.
Last year I had driven all the way to Columbus, then sat in line to get in, so I basically got no sleep Saturday night, and it didn't get us through tech a bit sooner, so I knew I wanted to pull over short of Cordova and get some rest before the morning sun popped out. The next thing I knew I had went completely over the rumble strips, and didn't jerk awake until the passenger's side front tire dipped off the shoulder. Ordinarily a fatigued driver in that circumstance would jerk the wheel and over-correct to disastrous results, embarrassingly though I've put myself in this situation more times than I care to admit, so I deftly pulled the rig back on the pavement, narrowly missing the huge blue state highway sign that said "REST AREA 1 MILE AHEAD".
"A sign from God, I think", I told Rachael who was staring at me wide eyed with her arms both straight out in front of her.

We parked and she confirmed we were 72 miles from the track. By the time I got settled in the back it was 4AM. The sun, and the trucker beside us pulling out woke me at 7:30AM. I went into the rest area bathroom and washed my face and hands, then rousted Rachael and told her to get in touch with everyone else and let them know we were on our way. It was a good twenty minutes before she received a response, and when she read it she sucked in a quick breath.
"What?" I asked, somewhat alarmed.
"Michelle says they are throwing in the towel!"
"Why?
"She says Will and Derek are so worried about their Momma's truck that they can't focus on anything else. They are trying to rent a U-haul so they can tow it home!"
"Tell her we have all next weekend to worry about getting the truck fixed, he just needs to unload his and get it to the track! They can even go back and get it tonight after tech if they want to!"
She texted away for a while longer, then looked at me and smiled, "They won't listen to her, so she just gave me Derek's number so I can call him direct!
"Hey, Listen to Me!" I heard her say into the phone, "Tape up your [censored], put on your big boy pants, unload your truck and drive it to Cordova!" "This is Drag Week. Stuff breaks, and we all say 'Aw,Crap!', then we put our heads together and we find a solution to keep going! You can't just quit every time you have a problem!"
A couple of minutes later she sat the phone down and laughed.
"Well?" I asked.
"They are in front of a shop right now, and they are going to ask the owner if they can park the truck and trailer there until next weekend!"
"You were pretty rough on the little guy".
"Sometimes you just have to crack the whip Dad, c-mon, I learned that one straight from you!"

Sunday 9/10 Registration Day
Cordova Dragway sits within shouting distance of the Mississippi River, and appears to be a grass covered, rolling hills, State Park that just happens to have a drag strip on it. We attended our first Hot Rod Drag Week there in 2006. At that event there were 119 entries, and when we rolled in around noon, the tech line had four cars in front of us. We spent four of our six days at Cordova Dragway during "Rain Week" 2006, and came to love the place for it's rustic charm. We returned to the facility on Thursday of Drag Week 2015, with 248 cars seeing the track that day, and easily ten times the number of spectators. Threat of rain had many of those leaving after the first run, so when we arrived, we pulled into a prime spot on the grass next to the track, unloaded, and had a great time.

When they announced Cordova as the starting track for 2017...we had reservations, the host track needs to be a little larger these days than the other three because you have to have room to impound all the rigs, room to tech all the cars, and this would be the first year the entry list was raised to 400 cars. Another thing to consider, that's 400 cars broken down into only two groups for lane calls, so it's not like a typical big race where they call each group to the lanes independently, and might have ten different classes.

Rachael and I drove up to the gate at 8:45 AM, we were greeted by a smiling face, who had us sign the waiver sheet then instructed us to turn left at the end of this road and enter the pits. At that moment we realized that the people who had arrived before us had turned our peaceful little State Park into a full on, urban downtown, rush hour traffic gridlock. Through lack of planning by the the organizers, selfish inconsiderate parking by the participants, and a place teeming with spectators, we had no way to reach the pits in the back of the property, and park.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll try an illustration. Below is Cordova Dragway, The red area was the promised land, where everyone on the property could have pitted. The yellow encircled area is where they were teching cars and the yellow line is where the cars were lining up for tech, two abreast, completely blocking any ingress or egress to the outer pit areas. Now, I can be just as nice and polite as the next fellow, but when put in situations where I'm dealing with inept, inconsiderate people on a large scale, I tend to boil things down to a common denominator, which usually involves proving I can be a bigger jerk than they are. It makes me very angry when I succumb to that side of my personality, so at that point I'm a disgruntled, fired up jerk. The orange line represents the path I chose to get to my pit spot. Were we driving through other people's pit spots? Yes, yes we were. Were there confrontations and words exchanged? Yes, there was. When we came up to the road where everyone had their cars in line for tech, I motioned that I needed to get through, but I was met with shrugs to indicate the line wasn't moving. When I gunned the diesel engine and pulled up to within a few inches of the nearest cars quarter, and the car behind that one's front fender, then jumped out and yelled that we needed to get to a pit spot, I thought I was going to have a fight on my hands. The nearest participants sprang into action and pushed enough cars forward and backward to allow us to get through, and I thought "I must've put the fear into them", but when I turned to get back into the truck I realized 5 other rigs had followed my improbable path through the grass.

As Billy said the tech line was horrible... worst place/routing possible to get through. In this photo tech is at the back of the staging lanes, goes around the main pit roads, and almost ends up back at the staging lanes... to say it was a cluster F#%$ is an understatement.

As if we were playing a game of where's Waldo, I quickly picked out our pits in Jeff's picture. It was taken in the short time between when we pitted and starting unloading and before the brothers started to arrive. We spread things out to reserve spots for them between us and the Gould Brothers,(one of them lives in Dad's home town) and their 60 Chevy Biscayne.

Where's Waldo? Look for the PentaStar.

Yeah, I got there early and watched the line grow and grow. It was a mess, but it was fun to talk to old friends, and meet new ones.

Like much of Drag Week, Sunday Registration finds many of the participants on different planes, some are completely relaxed and well rested, simply hanging out with their gleaming machines, passing the time as Squirrel put it, "talking to old friends, and meeting new ones". The opposite end of that spectrum features guys like our own Flying Finn, who was pushing his wounded C-body through the lanes sans one cylinder head, or HOTROD.com contributor PJ Nadeau, whose 60 falcon had turbo parts scattered everywhere in front of it. Perhaps the extreme of that group battling, scratching, and clawing to make every single second count was Nick Plewniak, who has cemented himself into Drag Week infamy with his previous efforts in his mid engined twin turbo'd BBC powered S-10 called the "Stretchy Truck". This year we had all watched the internet with horror as he converted a derelict 30 Plymouth Sedan into the newest home for his TT BBC, on the strength of his own fabricating skills, and imagination. He wasn't going to make it, it was clear to all of us watching, but he refused to give up on the car, and we refused to give up on him, cheering him on as he battled sleep deprivation and parts hang-ups while exchanging internet barbs with Harry Haig and his Aussie Chevelle. Nick made the trek from western New York to Cordova Dragway despite having a car only about 80 percent done and never fired or driven!

I had been in contact with the rest of our entourage, and they were getting close, but I made my way to the end of the line with the Valiant before they arrived.

When I first walked back to our pit space, it appeared to me that our group was just going to wrench on their cars until the 1 pm deadline to get in the tech line. To everyone's credit however, they had all the vehicles in line less than an hour after arrival. The trailer Boone had pulled in prior years behind the Barnyard Viper, looked positively huge when perched upon the hitch of the Ruster.
"You think it can handle it?" I asked him as we walked around in the line.
"I think these are heavier Super Stock springs under this than what is under the Barnyard", Boone shrugged, "so it shouldn't be a problem!"
"What are you going to do for a bumper to be legal for the class?"
"We'll install the fiberglass one that we never had time to put on last year", Boone smiled. "Once we decided we weren't bringing the trailer last year, it was just easier to bolt the stock one back on, but the receiver actually sticks through the bumper so we will get the 'glass one on tonight."
"Why did you guys have to push Michelle's Duster away from the trailer earlier?"
"When they were loading it on the trailer to leave yesterday, they said it made a popping sound and lost reverse", Boone shook his head, "I brought enough stuff to drop the pan and have a look, but I'm not pulling it out, so...we will see."

"Drag Week is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you're gonna get!"

Paraphrasing this famous movie line is very appropriate on many levels. The entry list information is released two weeks before the event, but it is based upon racer supplied documents that they hastily filled out to preregister in six minutes back in March. Throw in the fact that there is almost always a twenty percent no-show rate, and truly, you have no idea what cars are going to line up Monday morning for the first official runs of the event. Then you have the "wait list" crowd, who bravely showed up ready to participate, despite not having a guaranteed entry. In the twelve previous editions of Drag Week, not one entry has been turned away, but many of us thought this might be the year.

Another level at which the quote rings true is Tech. Every year brings new challenges and different nuances to the all day affair. Race director Lonnie Grimm had taken to the "Drag Weekers" Facebook page to tell us it was going to be "awesome" this time, and he thought it would go much better. I didn't know whether to feel good or bad with that revelation.

I was slowly moving up in the line, lost in my own thoughts when the guys in and around the big Impala next to me started talking about stack injected cars.
"I think the red Nova is the only one this year", the driver commented.
"Well I saw that Gremlin come in...", one of the guys standing between our cars started.
"Yeah, he had something sticking way out of the hood, it may have been injected", the passenger agreed.
"No, that idiot went from a single four to twin Dominators on a tunnel ram", I jumped in before I even realized I hadn't been part of the conversation. "So they stuck out of the hood quite far already, then he added velocity stacks with breathers above that...and on Dominators they don't neck down so it just looks like two periscopes sticking out of the hood, looks stupid if you ask me!"
The five of them looked at me with mouths open in stunned silence for a second before the passenger asked the money question. "Do you know the guy?"
"Yeah, he's my little brother," I replied
That response was met with a wall of raucous, uncontrollable laughter from the entire group. Finally when they had almost regained composure, one of the group repeated the line, "He's my little brother", and the laughter burst out again. I laughed along with them, but the humor was lost on me...sometimes you just don't know what material is going to work!

Primal Scream made the MoparBilly thread now we feel famous!!

I was looking at Facebook on my phone, when one of our fellow longtime DW participants posted, "I just got popped for not having a trans shield or blanket, so now I'm limited to eleven flat!" He went on to complain that he didn't know that was a rule until 9.99, and how worried he was that he wouldn't make the quick 32 in SME if he had to slow the car down. I jumped out of the Valiant to warn Dale and his group. I knew Darren and Michelle didn't have one, and I doubted that Rick had time to consider it when he was slamming his Dart together in seven days. I didn't know if any of them would run in the tens, but I knew they wanted to, so they needed to be prepared to lie if questioned! Once I returned to my car, and moved it up in the line, I decided to go up to the front of tech to see what was different this year. In years past, we had dedicated lines, and the tech officials took each car as it came to them. So if a car required extra attention the line stopped moving. In 2017 the amount of NHRA Tech officials had doubled from two to four, and the cars were being brought into a triage area twenty or thirty at a time. This allowed one official to stay with a car that needed a cert or something while the other three could quickly work through the other cars without holding everyone up. It was definitely an improvement, but I wouldn't call it "awesome" like Lonnie had. It was kinda like when your Dentist tells you about an "awesome" new procedure to remove teeth, I mean you are still getting a tooth pulled regardless, so the procedure isn't your primary concern! I was much more relaxed about tech this year myself, I had my own gloves and neck collar, and the temporary license I had to run 9.99 and quicker even had my own name on it! If they didn't notice the rubber valve stems in my front wheels, I shouldn't have any problems passing!

The Drag Week Family Tree branches out every year it seems. One person goes nearly every year, brings his buddies as co-pilots, and soon they show up with their own rides to participate. Our own Ross Dudley has brought his 68 Road Runner from Canada every year since 2006, and this year he had two of his cohorts follow him across the border with a pair of nice A-bodies. Ron Maguire brought a beautiful 69 Dart with a mild small block, while Frank Perkins made his debut with a wild 69 Valiant for SSBBNA. It was clear that they had used all of Ross' experience to their advantage as both cars looked more than prepared for the trip ahead. While they worked their way through tech, Ross sat around and relaxed, until the "wait list" group got called up. In the photo below he's passing the time with fellow long time drag weeker and "wait list participant", Californian Rich Pedraza. Considering how far this pair had traveled, I sure hoped everyone made it into the show!

Clark Strong and his pro touring style 69 Road Runner was the last no-bar car to qualify for the SME Quick 32, qualifying 31st on the strength of an 11.501 on the last day in 2015. He didn't attend in 2016, but we noticed the 2017 entry list showed him in a Valiant, so we figured he didn't want to put a bar in the 69. We were surprised to see him show up with exactly that however, and not only a bar, but a decidedly more drag freindly feel to the yellow Plymouth. We in the Gebhart clan definitely approved.

As if I didn't have enough trouble keeping the yellow 68 and 69 of Ross and Clark separate, Lee Brooks debuted his yellow Satellite this year. The Yellow is screaming on his B-body however, and the big Plymouth on the quarter distinguishes his quickly from the rest.

1st: Clark's 69 in 2015
2nd: Clark's 69 in 2017
3rd: Ross' 68
4th: Lee's 69 Satellite

I could try to explain these pics, but it's best just to say this: For those 6 to 10 hours you spend in the Hot Rod Drag Week Tech and Registration line, the first liar has absolutely no chance!

Isn't that true any time two different brand of hot rod or race car owners get together

The Godfather, the OG of Plum Crazy Plymouths on Drag Week, Radar Watkins' 70 Plymouth Fury was back for a 6th Drag Week. This is the first appearance of the big block NA powered machine in DW competition since 2011.

We can be thankful that due to the pioneering efforts of Radar and the Fury as early as Drag Week 2006, Marty Gorman's (67autocross,Moparts) Manitoba based, small block NA powered 72 Plum Crazy Valiant could make it through tech without people saying, "We let Purple Plymouths do this?"

Got a chance to talk with Clark and his wife on Monday. Very nice people, and they have driven that Road Runner EVERYWHERE. I couldn't believe the Road trips that car has been on, and places it's been. Tech day might be a long drawn out process, but man is it fun being able to relax, and hang out with some of the greatest people you could ever meet.

In the picture with Squirrel, you have 5 Moparts members. Billy, Squirrel, KSJ, HEMI Joel, and myself. I'm laughing at one of Billy's tales about Dale and a garbage can I think...?

Carry on Billy!

Was a good time talking with you and your family, thanks for all the support and help
Hopefully next dragweek I will have more time to BS.

Also get the pic when I'm not blocking the pretty girl

There were plenty of pretty girls at Drag Week 2017...and a large number of them were far more concerned with getting their cars through registration than they were about what they looked like. Rookies Michelle and Kim ended up with their Plymouths in tandem through the process. Michelle quickly pulled the brand new seat belts out of the passenger's side of her Duster for another participant who was in danger of failing tech because of expired belts. The Spirit of Drag Week is contagious!

Cheryl Kaiser was looking forward to her second attempt at Drag Week, competing in the Hot Rod class with the 29 Ford pick up.

I was not planning on going to DW at all til I saw that Cordova was the starting point.My first year was 07 and started there.My son went all week in 2011 in my Roadrunner.Decided Id go to the start.My son (in the Slayer shirt) said hed go.Glad he came along.I worked Tuesday,Wednesday and Thursday.Got home from work Thursday and looked at the results.Wife asked how everyone was doing.I updated her.She said Joe Barry is leading his class? Yep.She told me to call work and ask if they really needed me Friday.They didnt so I came back for the end of DW.LOL.Made to many great friends to not at least show up for a day or two.

The shadows were drifting long in the afternoon before we cleared tech and jumped in line for our credentials. We had told the right lies, crossed the "T"s, dotted the "I"s and pressed twenties into the proper palms to get our whole group through with the exception of one.

Rick and Sharma finally had the chance to present their 71 Dart along with the other people on the wait list. If it came to taking the cars earliest on the list they would be in trouble as they had only decided to come a week earlier. From our vantage point, it appeared discouraging. We couldn't believe how many cars pulled into the empty lanes when the final call went out.

The actual number turned out to be a whopping 38 cars who entered after the main group of preregistered entries. It's not a stat Boone and I have ever kept, but my recollection would be thirteen tops in the past!

We would find out the next morning in the driver's meeting that the grand total was 387 through tech, so HOT ROD kept the record of not turning anyone away from a full field for another year, but it would also mean we'd start Monday with 31 more cars than DW 16, and 80 more than in 14 and 15.

That was awesome of Michelle helping with the seat belt situation. I thought the guy was in trouble, just about everyone (including us) has a expired passenger belt.

I was a little concerned about taking the Valiant to drag week after it had just rolled out of Canada’s finest Mopar restoration shop after an extensive 5 figure make over. Luckily it made out through without a scratch....

With arrival and registration out of the way, the Sunday afternoon hours see everyone's focus splinter into different factions. One group can't wait to roll into the lanes as quickly as possible for the Test and Tune session. We've taken advantage of it in the past, when the starting track was Tulsa, but usually the long Saturday night drive precludes us from the desire to take part. An inordinate amount of breakage is also associated with that session, so for me, it carries the same kind of foreboding as, "the groom isn't supposed to see the bride in her wedding dress before the wedding"! I mean, why test fate?

Others are focused squarely on the car, still having major work that needs to be finished before their entry is ready to make a representative pass, let alone roll down the highway towards Tuesday's destination. This seemed to be the mindset of the majority of our group.

Rachael and I were more mindful of the process which continues to catch people off guard. The Driver's meeting is Mandatory at 8AM Monday, and thirty minutes after that, all support rigs must be in impound, away from the cars and equipment that will be making the trip. We were basically pitted in the designated impound area, so like in 2013 at Bowling Green, we would be moving our cars and stuff to another location, instead of driving the trucks and trailers away to another part of the pits. Experience has taught us that the former requires more time to execute than the latter.

For what seemed like the tenth time on this adventure, we pulled all the stuff out of the 1 ton and started sorting through it on the trailer. We were shuttling some of the stuff directly to the interior of the Valiant, but once the sun was truly gone, I began to get frustrated with trying to pick through everything by flashlight.

I looked at my brothers, all moving around like zombies with flashlights, and decided that we would all be better served to get some sleep, and try to be back out to the track for first light. Convincing them wasn't hard, getting organized to make the trip was a little more difficult. Finally we decided to load everyone in my truck instead of Dale's because it would take too long to clean his out and secure everything once at the Motel. Darren and Dale stayed behind to keep wrenching, but Boone, Dad and I squeezed into the front of the '93, while Rachael, little Billy, and Dylan rode on the bed under the shell.

The Super 8 I had booked for Sunday night was in Clinton IA., according to Travelocity it was twelve miles to the north of the track, just across the Mississippi river. Travelocity didn't mention the pungent order from the wet corn processing plant next door however, or the large working rail yard that serviced the plant. The McDonald's was within walking distance and we were darn tired, so a meal, a hot shower, and a pillow more than took care of my needs.

Pics:A bodies and the color of money.
Rick and Sharma's 71 Dart, and it's near twin, the 71 Swinger of Cody Walker.
Paul Cornman's 71 Demon was back after a one year hiatus.
Cory Pant was back for a second go in his small block 74 Duster.

That is a whole lot of GREEN!

Monday 9/11 Day 1 Cordova Dragway
The nervous energy, animated conversation, laughter, and anticipation is the same whether you are standing in the next to last starting corral of a huge city Marathon or sitting in the bleachers of the Driver's meeting for Hot Rod Drag Week. In both cases, you find yourself aware of the fact that some of the people near you in this sea of boundless enthusiasm, are about to set personal bests, or meet a goal that they've aspired to for a long time, while others will either not finish at all, or will be faced with disappointing results.

The other parallel is the certainty that at some point the MC is going to ask the question, "how many first-timers do we have with us today?" The hands shoot up and the crowd cheers, and in both cases, I'm always surprised that it seems near half of the people in the crowd. The hard numbers are actually very close to that, Drag Week on average has 46% new participants every year.

"Where's Rachael?" Boone asked from my left elbow.
"She's still moving stuff to our pit area, and sorting through everything. She said she didn't need to listen in since she's heard it before and she's just a trunk monkey this year."
"Sounded like she was scolding you this morning while you were adding tools to my trailer", he commented.
"Every time I pulled something out of the truck and told her to add it to the go pile, she would put her hand on her hips and explain to me that we only had one car this year, and it is small!"
"She's probably right, you know...you're used to loading up the Belvedere with all your spare parts, packing up this evening might get interesting!
"Fair point, but the Ruster Duster has Super Stock springs, so I'll just load you up!"

Great job of capturing the vibe Billy.

Graphics anyone? Larry Dixon couldn't hide in a plain white Chevy II at Drag Week 2016, so he decided to emulate the scheme of Da Grump for 2017. Leslie Robertson's 40 Willy's completely fooled me though, it wasn't until I came home and looked at pictures that I realized it was the same car from 2016! The Willy's also improved a half second and nine mph in 2017.

The loudest cheers in the driver's meeting came when it was announced that a Google maps link would be provided with our route sheets. For teams like Scott and Kim Abbott, or Squirrel and Dan DePew, who carry around Rand McNally Road Atlas' with slide rules, or guys like Boone and I who aren't as smart as our phones, that didn't seem like such a big deal, but everyone else seemed pleased.

After the microphone was handed around by ten different people, it finally settled into the hands of Brian Lohnes, master orator, who felt the meeting needed to end with a moment of silence, both in remembrance of 9/11, and to honor our friends Michael Wenzler and Monte Smith, who we had lost in the year since our last Drag Week adventure.

"I didn't even remember it was 9/11 today", Boone shook his head as we walked in the grass back towards our pits. "Did you tell Rachael happy birthday this morning?"
"Well, she slammed the passenger door on the Valiant, and then when she went to open it later, she pushed down instead of pulling up, so she locked it. I couldn't open it from the outside, so I yelled at her for abusing a fifty year old car and breaking the door mechanism. Then when I figured out that it was just locked, I apologized and told her happy birthday..."
"I bet THAT went over well, Boone laughed.
"She told me I was a big fat jerk, and the birthday salutations were null and void because I had already yelled at her!"
"Way to go old man", Dale added, a step behind us, "If Rachael ain't happy, none of us are going to be happy!"

I had chosen a pit spot for our cars just on the other side of the paved return road, so we wouldn't have to haul our stuff very far, but the brothers all vetoed that plan, because they wanted to pit next to the track, so they could see the scoreboards and watch everyone run while they were wrenching on their junk. Great idea, but about two football fields away from our rigs. The Valiant, both Dusters, and the Charger were already re-located, and everyone seemed to be using Derek's Chevy as a mule to haul stuff back and forth. That left Dale's Gremlin, and Rick's Dart.

We were down to twenty minutes left before impound would be closed when I walked over to see what Rick and Sharma were doing. They still seemed to be working out of their enclosed trailer like they would at any race.
"Guys, you need to get the car over to the other spot!"
"Yeah, we know", Rick looked around, "I guess we'll just get the rest of our stuff organized before we leave this afternoon."
"No, no no", I emphasized, "The truck and trailer are off limits until the event is over on Friday, or you are DQed!"
I could see panic in both of their eyes as the realization sat in. "So we have twenty minutes to get every thing we need?"
"Yeah, to the other side of that return road, after that this side is off limits to anyone still in the event!"

Sixteen minutes after the meeting ended, the first two cars staged to open the official racing. The CBK team trio of John Dodson (blue 80 Malibu), Jason Doisher (tan Mercury Marquis wagon), and James Karger (white "lstuners.com" fox notch) were the first in line. Realizing that they needed multiple passes to run as close to 8.500 is one thing, but how did they manage to coordinate being first in the lanes? We were still trying to get our pits in order, and none of us were even remotely ready to race.

Corey Pant and his 74 Duster came up 3 sets later, but he spun the tires hard at the hit, and an 11.10 wasn't going to work for him, so he would be back in line. A couple of pairs later Mark Gissendaner stood his 40 Chevy B-Gas "Gizzo Gasser" on the rear bumper for the first "Oh, wow" from Brian Lohnes of Drag Week 2017. Ten minutes in and Scott Hendrix's 70 Duster Twister was the first Mopar to toss down a good number and be ready to hit the road. His 10.65-124.6 in Pro Street NA was two tenths quicker than his only pass of DW16.

Hot Rod Drag Week 2017 was off to an awesome start, with 38 cars down the track in the first twenty minutes before they took five to drag the first 60 feet.

Rachael and I dropped the exhaust off the Valiant, let the air out of the rear tires, backed the timing down, and bolted a fresh nitrous bottle in. Then I grabbed an empty fuel jug and went off in search of the Rockett brand fuel truck. I bought 4 gallons of 114 and headed back to our pit. Even though the first session was going remarkably smooth, getting sent back to the pits at the end of the first session last year still had me leery, and I was determined to just wait for the all-run session to head to the lanes.

Ten, fifteen, twenty more sets of cars ripped down the track with nary a problem. Radar Watson would accept his initial hit of 12.31-111, and the big Fury was packing up for the trip to St. Louis. Squirrel would also be happy with the A/FX Chevy II's 10.24-131, but I knew that Dan and he would likely stick around to help Brian Kohlmann with his 31 Chrysler A/Fuel Altered.

Mark Hill's interesting little low deck powered NA 65 Barracuda was the 70th car down the Cordova pavement to start Drag Week 2017. The stumble at the hit was both audible, and visible when the score board showed an 11.68 at 126.2. With that mph, it was clear the orange early A had left a half second on the table but there is a huge fear for rookies of getting behind on day one, so he accepted the pass and started loading up for the drive.

Rick Callahan was competing in his 11th Hot Rod Drag Week, and after four years of Hemi powered F.A.S.T. style B-Bodies, he was back in the maroon 68 Road Runner that he brought from 2007 to 2012. He had switched the wedge car from Weld wheels to stock steel wheels and dog dish caps, but it apparently didn't slow the car down as his opening 11.42-118.9 was quicker than he could turn in without a roll bar.

Ross Dudley made his first run count in his 68 Runner, with an 11.75-112, now he would just have to wait for his running mates to get their first taste of DW action before he could start the drive. With 98 cars already collecting time slips in the first 40 minutes of track time, we couldn't have asked for a better start to the week!

Link to Marks Barracuda build.He had a blast and said he'd be back next year with some minor changes to the car. https://www.bangshift.com/forum/forum/ba...ar-65-barracuda

I poured two gallons of the fuel into the Valiant, and walked the remaining over to the Ruster for Boone. He was changing plugs, and looked up as I peered under the hood.
"Seems to be going pretty smooth out there", he commented.
"Yeah, Monday's first session of class cars has been such a disaster the last few years, I was gun shy to head up", I admitted.
"Well, we spent so much time in line yesterday that you kinda get staging lane fatigue," He laughed.
I turned back to look at the starting line in time to see the green Demon coming out of the burnout.
Dale must've been paying attention too because he walked over from working on the Gremlin. "That is Cornman right? He missed last year."
"Sure did", Boone looked up, "Won Street Race Small Block NA in 2014, finished 3rd in 2015 even though he picked up two tenths in average, then took 2016 off to build a new engine, so he could be competitive again in 2017! Those NA classes have just gone crazy!
"Yeah, and then you guys talk me into trying Modified NA, and Dyer shows up with the Nova again", Dale shook his head, "I should be spraying into the deep eights this year!"
"Dyer's entry said he was putting his stuff in a fox body and switching to Pro Street this year", I shrugged, "Then I found an old thread on a drag racing forum where he was talking about building exactly that, so I figured that was confirmation!"
"Because everything you read on the internet is true", Boone laughed.
"You mean like those Moparbilly drag week stories?" Darren's timing was impeccable as he jabbed me in the ribs with a wrench, "based on one man's skewed perspective of true events should probably be the disclaimer on every one of them!"

The small block Mopar screamed off the starting line with the front end hanging in the air, it sounded fantastic as the 71 flew by us at the thousand foot mark, and 9.351-143.92 flashed up on the board. A few pairs later Randy Heinselmann rolled through the water with his Plum Crazy Hemi AAR Cuda (I know, I know). His run was just as impressive as Paul's Demon, and the E-body shut the clocks off with a 9.304-144.97.
Darren let out a low whistle.
"You said it brother", Dale shook his head and his shoulders slumped, "We better load our junk and head back to Oklahoma before we embarrass ourselves!"
"Naw, then who would provide big brother with comedic material?"
"Fair point, Boone", Darren agreed.

As usual Billy great read. Paul Cornman's Demon is impressive to say the least. He slowed down some later in the week, I am hoping you have that story.

I know he added Brett Miller W-9 heads and manifold. I would be interested to see if you knew of any other changes.

Keep up the good work!
Bill

Bill are you going to have Brett do you extra set of heads?

I thought I heard W-8, so I was assuming new engine, but no, I didn't get the scoop as he was on the first shift all week, and we weren't! Was hoping Clark got all the info on it Tuesday at St. Louis.

Billy,
I was with Clark at St. Louis, while I am pretty sure they were W9s, I really made an assumption as much as an inspection. However saying that I think W8's would have jumped out at me cause they do look a little different than the W9s. I wanted to ask Paul a thousand questions but he was pretty busy at the time we dropped by.

Jim:
Thinking about it, he sure builds some fast stuff, although mostly big CI. If we build an ultimate DW motor I would use his stuff for sure.

Already looking forward to DW 2018!

Bill

118 of the 256 Class cars had their first runs of Drag Week 2017 done when John Dodson and Jason Doisher, who had kicked things off, brought their rides into the water for a second run. The fact that they made it back around that quick made me want to kick myself for making the decision to wait! So far this had easily been the cleanest, trouble free first session in the thirteen event history of Drag Week. Doisher's 8.509 out of his Mercury wagon meant he had the number he was looking for, and wouldn't be back for a third.

Paul Castiglione was up next in his stroker 383 powered 72 Challenger, and ran a nice 10.77-123 to start out his week. Freiburger announced that since Drag Week was "Powered by Dodge" for 2017, the Dodge social media team had chosen to follow Paul's E-body and report on his progress all week! Corey Pant brought his 74 Duster back around to try and better his first tire spinning effort, and got the opportunity to outrun 3 time NHRA Champion Top Fuel driver Larry Dixon. His 10.62-126 got the job done against the 66 Nova, and it was two tenths quicker than any pass he turned in last year so I was sure he'd be happy with that.

"Do you think his grand kids are going to get tired of that story about how grandpa whipped Larry Dixon on Drag Week 2017?" Rachael asked me as she handed me a cold drink.
"I guess it depends on how many different ways he tells it", I chuckled.

Boone and I helped Michelle and Will push the Purple Duster back onto the return road so they could get to the lanes for their first attempt. While Boone was right there, I had him help check the trans fluid in the Valiant, and we brought it up to the full mark. This would be Drag Week #3 since we rebuilt the 904 and I didn't want to give it any excuse to leave me stranded.

Marty Gorman's impeccably worn 72 Valiant ran 12.53-110 with the stock stroke small block being capably handled by driver Fake Billy, the engine builder.

"Is that name on the door a shot at you?" Rachael had asked me during tech the day before.
"My dear daughter", I explained to her at the time, "Probably not, but always assume the Canadians are making fun of you, until it's 100 percent proven otherwise. If the teasing gets worse the more you act offended, that means they like you!"

Two pairs later Scott Abbott made the long awaited debut of his 67 Belvedere with the 588 millennium headed Hemi aboard. Considering he had zero time on the car, the 12.92-105 checkout pass was likely a prudent plan, but I knew he'd be back for more before the day was done. The same could be said for Terry Keifer, who's Fire Amber 67 Plymouth Barracuda rolled a fourteen flat to start their third Drag Week. If you blow up the bottom picture you can tell it's of Terry's slow pass because the look on his face is one of utter disgust.

Imagine owning a Mopar and being Canadian... the flack we get is relentless.

It can't be for owning a Mopar.

Damn it.. lol

Fake Billy would never make fun of Real Billy ......that would not be very Canadian

We were 150 passes into Drag Week 2017's first session, and with an hour and ten minutes in the books the prevailing narrative was just how clean the event had started out, and the sheer volume of mid eight second runs we'd seen.
At this point, the anticipated heavy hitters started rolling around the corner and into the water, and there was a feeling that the next 10 or 15 sets down the Cordova Dragway tarmac would set in motion the story lines that would shape and define this edition of the event.

Magnus Frost and the boys from Sweden were up next with the 73 Opal Ascona which they'd shipped over last year. The 6 time Stockholm Open street race winners had placed third in Unlimited in DW16, and ran a best of 8.01-169, despite hurting a piston early in the week. You don't accomplish the kinds of things they have with this car unless you are driven, focused and dedicated, and they came to America for a seven second pass. So they left the car behind, had the big inch nitrous BBC repaired stateside, and flew back for another attempt on Drag Week 2017. Their efforts were rewarded with an opening shot of 7.89-172!

Two pairs later Janne brought the flying Finn's 67 Plymouth VIP into the water. Considering the condition I'd seen the engine in the day before I had no idea what to expect. I had been following their Facebook page on my phone, and even though I couldn't understand the conversations in all he videos, it was quite clear they'd been on an amazing adventure just to arrive at this very point in time. The big blue behemoth left extremely hard and seemed to make a clean pull all the way down, so I couldn't help but give a fist pump and a "yes" when the 8.08-160 lit up on the board.

An 8 second wounded C-body. Those guys are my heroes.

I believe a previous incarnation of that car has done high 7's

Kevin

"Lonnie is telling us in the tower that there are forty-five minutes left in this first session of class cars", Brian Lohnes' voice boomed over the PA.
Dale had fired the Gremlin, played with the carb linkage a bit, then walked over to me after putting his hood back on.
"I'm going to put mine in line", he explained, pointing towards the staging area. What about you, is the Valiant ready?
"Yeah, but I was seriously just going to wait for the second session", I shrugged.
"They said in the driver's meeting that they weren't going to turn us around, so why not take it up now?"
"I just don't want to get stuck in line and have to sit there through the entire Street Machine Eliminator session", I complained.
"Why not?" Dale threw his hands up, "when they shut off the lanes for class cars, you walk up and sit in the bleachers to watch SME".
"Yeah, I suppose", I agreed.
"If you leave the Valiant sitting here, you're going to walk down to the bleachers or stand here and watch SME, so where the Valiant is parked at the time has no bearing on what you're going to do for that hour or hour and a half!"
"I see your point, but you go ahead, and I'll be in the lanes shortly".
"When is the last time you made a nitrous pass in that car?" He continued to badger me.
"Uh, December...basically", I colored a bit.
"Then you better plan on making two today, because the first one will be you learning how to drive it all over again!" He slapped my back, laughed through a huge smile then walked back towards the Gremlin.
"Your fire suit pants make you look fat!" I retorted at his back.
"Really Dad?" Rachael shook her head, "that's the bast comeback you had?"

Matt Blasco and the Dirty Drag Week Dart were rolling through a good burnout, so my attention went back to the track, and I walked up next to Boone.
"Glenn Hunter just went 7.504 at 186, the quickest pass in the history of the Pro Street Power adder class, coming off his win from last year and a top three finish!"
"And I suppose you're wondering if Matt can hang with that?"
"I'm thinking Matt just wants to get through the week without pulling the trans out at this point", Boone laughed.

The Dart belched soot for the first 60ft. as it squatted over the huge rear tires while gingerly dangling the fronts a few inches in the air. The rest of the pass looked near perfect and the right lane scoreboard lit up with a 7.76-183!

"A quarter of a second down on day 1?"
"It's a long week, and he's just six hundredths off his Drag Week best", Boone shrugged, "I think I'd call it good and roll out if I was him!"
I took a deep breath as I realized the Monte Smith Performance 66 'Vette of David Schroeder was in the water prepared to follow in Matt's tracks down the right lane.

As Schroeder completed the burnout, Brian Lohnes was explaining the crash that ended the Vette's DW16 bid on day one, and my mind flashed back to last year's story.

I hadn't wrote about the incident until February 12th 2017, when I posted the iconic picture of Monte surveying the damage with crossed arms, while Schroeder's cousin and co-pilot John Ens leaned against the wall behind the car:




Monte responded to my post less than twenty-four hours later with the following on February 13th:




Then, less than a month later, Monte was gone, and I, like so many other racers across the United States was left wishing for one more bench racing session at the track or one more exchange on Moparts...I still miss him.

I had a knot in my throat already just listening to Lohnes and Freiburger talking about Monte and the Vette as Schroeder purged the nitrous and turned on the stage bulbs. The Vette left as hard and as clean as I've ever seen and Lohnes' voice rose perceptively as he proclaimed "Shcroeder's going in the sixes" just by translating the early numbers on his computer screen.
"He is four twenty-eight to the eighth mile, here it comes kids...six fifty-seven seven, two hundred seventeen!" The emotion and excitement in Lohnes' voice was carried perfectly over the PA as it rose in volume and pitch to a crescendo when he belted out the MPH numbers. The fact that he has quickly became the most sought after announcer in motorsports is easy to understand when you listen to him work the mic on Drag Week.

I let out a loud yell and a fist pump when the numbers hit the board, but knowing I couldn't control my emotions, I growled at Boone that I was going to the bathroom and walked off before he and Rachael could see me wiping my eyes.

"If only Monte could see that", Freiburger added as Lohnes was attempting to set up the next pair.
"Yeah, well, somewhere I can guarantee you, somewhere Monte is smiling...with red shoes on!" Lohnes retorted, before gathering himself for a second and moving on.
I had made it to the empty bathroom during that exchange, and allowed myself to sob and let all the emotions of the moment escape me. I felt like an idiot for letting a single pass down the drag strip turn me into a tub of blubbering goo, but I was reminded of the Jim Valvano qoute about laughing, thinking, and having your emotions move you to tears.
"It's been a heck of a day already, Jimmy V!" I thought to myself, "I think you and Monte would both approve."
I walked out of the bathroom and headed back to our pit, and when I looked at Boone and Rachael still standing in front of the Valiant, I thought to myself again, "There is no where else on this planet I'd rather be right now, than right here".

Wow, that was some of your best work Billy.

Bill

Two pairs later Dan and Squirrel helped push Brian Kohlmann's AA/FA into the water. I had seen a photo of Brian's coupe when he wrecked it at the Meltdowns a couple of months earlier, and I was convinced the little green beast was done, so just presenting it at the starting line of Drag Week 2017 was a win in my book. When the reverser engaged and Brian backed up to stage he had already exceeded what he accomplished at Drag Week 2016. The 354 FirePower sounded sweet as the small tire fueler lunged off the line with 1.24 sixty, but it was up on the tire and skating around by two hundred feet out. Brian pedaled it once and tried to keep it planted, but the 31 Chrysler was still pretty skittish, so Brian kicked the Lenco out of gear at around five hundred feet and coasted through from there. The 11.00-81 on the board wasn't very impressive, but Lohnes quickly explained that the eighth mile ET was 5.89 at only 96, so the power was definitely there.

Tom Bailey was up next with the Drag Week 2015 winning Project Sick Seconds 2.0 which had done some wall surfing of it's own lately, so the Pro Mod 69 Camaro was wearing a white wrap instead of it's signature silver paint. I have been of fan of Bailey and openly rooted for him when he finally won with the original Project Sick Seconds in 2013, but at this moment he was the only real threat to run quicker than Schroeder, so I wasn't in his corner. The 1.04 sixty was nice, but he had to pedal once shortly after that, then once more before the eighth and the time lit up as 6.794-204.
"I'm happy with that number", I beamed at Rachael.
"Not sure he will be", she quipped back.

Yes w9 top end and "598" Mopar intake that I did.
I did all of the valve train also.

Was nervous about valve train life ( first time had to make cam go over 1000mi😮)
Over 1200miles and did not even have to adjust a rocker motor is seeing 8500 rpm+on the pass.

Set class record and lost the deal due to carb struggles and converter not matched to the new engine.

Hope to back next year and show what car really has in it.

Paul worked his butt off to get this done big thanks go out to him and his Son for busting hump.

BIlly great writing again. I suspect you thought more than twice about hanging you emotions out here for all to see, and telling us all that you cried at the track. But that's the kind of stuff that makes it real and makes your story great.

I doubt any of us will tell you about what we did when we read it

Not me! Did seem to cause some allergy issues...

Brett,
Thanks for the update

Good good job on Paul's stuff as usual. He keeps getting faster and faster, but so do the others. Hope he can win it this year.

Bill

I had them also. Thought that went away in the winter months.

To this point, Drag Week 2017 was on an unprecedented pace with 170 passes completed in an hour and twenty minutes. Then the fuel altered and pro mod were ran as singles, followed by Gavin Lusk doing some pogo stick, two wheel stands in the first 100 feet action with his Cougar, so he coasted down and the track was checked. Two pairs later the Aussie Falcon Ute with the turbo LS spit oil on the track and a fifteen minute clean up was required. The end result was ten cars with time slips over the next twenty-five minutes which left us openly wandering how long Lonnie Grimm would extend the session before going to the Street Machine Eliminator class.

In the middle of that Michelle made her first attempt in the purple Duster which the guys in the tower nick named the "Not Eddie Miller Duster". She was already nervous about her first ever pass, but the extra four or five minutes sitting in the water box while the Cordova Dragway staff checked the surface only added to that. It was obvious she was no where near full throttle at the leave, and she gingerly applied more power until the big block was full song around the eighth mile resulting in an 11.85-118. Then the Duster died on the return road and her husband and brother in law had to tow her back to our pit. Not the Day 1 start our crew was looking for but we quickly discovered the hall effect switch mounting screw was loose, allowing the gap to grow to the point it was no longer firing, so a relatively easy fix.

I stayed and watched cars for a good while after Boone and Dale left with the Gremlin and the Duster, but finally decided I should head up before they called Street Machine Eliminator.
I drove the Valiant up to the lanes, and into a traffic jam right where the bottle neck of the narrow return road opened up into the six lanes of the pre-staging area we had used while in tech the day before. They already had two lanes blocked off and empty for the SME cars, but with ten or so of us blocking the road, even if SME was called they couldn't get up there. My fear was that just like Monday of last year,I was once again going to get turned around and sent back to the pits so they could stage the next class. Luckily spots cleared up and we were all able to squeeze up just as the call went out for the Street Machine cars to the lanes. I walked up in the staging lanes to find Boone standing alongside the Ruster with a big orange cone in front of the car.
"What's that for?" I asked him, as I motioned towards the cone.
"That is where they are cutting off the first session", he laughed, "Dale was four cars ahead of me and he's going to get to run, but I'll have to wait until after the SME guys."
Without a word between us, both of us walked toward the starting line to find a place to watch Dale's first run.
"Did you see the blue Ranger from DW 2006?"
"I thought that was the same truck", Boone nodded, "much quicker this year!"
"Yeah, 8.55-160 was impressive, but I can't recall what he ran that year".
"I think 9.6 something at 138", Boone shrugged, "all I really remember was the look on his face after he spun it out in the rain and backed into that ditch on the way to Indy!"
"Yeah, his net tailgate broke when he hit the ditch and unloaded all of his stuff in the woods on the other side! He was white as a ghost". I laughed, "that was the first time we met Kyle Loftis from 1320 Video, just him and his camera!"
"Which has grown more since then", Boone shook his head, "1320 Video, or Hot Rod Drag Week?"
"That's a toss up", I shrugged, "but I think few could have predicted this much success for either one!"

Dale did a conservative burnout, and staged in the right lane. The front end rose quickly at the hit until the tires appeared to be tickling the pavement, and then it broke the MT ET Streets loose and he had to pedal it once. The naturally aspirated 580 sounded done by a 1000 foot and the board lit up with a 9.761-142.
"He just can't buy a good pass on Day one it seems", I shrugged at Boone.
"Nope, 9.59 is his best ever run on a Monday, even when he had an 8 second nitrous combo!"

Anybody heard from Billy?

Maybe the brothers are getting ready for DW a little early?

Don

Billy is doing fine. Give the story time. Still 8 months until DW18.

Kevin

Mom, Dad, and Boone arrived from Oklahoma on the Nineteenth of December, and stayed out here soaking up the 70+ degree weather until January the 6th, so that precluded any work on the story. Since they left, I've been getting affairs in order to try and make 2018 a better year than the last couple, starting with, well, me. So I'm down 9lbs already, and spending more time making laps around the neighborhood than sitting in front of the PC. Now, for a little Housecleaning:



Trent,
After leaving NEO A&M in Oklahoma, I uprooted my Wife and new daughter, and came to Phoenix to get yet another Associates Degree in Automotive and Diesel Technology from AAI. So I have two Associates degrees and I'm a CDL truck driver...go figure! I wouldn't trade either experience for anything however, my love of cars and music was only enhanced by the education I received at both places.



The funny thing is, I remember this exact moment because it scared the crap out of me! I was thinking: "Was he trying to tell me something is wrong with my car, or is there a cop behind me, or ahead of me?"

Billy thank you again for the yearly Drag week saga. It makes a lot of us want to do this at some point.

Because I am a problem solver I might suggest something like this
https://www.amazon.com/LifeSpan-Fitness-TR1200-DT5-Treadmill-Desk/dp/B006M2PJV0

LOL

Does anyone know when registration for 2018 opens ballpark?

the guy from Hot Rod said they're aiming for early March. Last two years the early bird registration was the last Saturday in February.

Thank you!

Boone and I made our way to the bleachers as Tom McGilton brought his Larry Larson prepped Camaro up in the same lane Dale had just traversed in the Gremlin. Tom's bucks up build of a brand new 2013 ZL-1 had wowed everyone when it took the Pro Street PA win in 2015 with a 7.85-186 average. A wall scraper at another Street Car race in 2016 had prevented him from defending that win, but the twin turbo beast was as good as new for another shot in 2017. He rolled the beam just a bit before reaching full boost and only went 8.26, but the 189.8 put everyone on notice.
"That's faster than Blasco or Hunter either one", Boone shook his head.
"I think Les Smith went 182 earlier as well", I added, "so that will be a tough class, and you know Tom will be back for another hit in the final session!"

Joe Barry did a burnout through Tom's black track and backed up for the creamsickle 56's first attempt of DW-17. The big Chevy seemed to leave really smooth, and Lohnes backed up that feeling when he said Joe was 1.19 to the sixty foot clocks.
"A little soft, but come on six ninety-nine", Boone whispered.
The board flashed 7.08-200.7, and I was about to say that I expected more speed than that when blue smoke enveloped the car.
"Aw, crap! Did he blow it up?" I shouted as we joined the rest of the crowd rising to their feet.
"I never saw a chute", Boone reasoned, "I think it's tire smoke!"
The smoke cleared enough that we could just make out the orange and cream 210 coupe rolling around the corner to the return road.
"I was afraid we were going to have another incident like last year", I let out a deep breath.
"Better shut down area here", Boone observed.
We caught up on the last forty-five minutes or so as they went to check on the top end.
"Did you see Perkins' Valiant run?"
"No", Boone shook his head. "That's the blue 69 that's from Canada, with Ross, right?"
"Yeah, big block, Indy heads, Dominator, small tires. He went 9.91-135 on his first hit!"
"Impressive", Boone agreed, "good competition for the Ruster!"
"Yeah, except he's NA!"
"Hey", Boone shrugged, "we're all just a bunch of Mopar street cars, so how you get to the number is irrelevant!"
"How 'bout the 'Ratchero'?"
"Shouldn't it be called the 'Hemichero' now?" Boone questioned, "I mean, it's powered by a blown, injected, all aluminum elephant now, so the old name really doesn't apply!"
I nodded in agreement, "Mr. Scott can call it what ever he wants I suppose, after that 8.86-155 pass!"
"Yeah, I noticed he tamed down the launch a bit that run, after it tried to stand up thirty feet out on his first attempt!"

"Did you see Chenoweth's Road Runner? He had to back off on the top end to stay out of the nines!"
"That big Hemi is quicker every year he brings it", Boone acknowledged, "but he's only made a pass on Friday once in five attempts!"
"Still, 10.06 at only 127, is plenty impressive, and after ten years, I think he knows every part on that car that can break!"

The first session ended with a single for Vinnie Barbone's low nine second Geo Tracker. Two hundred, forty-nine passes had been made in the first two hours and twenty-five minutes, which was just the kind of start we needed with nearly 400 cars in the field. The Cordova staff quickly went over the first sixty feet, and brought up the first pair of Street Machine Eliminator cars seven minutes later.

Kim and Jim's (451Dart, Moparts) flamed "Primal Scream" 72 Satellite was in the second pair up, and prompted Brian Lohnes to immediately question as to why more people didn't just grab their bracket racer and come to Drag Week. Kim was paired with Kathy Hoover who was making her second DW in her slammed, pro street, 69 Camaro. Kim drove the big Plymouth right down the lane to a strong 10.22-131.2.
"Wow", Boone nodded, "that sounded and looked great!"
"Yeah", I agreed, "I think they have it dialed in to the track pretty good, just not sure if they have any street miles on it yet!
"That's the easy part, right?"
"We'll have to ask them tomorrow", I suggested.

Four pairs later a bright red HellCat Charger grabbed air under the front tires and ripped off an incredible 10.09-138!
"Good grief, Boone", I shook my head, "Those cars just continue to amaze me!"
The fortieth SME car to traverse the Cordova quarter mile for an official Drag Week time slip was Cody Walker's 71 Swinger, equipped with what Freiburger proclaimed to be "a homemade mod-top". The 12.19-108 seemed like a very efficient run, and the little green Dodge was one and done for Monday.

I need to stop jumping in your story , but had around 50 street miles (and not trouble free ) on the car before dragweek started.

Jim,
As I've said before...it's not just my story. I can't possibly bring every perspective or know every car's specific combo. So timely corrections or additions are always welcome, such as Brett's insight into the new horsepower increases on Cornman's Demon. I know you and Kim live somewhat close to Cordova Dragway, so is that why you left the track on Monday with the slicks still on the car? I noticed that the rest of the week you had on street tires.

After three nights with barely any sleep I strapped the street tires on the trailer around 1 am Monday morning. I loaded the car onto my big trailer and a friend pulled the small trailer to Cordova. The trailer left my house Monday morning with street tires on it, they just magically disappeared because I didn't secure them good enough. I called friends that was headed to the track and no one seen them. So we scavenged what ever would work lol

Less than halfway through the SME session, Jeff Gallagher's 66 Mustang began a burn out in the lane nearest the bleachers. The 363 cubic inch Windsor was screaming as Jeff released the line lock button and rolled out of the water. We heard an audible pop from the drive line as the tires bit, and a trail of transmission fluid began as he idled forward towards the beams. The starter quickly ran out to stop him, and gave him the cutoff sign, but a large puddle had already formed under the little coupe before they pushed it back from the line.
"All the way from Seattle, and it's over in the first thirty feet", Boone shook his head.
"I tell everyone it's like walking a tightrope...all the best laid plans end with one misstep. He's still got the lovely Ms. Martin as his co-pilot though, and a mid-ten second classic Mustang!

We were contemplating whether to sit out a lengthy cleanup or head back to the lanes when Rachael called to tell us she had lunch waiting for us at my car.
"Sounds great", Boone looked down at his phone, "the breakfast at the motel was light this morning and that was five hours ago, so I'm ready for something!"
We made our way through the lanes to the Valiant, and I realized that all of our group had their cars in staging except for Darren and the Charger.
Rachael was dealing cheeseburgers and brats out of a Powerade cardboard flat, and she had the condiments and cold drinks in a back pack.
"Someone's been slaving over the little grille for a while to make this much food", Boone commented.
"What made you decide to bring it to the lanes", I laughed, "I'm surprised some of these guys didn't tackle you!"
"I fed Pops, Darren and Dale in the pits", she explained, "but decided I'd chase the rest of you down in the lanes rather than let it get cold waiting for everyone to get their runs in."
"We appreciate it!" Boone mumbled after inhaling the first two bites of his brat, "with all that's been going on, I didn't realize how hungry I was!"
"What's going on with the Charger?"
"Not sure", she wrinkled her forehead in thought, "they called Dale over after his first run to mess with the carb, something to do with a needle and gas leaking."

It took sixteen minutes to clean up the mess from the Mustang, and start sending cars again. I noticed the Shelby Dodge Auto Club (or the Mopar Turbo Mafia as they like to call themselves) were out in force again, with five machines lined up nose to tail in the same lane. This year, James Reeves' Omni was absent, but they had brought a Mini Van in his place which made for a great vehicle for their command center and hang out spot in the lanes, but it would end up going through more half shafts than any of their other cars combined!

ahhh the goofy bucket sun hats.... I'd fit right in.

Feel there's a storm brewing... have noted any high end B/RB nitrous piece on FB lately has had the interest of a Gebhart or two....

Very perceptive Jay, it's a full on cold war style arms race right now, and I'm losing. Like the cold war though, most of this stuff we seem to be stockpiling may never see the light of day...

The Mopar Turbo Mafia are an eclectic bunch which seem to be woven together only by their love of cubic inch challenged, turbo boosted, wrong wheel drive Pentastars. But they work hard, play hard and are a genuinely likeable group! I think you would fit in just fine.

By the time we finished up with our lunch and visited with Rick, Michelle, and everyone else patiently waiting in the staging area, the call went out that they were shutting off the back of the SME lanes. I looked down at my phone and noticed it was 12:24, so the SME guys had been at it for an hour and four minutes, but it was explained that they would run out their lanes before the final open session began. I did a quick count back and realized their were only fifteen pairs left before Boone and the Ruster Duster would kick off the last chance for everyone to put down a good opening number. I hadn't even made it back to give that information to Boone when George Messer's new Drag Week ride, an LS turbo powered 2000 step side Sierra fittingly nicknamed "Lumpy", sprayed liquid down the entire length of the track.
"Dang it", Boone groaned, as he stood in front of the Duster with his fire suit pants pulled over his blue jean shorts. He chuckled, then added "do you think they can put "Lumpy" back together again?"
"I see what you did there, Boone! Nice play on the name!"
"I'm here all week", he laughed again.
Luckily for all of us, it turned out to be only water, so the next pair were headed down the track a scant eight minutes later.
Three pairs after that was Mike Grandinetti's 71 Firebird, which was made famous last year by running off in a muddy ditch. This year Mike obviously was looking for more performance, with a roots style street blower poking through the Formula hood. The added pressure was apparently more than the Pontiac 400 could bear however, and the billowing blue smoke that started at about 1000 feet indicated that we were in for another cleanup!

With the two cleanups factored in, it took thirty-five minutes for the last twenty-nine cars to clear the lanes. As soon as that session ended they brought the group the Valiant was parked with in the pre-staging area up to fill the two lanes vacated.
I had just pulled up and shut off as Brian Lohnes explained what was going on while the Cordova crew gave the first 100 feet of the track another quick prep job.
It was just after 1 pm, so he announced that the final session "would be an hour or so". I looked back at the lanes from my position beside Boone in the Duster and laughed. "We'll be running cars for more than an hour if they shut off the back of the lanes right now!"
"Yeah", Boone agreed as he tossed his hands up, "but they have time for Lutz to make another no time, 1/8th mile exhibition pass!"
Boone's frustration was shared by many in the lanes; if you included Sunday's registration, some of us had spent thirteen hours in various lines at and around Cordova Dragway without so much as a sniff at the track, and many were openly questioning whether 400 cars was just too much for this kind of event.
"One and done for you?"
"As long as it throws a nine on the board", Boone agreed as he pulled on his helmet.
I stood behind the Ruster Duster as it jumped up on the super stock springs first, lifted the driver's side front tire second, then drove out of the groove to the right third, all in the first sixty feet.
"Hard to run nines when it leaves like an eleven second car", I thought to myself as Boone brought the A-body back in the middle of his lane at the 1-2 shift. The 512 sounded great until just after a thousand foot then started breaking up a bit as he went into the traps. 10.01-137.2 was not going to make him happy, so I knew he'd be back in line as soon as possible.
25 cars later Scott Abbott's Millenium headed Hemi powered 67 Belvedere made a second pass, and the 10.50-132.7 hit was deemed a good starting point for his 2017 Drag Week. Rick was in the very next pair with his green Swinger, but more oil on the track prompted another twelve minute mop job, and a 12.60 at only 94 meant he would be hustling back around for a third try.

At 1:35pm Monday afternoon, I finally pulled the Valiant into the right lane water box at Cordova Dragway. I had just watched Terry Keifer make a 10.74-129 mph pass down that lane on his second hit of the day with his 67 Barracuda, and now I was just hoping for a good clean pass as well. I slid the Turbo Action shifter into neutral after a solid burnout and purged the nitrous into the engine twice, it sounded nice and crisp, so I moved the t-handle to low and rested my thumb over the button. Fire-proof gloves and a neck collar are the bane of running under ten flat, and while I'm sure I'd love them if anything ever went wrong, the loss of feel in my hands and less range for head movement increases my nervousness behind the wheel. I was running over my routine in my head as I inched the Valiant into the beams, it had been nine months since I made a nitrous pass in the car, and now I needed it to go perfect if I was to leave here with a representative number.

I left on the footbrake, presumably so I could get on the nitrous quicker, but I was nearly at the sixty foot clocks before I did so, and when I finally did grab the button, I accidentally shifted to second at the same time. Frustrated with my mistake and what I felt was a terminally slow launch, I hung second gear out too long and tapped the rev limiter a couple of times before the shift. The sound an engine makes when it does that on spray is disconcerting to say the least, and the corresponding nose over put a lump in my throat, but she was pulling hard in drive all the way to the stripe with the shift light on the last two hundred feet so the mph didn't seem to suffer. The ease at which the Plymouth pulled down to make the turn off made me wish I had purchased those new rear discs years ago, definitely an improvement.
I was so disappointed with myself and the driving job I had done that I questioned whether or not it was a nine on the drive up the return road to the time slip shack.
"I'm going to be in the same boat as Boone, heading back to the lanes for another attempt to keep my dreams of an all nine second week alive", I thought to myself. I opened the driver's door as I pulled up to get my time slip, and stuck my gloved hand out, palm up, over the top of the window frame. The attendant stuck the crumpled slip into my palm and I closed my fingers around it as I idled off towards the pits. I held the slip in front of my helmet until I located my ET and MPH at the bottom: 9.602-138.4, the quickest and fastest pass the little Valiant has ever made since it first traversed the quarter mile in the late 80's!
"You bailed the fat guy out again ole girl", I laughed and patted the dash as I rolled into our pit spot to a thumbs up and a smile from Rachael.
"One and done", I told her as I opened the door and handed her the time slip. "Are you ready to go up and make a pass?" I asked her, since we had paid an extra fifty bucks to get her a drivers arm band.
She quickly shook her head, "I'd rather drive it on the street and get used to it that way before I actually make a pass, so I'll wait until later in the week".

I'll be debuting with new rear discs finally.... can't wait (ruined another set of front rotors).

Gloves, a button, and a sloppy TA shifter..... you do love a challenge my friend!

They are a little pricey, but you can't BEAT a PPP shifter!!!

Don

"Should we start packing up and get ready to hit the road?" Rachael asked, pointing towards the huge pile of stuff in front of the Valiant.
I looked around our pit spot, quickly realizing that other than Derek's Chevy truck, and Pops crashed out asleep on a folding cot, everyone else was still in the lanes.
"Naw, let's just stand at the fence and watch everyone else run...we'll be ready to roll before the rest of these jokers anyway!"

At 1:49, after we'd only watched a few pairs, Brian Lohnes made the announcement that Lonnie Grimm was going to close the back of the lanes at 2:15 sharp.
"So the gang needs to run in the next twenty minutes if they want the chance for more than one run!"
"You sure you don't want to go back up", Rachael asked, "I'll ride up with you and take more pictures."
"Nope, that was the best pass the Valiant has ever made, so I've got nothing left to prove today...save it for tomorrow."
Tom McGilton was back for a second hit in his Larry Larson prepped 2013 ZL-1. His earlier 8.26 wasn't going to keep him in contention with Hunter's 56 and Blasco's Dirty Dart for Pro Street Power Adder, so he needed a smooth pass. The white fifth gen appeared to roll the tires slightly out of the hole, a suspicion that was confirmed when Lohnes announced a 1.30 short time, but the rest of the pass looked amazing.
"One fifty in the eighth, seven sixty-two at one ninety", Lohnes' voice boomed over the loud speaker.
"That wasn't a killer sixty for a car that fast, was it?"
"No", I smiled at Rachael, happy that she was paying attention, "but forty-two hundred pounds it tough to get moving!"

Two pairs later, Tom Bailey brought his Steve Morris powered Skinny Kid built Pro Mod Camaro around in the right lane with it's "Beast Mode" grille blocker in place.
"I told you he wasn't going to leave here two tenths behind Schroeder", Rachael pointed out.
"Well, with the amount of time it takes to turn those cars around for another hit, this will be his last attempt today!"
The stretched and narrowed 69 left extremely hard, but tried to rattle the tires at 200ft out, so Tom quickly peddled it once to calm it down. He'd have likely blown the tires off and wasted the run a few years ago, but time spent racing the Skinny Kid shop Pro Mod over the last year has clearly given him the experience and feel to make the quick and timely correction seem effortless.
"Six fifty-one at two thirty-eight...wow, that's not good for the Nitrous Corvette", I groaned.
"It's only a couple of hundredths", Rachael shrugged.
"It's not the ET, dear, it's the twenty mph! When you've got that much speed over someone, you have a much larger margin for error."

Great story as usual Billy!
I wasn't able to make it last year. Work prevailed.

Don

At 2:03 pm, John Faraone rolled his 72 Valiant Charger into the right lane water box. This would be the Aussie's 6th attempt at Drag Week in his Predator headed, twin turbo, big block wedge powered right hand drive A-body.
For the amount of money, effort, and time John has invested into the Charger and Hot Rod Drag Week, the event has not been kind, and results have been sporadic at best. Despite all the setbacks his enthusiasm hasn't waned, as I found out first hand when I spent a good three hours side by side in the tech line with him on Sunday, and enjoyed every second of our marathon bench racing session.
At the instant the 3950lb monster came off the brake and launched it was clear this was a killer run. I've seen it blow the tires off or shake them hard many times. I've seen it black track and push out of the groove, or lift the front end so hard it unloads on the wheelie bars. I've also watched the big wedge blow out so much soot and black smoke you'd think it had a cummins under the hood.

This pass was a thing of beauty, with an arrow straight, controlled leave, and a smooth run all the way down. The 7.37-194.2 mph pass (1.28 60') was the quickest and fastest pass ever made on Drag Week by a Mopar, and moved the Aussie Valiant up the standings to the third quickest car of the day!

Five pairs later, Darren finally brought the Charger up in the left lane for his first attempt, but was quickly waved off when fuel leaked out of the tank as he came out of the burnout. Dale, Billy, and Dylan came out to help him push it back into the lanes as Lohnes announced that the cutoff was just nine minutes away.

Boone brought the Duster up towards the right lane water box 6 pairs later, but stopped short, opened the door, and was motioning for help. They sent the Camaro beside him on a single, and he backed into the lanes as well.

Rachael and I had been discussing what we thought went wrong on Hemi Joel's 12.10-78 after he clearly pushed the clutch in and coasted from the eighth mile on, when the call went out that the lanes were closed. As if on cue, Dale in the Gremlin along with Rick in the Swinger, were the next pair to start burnouts.
"Was our whole group just sitting back there waiting on the lanes to close?" She asked with a laugh.
"I guess so", I nodded, "afraid they'd be tempted to hot lap back around I guess, but the pressure to make a good run is on now!"

Dale did a strong burnout to 30 feet out, backed up in his own tracks, revved the engine a couple of times in neutral, then pulled forward and lit the top bulb. The starter walked out and backed both of them off the line and cut them off as he communicated with the top end. He waved them back up a minute later, and the Gremlin clearly suffered for the delay spinning pretty good. Both cars looked great to the eighth mile, but then it sounded like Dale hit neutral momentarily, and the Swinger leveled off considerably. 9.85-136 for Dale, 11.71-102 for Rick.

I gave a small "Yes" and a fist pump when the numbers hit the board, and Rachael gave me an incredulous look.
"That's slower than his first run, so why are you happy about it?"
"It means I'll be turning in the quickest pass of the day among our group", I smiled.
"You're such a jerk", She laughed.

Michelle was up next in the Duster, and went 11.33-121.9 with a much better launch than before.
Rachael gave me look and commented, "I need to get in the Tens before she does this week".
"Ha! Now who's being a jerk?"
"Nope", she smiled, "just competitive!"

To confirm our theory that they had all conspired to wait until the end of the session to run, Darren and Boone were the next pair in the water after Michelle ran. After the first hundred feet, I was wondering if the Charger was on a good run, or the Duster was on a bad one as they were nearly even. The Ruster began to pull away substantially after that and the Charger started tailing a plume of smoke after the eighth mile. 10.04-138 for the Duster, and 11.18-121 for Darren and the Charger.
"That's not going to make either of them happy", I shook my head.
"Yep, Boone didn't get his nine to start the trip, so it's going to get ugly", Pops agreed. He had awoken from his nap just in time to watch them run.

The staging lanes went from being a hive of activity to a ghost town, and our pit area did exactly the opposite. Everyone wanted to stand around and compare time slips, relax a bit, drink something cool, and just enjoy a moment of accomplishment. A little respite before the next step is always important, but as experienced Drag Week participants we knew we had to turn our time slips in to Tonya Turk and get our route sheets before it got much later, as the Hot Rod and Drag Week staffs were just as interested in beginning the next journey as we were.

Considering how sparsely populated the pits seemed to be as we walked down the hill to the building Tonya and Tara were hanging out in, we were surprised by the line of racers yet to turn theirs in. While we were in our pit area Boone had been sullen, and clearly upset with the performance of the Duster, so I gave him space, but now we had others around us so I finally questioned him about what happened.
"Why were you waving for help before you entered the water the first time?"
He let out a long breath, looked at the floor and shook his head before he answered. "I forgot to turn on the bottle, and I can't reach it once the belts are on. I popped the belts loose, and opened the bottle, but then I couldn't get the belts back on with my helmet, neck collar and gloves in place!"
"Mph looked good, was it spinning?"
He gave me a quick jerk of his head and the blue eyes were on fire, so I knew I was pushing the right buttons(or the wrong ones depending on your perspective).
"Sure, the sixty is a bit off...I've got a good third member this year so I'm going on the spray earlier, maybe too soon, but it's still popping on the big end!" He paused and looked around before he continued, "I told Dale that Demon is junk, I've tried to get him to rebuild it, or tune it correctly, but he'll never spend more than five minutes on it!"
I bit the inside of my lip to keep from laughing, because a chuckle from me would put him over the edge. "Boone, I rebuilt that carb right before I gave it to you, and Dale's jetted it every which way...you should be re-jetting the plate, it runs fine on motor!"
"Neither of you are going to convince me that Barry Grant isn't the problem", he fired back.
"I've got a brand new thousand HP in the box that I never had time to test on the Valiant", I explained. "If we bolt that on and it runs the same will that change your mind?"
"I wouldn't be opposed to giving it a try", he quipped dryly, but his mood brightened considerably.

I moved up next to Dale to give him a hard time.
"Spotting a nitrous car sixteen hundredths on day one when you're running NA?" You might not catch that Valiant the rest of the week", I laughed.
He shook his head, "Typical Monday for me, but I'm not worried, that 580's got plenty to cover a small block on sneeze!"
"We'll see I guess, what happened today?"
"Just blew the tires clean off on the first hit, so we came back around and adjusted all four shocks. The launch was better the second pass, but I got distracted and didn't hear the electric shifter, so I thought it was still in low, and boxed it into neutral at half track. The rpm was up, that 580 along with those 3.73 gears...the convertor is over matched, it's just blowing right through it!"
"Which one do you have in it?"
"The JW 9" billet that I bought back when we were Super Street racing."
"Good grief, that was twenty years ago! How many times have you had if freshened or rebuilt?"
He blushed noticeably and shook his head before he answered. "Never have, only glide converter I've had the last decade at least!"
"You're crazy! Glide convertors take a beating! Most people send them in every two or three years."
"Well, that's where we are at right now, but it'll still outrun that little Plymouth, you'll see tomorrow!

We filed out with our route sheets and official time slips, but Jeff caught us on the way back to our pit and let us know that He and Hemi Joel were done for the week. Sobering, but from a quick glance around they probably wouldn't be the only ones out after the first day on the track.

We gave the route sheet a quick perusal once we got back to our cars. The first drive was to be 267 miles, first checkpoint was 62 miles away.
"We'll be approaching St.Louis on the Il-255 south, which is one of the roads that cross the I-70 at Collinsville", I pointed out, "so the route takes us right to our motel!"
"We going to try and have Rachael's birthday supper tonight?" Boone asked, then turned to Rachael and added, "congrats on the big three Oh!"
"Twenty-eight, Jerk!" She quipped back with a laugh.
I pointed at Darren, still under the hood of the Charger, with Dale's small generator running and the battery charger hooked up for what seemed like the fourth hour in the last two days.
"With our track record on first drives, we better put that off for Tuesday or Wednesday night!"
"So...where are we at on being ready to roll out of here?" Dale asked, looking around our pits, "Will and Michelle went to get a tire fixed, Rick and Sharma are trying to figure out how to load all their stuff for the first time, while Dylan and I have at least an hour of work before the Gremlin is ready for the highway!"
"Rachael and I have already re-set the timing on the Valiant, and put the exhaust back on", I explained, "but we have to figure out where all our stuff is going to fit as well!"
"I want to bolt Dave's carb on", Boone pointed at the Holley box in my pile of stuff, "and I have to change plugs, then time it...probably wouldn't hurt to top off the batteries either, if the alternator doesn't keep up any better than last year."
"Look guys", I shook my head, "I have no intention of hanging out at the opening track until ten-thirty at night before the first drive like last year, so let's get this wrapped up and on the road!"

For the next hour, Rachael and I went at the Valiant like it was a jigsaw puzzle, trying to figure out how to get all of our junk on board. The trunk isn't the biggest among A-body Mopars due to the radically sloped off deck, and it already houses two batteries , the fuel cell, a nitrous bottle, and wider than stock wheel tubs, so precision packing of small items is about it. The area behind the front seats is cavernous however, and we stuffed it to the point that we had junk above the window line, and it was blocking part of my view in the tiny stock rear view mirror.

It took considerable effort to convince Will, Michelle, and Derek to leave without us, then we went through the same conversation with Rick and Sharma about another hour later. I explained that with a group this large, a straight caravan doesn't work, because people are waiting too much and they might be the next ones to have a problem.
"The leapfrog style works better...if you're ready to roll, go, and stay in touch...we'll most likely catch up."
"Almost everyone has a smart phone," Rachael explained, "So this year we'll set up on a group text for all of us, that way we can keep track of everyone's progress."

After they said their goodbyes and we watched the green Dart roll out onto Il-84 South, Rachael gave me a long look, and made a sweeping gesture back towards my brothers still working feverishly on their respective cars.
"Maybe you should follow your own advice and we should get moving!"
"Yeah, I know...let me see if I can make myself useful to one of these guys before we just bail."

Billy with you guys smiling ear to ear like that people might get the wrong idea and think you guys were having fun or something.

I was walking towards the Charger, when Dale's little generator starting noticeably dropping rpm. I could clearly see it from my vantage point, and it was beginning to pump blue smoke out of the crankcase ventilation tube before it finally sputtered and died.
Darren, Dale and Boone turned away from their respective work in unison, and looked at me and the generator.
"Did it run out of gas?"
I shook my head, "I think it just burned up...it was smoking right before it shut down!"
"Naw...put gas in it", Dale assured me, "I've had that thing forever and it's never gave me a lick of trouble!"
I did as he instructed, and it fired to life with a full tank of fuel and sounded fine for about three minutes, then it started pushing out smoke again and slowly died.
Boone had a look of terror on his face, "How am I supposed to charge my batteries now if the alternator doesn't keep up?"
"Not with that", I pointed, "That thing is toast!"
Dale walked over to fiddle with it, but I had spilled a little gas on my hands so I decided to walk back down to the bathroom and clean up before we hit the road. I walked by the track equipment garage on the way back and overheard the track workers talking about locking up within the next hour so they could get home and I relayed that info to the guys when I got back to our pits. The brothers seemed unaffected by the news but fifteen minutes later Pops was tossing stuff in Darren's Charger and muttering under his breath, clearly agitated.
"Dad, what are you doing?" Darren asked incredulously, peering out from under the hood.
"Didn't you hear Dave?" He tossed his hands in the air and spat, "we need to get moving, we can mess with the rest of this crap later!" "Do you want to get locked in, do you want to be here after dark if they turn off the lights?"
Boone walked over and whispered at me, "Happy now?"
"What the heck, I didn't expect..."
"You didn't think...period! He's tired, stressed, and you just got him all riled up for nothing!"
"Tired? He took a three hour nap on the cot today!"
"He's old! Dang it Dave, how many times do I have to explain it to you?"

The end result was that Darren placated Dad, and the Charger rolled out of the Cordova Dragway gate a scant thirty minutes later. I shrugged at Boone and Dale, who were still finishing up the Duster.
"Follow them", Dale instructed, "we'll be along shortly, and they are more likely to need your help than we are."

We drove three miles south to Cordova Township and made a left turn into the huge gravel parking lot of the Great River Mart and Shell station. There were probably nine or ten Drag Week vehicles on the property including the Charger, and we eased into a pump next to Mike Karl's blue 68 Nova. Darren fired up the Charger and moved it over to the side of the convenience store while I started pumping 91 into the cell of the Valiant.
Dad walked over to me and asked if I could take him back to the track to get Darren's truck.
"What?" I was startled by the request, wondering if he was just ready to give up, or if there was a real problem.
"Darren says the Charger is done! He doesn't like a sound it's making...so I want to get back and get the truck and trailer before they lock up."
"Okay" I paused, "Give me a second and we'll figure it out."
I walked over with him to the Charger and Darren was already on the phone with Dale, going over a list of problems. "It's rattling like crazy, I've got rubber all over the quarter where one tire is rubbing with all the weight in the car, the battery is junk, it barely started at the pump..."
I walked back over to my pump, convinced that Darren really was ready to call it over for him and the Charger. I happened to notice that the man on the next pump with a U-Haul box truck and car trailer was none other than Mike Grandinetti, who's Pontiac Firebird had lost a motor on the top end earlier in the day.
"Going back to get your car Mike?" I asked.
"Yeah", he shook his head, "This is going to be an expensive trip since I had to rent this to get home."
"You drove the car here?"
"Yeah, it's a street car right?"
"You think you could give my Dad a lift back to the track? I think my brother is done, so he needs to get their truck and trailer as well."
"Sure", he smiled, "I'm going to need help loading mine anyway."
I got Dad and sent him off, then parked my Valiant on the far end of the lot so I wasn't blocking any pumps. I quickly found myself in a conversation with the Aussies from Street Machine magazine who were covering the event, until Dale and Boone finally arrived with the Gremlin and the Duster.

After fueling up both cars, Boone and Dale parked next to Darren and both started going over a checklist of his complaints. Rachael made herself busy by filling each vehicle's cooler with drinks and ice, roping in little Billy as her helper. I walked over a few minutes later to overhear Dale and Darren discussing the need to run the valves.
"He's ran the valves four times since he first fired it on Friday", I tossed my hands in the air, "that's more times than I've had the valve covers off the small block since it was built!"
Boone looked at me, then asked where Dad was at.
"I haven't seen him since we pulled up, now that you mention it", Dale agreed.
"I got him a ride back to the track so he could get Darren's truck and trailer out of impound", I explained.
I was met by a chorus of "What?", while all three of them spun towards me like I was threatening them with a weapon.
"Listen, Darren told Pops he was done, he told me he was done and I heard him tell you on the phone he was done! So Dad went for the truck before they messed around and ended up locked out!"
Jeffrey Lutz had his twin turbo SBC powered Honda parked about fifty feet from us with the front end off and ten people standing around it. They fired it for a few seconds but his Dad quickly gave him the cut-off sign.
"That thing", Dale pointed with a sardonic smile toying at the corners of his mouth, "is done...but this Charger is far from it!" He put Boone to calling Dad, then started ordering Dylan and Darren to bring him tools.
Disgusted, I walked over to the Valiant to help Rachael lift our cooler up between the seats and over the shoulder bar, nestling it on top of our clothes bags.
"What are you thinking?" She looked at me then back at the bustle around the Charger.
"I'm thinking I don't want to arrive at the first motel after sun-up! I'm thinking I don't want to sit around here for five hours only to have Darren throw in the towel anyway!"
"Well then, let's just go. You are the one who writes the story, so if you're a jerk who abandons his brothers at their time of need, I'm sure you can make it sound like you were in the right all along!"
"Now you sound like Darren! Always complaining that my stories are complete fabrication!"
"Just pointing out the obvious", she laughed.

Ten minutes later, I was let off the hook when Dale answered a phone call from Rick and Sharma. He turned to me and explained, "they are broke down about thirty-five miles up the road, so perhaps you and Rachael should go ahead and check on them."
"What's the problem?" I asked, hopeful it would be an easy fix.
"He thinks the converter bolts loosened up...it has a rattle when he lets off the gas. They are in the first rest area on I-74."
I jumped in the Valiant and headed south on Il-84 before someone in my family changed their mind. It was still fairly warm and muggy as the afternoon sun was hanging on, and traffic on the little two lane that meanders along the Mississippi was at it's Monday evening peak. The result was the temp gauge started north of 200 fairly quick, and I pulled over at a small car wash fifteen miles later.
We had passed by Alex and Dennis Taylors' cars parked at a gas station, where they were apparently helping Clark Rosenstengal with his 2010 7 second twin turbo Camaro. Clark drove by a few minutes later, and it sounded like the LSX was idling on six cylinders. He turned around and headed back to the group. Fifteen minutes later they all drove by and the Camaro sounded fine, so someone must've made the right keystrokes to get the electronic injection to cooperate with his street tuneup!

Rachel said

Now that is rich, Billy!

This picture is SO RIDICULOUS! (and I mean that in a good way!)

Once we jumped out on I-74, with less traffic to contend with and the sun steadily dropping from view, the temp gauge stabilized at 205 and I began to settle in for the long drive. I love the look of my recessed Quick Latch minis that hold down the four corners of the hood, but they are fragile, and if you slam them around too much the receivers will fail. When the tach hit 3 grand, the back of the hood on my side popped up.
"What's that all about?" Rachael asked, looking up from our phones. She had set up google maps on my phone to follow the course live, then she had the Drag Weekers Facebook page, and our group text going on hers. The 55 year old cigarette lighter was dutifully supplying power to both.
"I missed the back pins at that car wash earlier, and I heard that receiver make a weird noise, so I must've broke the spring in it", I explained. "I'll have to replace it when we get the chance!"

Twenty miles later, we drove into the rest area Dale had described and found Rick lying on a piece of cardboard under his green Dart, while Sharma was working under the hood.
"What's the prognosis?" I asked from my knees, bent down low to see what he was doing under the car.
"Well, we didn't get lucky, the converter bolts were nice and tight", Rick smiled through the obvious fatigue.
"Well, crap!"
"Exactly! It was the crank bolts, so we had to back the transmission out to get on them."
"No small feat on a big block A body with a 727", I shook my head.
"We had to pull the header on this side just to get the engine to drop down enough to get it back", Sharma explained.
Watching them work together over the next twenty minutes, I was able to understand how they managed to take this car from a 318 driver to a big block 11 second machine in little more than a week. They worked together seamlessly, no drama, no wasted motion, a great team. It was clear that holding flashlights and handing them tools was about the extent of help Rachael and I would be able to offer to make the job go any quicker.
I excused myself a little later and changed out the quick latch on my hood while we were there. By the time I finished up the last of the useable sunlight was quickly disappearing.

I was digging through the trunk of the Valiant to find my torque wrench and some thread locker when I heard the unmistakable whine of a roots blown engine making it's way toward us up the off-ramp. It didn't sound very healthy, however, as it strained to come up the hill, misfiring, coughing and wheezing as the car came into view. It was first time Drag Weeker Hilbert Osborne and his impressive silver and black 55 210 Chevy. The air scoop on top of the twin Holleys mimicked the look of a modern Top Fuel style injector hat, and was visually stunning on a street car. The Pro Street 55 drew a ton of attention on Registration day, but I thought it was odd when he signed up for Street Machine Eliminator, as it appeared much faster than a 10.0 car.
Not to disappoint, Hilbert's first pass on Monday had been in the 9.50 range at 140+! A second attempt saw him lift at a thousand feet, and still run 9.80 at 128. Late in the day he managed a third attempt, but the blown big block seemed to lay over at the 330' foot mark, and he just eased down to a 12.59-82 mph pass.
At the time, I figured it was just an over cautious driver wanting to make sure he had a safe pass to turn in, but listening to the machine struggle into the rest area, I began to think that pass may have foretold of deeper issues. A modern Ford pick-up trailed close behind, and pulled alongside as they shut the big Chevy off. I didn't know if it was their designated chase truck, or just one of the many people who happen to stop and help when they see a Drag Week car with issues. I tend to give everyone the benefit of the doubt when it comes to those situations.

I handed Rick my thread locker, and held the flashlight as he torqued the flexplate bolts in a star pattern.
At that point Rick and Sharma assured us that with things going back together, Rachael and I should go ahead and get on the road.
"It's like you explained earlier", Rick slapped me on the back, "leapfrog...you go on ahead, and hopefully your brothers will be along shortly".
Rachael and I were re-arranging the contents of the Valiant when the Ford pick-up which had been following the 55 drove over and parked next to us. A slightly built gentleman who appeared to be in his mid sixties got out and asked us if everything was going OK with our car. I explained our situation and asked him about the 55.
"They've had the carbs apart twice since we left the track, and it runs fine for ten or fifteen miles then starts acting up. Don't know if it's bad gas, or junk in the tank, but they just threw in the towel and called a roll-back to pick them up".
"That's no good, I hate to see that happen so early on."
"Yeah...I was going to follow along and help them out if they needed it, but that's done, so I was hoping I could tag up with you guys now...if you don't mind?"
"That's fine with me", I explained. "Are you doing the whole week or what?"
"Yeah, I preregistered, and had plans of bringing my Vega this year, but I've went through a pretty extensive chemo treatment, and just didn't have the energy to finish it."
"Dang! I'm sorry to hear that!"
He smiled and shook his head, "Hopefully my battle with the big C is behind me, and my wife implored me to go ahead and take the vacation time and enjoy the event, if only as a spectator."
"Hard to do when you're a racer!"
He chuckled and his eyes lit up, "Exactly...that's why I want to follow along with some cars, follow the route and see what everyone is going through...at least feel like I've got some skin in the game on this half of it, at least."
"Honestly, the drives are more than half", I smiled, "the street is where Drag Weeks are made or broken!"
"I'm quickly beginning to see that!" He laughed again, and we jumped in our respective vehicles to forge ahead.
"Who was he?" Rachael asked as we dove back onto I-74 with the lights of the Ford a couple of hundred feet behind us.
"I don't know...we shook hands, but never exchanged names", I explained.
"That's rather odd", she shook her head.
"Not on Drag Week!" I laughed, as the tach needle settled on three grand.

Thirty miles later, we followed the directions into Galesburg Illinois, for Drag Week 2017 Checkpoint #1, a drive-in theatre. I'm always surprised when we've been driving along without another drag week car in sight, then pull into a packed parking lot at a checkpoint. This was the case at the drive-in, with at least fifteen participants parked on the dirt drive or the grass around the marquee sign. We shot the pictures that would be needed for time slip turn in the following day, and prepared to get moving again.
"It's already 7:40, and we have a hundred and eighty miles left to the hotel, so I don't see us arriving before midnight...again!"
"We need to start setting a target for two AM", she laughed,"we've made it before midnight like once in the last three years!"
I made a right out of the parking lot and quickly shifted into second gear.
"We were supposed to go back the way we came!" Rachael exclaimed, holding her phone up with the google map towards me.
"I read the sheet", I shook my head, but pulled over and fished out a flashlight so we could double check, "it said 'right on US-34'!"
"Nope", she gleefully pointed out my mistake, "it says 'back to route-left on Main St.', you skipped a line!"

We found our way back to US-34, then onto US-67 South ten miles later. This was a divided 4 lane, but had quite a few more curves than the previous interstate, and I wasn't happy at all with the way the Valiant was driving. It seemed to be wallowing around on the rear suspension, and I was constantly making corrections with the wheel to keep up with it. I blamed it on the excess weight we had stuffed behind the seats this year, but I decided not to let Rachael drive until I figured it out.
She had been keeping me up to date via the group text as to everyone else's progress. After buying a new battery for the Charger, and running the valves, Darren convinced himself that the engine was still making a noise, and gave up. Dale didn't have the energy left to argue with him, so Dad and Darren would be cruising in the Ram R/T.
"So that's three hours for nothing!" I exclaimed, "they will never learn."
We appeared to be gaining on The Heaths, who had left considerably earlier than we had, because they were stopping for drinks, and had hung out quite a while at the checkpoint.
"Rookies!" I shook my head when Rachael gave me the news.
I tend to get the bit between my teeth, and hate to stop once we get rolling, so I decided to extend our gas stop out to a town that would put us around a hundred and ten miles in. The speed limit had already dropped to 45 mph as we entered Macomb. The north end of town was rolling hills, golf courses, a country club and Western Illinois University. We had just crested one of those hills when the 428 sputtered and the Volumax fuel pump changed pitch.
"Crap! We are running out of gas! How far to the next station?"
"Three miles, a Conoco on the right", Rachael explained.
I shook the car left to right, pumped the gas a few times and brought the speed back up to 55 or 60.
"We should make it if we catch all the lights just fine!"
I blew through the next green light just in time to notice a "City of Macomb" cruiser about to make right hand turn onto US-67. He was in pursuit with lights and siren before I made it another block.
"I hope he knows I'm not stopping until I'm pulled up to a pump!"
"You sure know how to make friends!" Rachael tossed her hands up, and sunk a little lower in her seat.

Then what happened? You better not keep us waiting too long on this cliffhanger!

To our surprise Will, Michelle and Derek were at the pumps when Rachael and I coasted in, Officer in tow. The looks on their faces were priceless as they stared back at our situation, wide eyed, and their lower jaws hanging down. I opened the driver's door, but made no attempt to get out and left my hands on the top of the wheel in plain sight.
I can remember back in my youth, that each of these stops seemed to present me a grizzled old veteran cop who usually had a line which included the word "Son", and the quip "why were you in such a hurry?" These days I'm the old graybeard and the officers always seem to be fresh face kids who give me more deference than I likely deserve.
To my relief, this was the case, as the face that bent down to look in the car could have been straight out of high school if I had to guess.
"How are you two doing tonight?" He asked casually, then paused.
"Pretty good", I jumped in, "listen, the reason I didn't pull over immediately is that we are completely out of gas and I had to coast in here!"
"That's understandable", he smiled coolly, "The reason I pulled you over is that you have no taillights." He broke into a big grin for his next line, "the brake lights are nice and bright though, I saw plenty of them when you saw my police car!"
"Yeah", I chuckled, "I've got my headlights and interior lights on this race panel up here." I pointed and his eyes followed my hand, "but the taillights are still on the factory switch and I must've forgot to turn it on when we left our last stop." I pulled the park lights on and he checked the back of the car, "yeah...that was it, you be careful and have a safe trip sir!"
"Thanks Officer", I returned as I crawled out of the Valiant. He simply got back in his car and left the lot as I opened the trunk to begin fueling.
Our new buddy in the Ford had parked on the side of the station and walked over with a big smile, "You ran away from me when we hit that 45 zone, then when I saw the red and blue lights come on, I knew you'd garnered some unwanted attention."
I explained what happened to him, and he shook his head, "Rather be lucky than good, I suppose!"

Michelle came over a few minutes later and explained to me that she would like to exchange co-drivers. "Willie really wants to ride in your Valiant, and I really want to get rid of him for a little while, he's getting on my nerves!"
"Sure", I shrugged, "If Rachael doesn't mind, I certainly don't."

It was only thirty-eight more miles to checkpoint #2, and Will and I found plenty to talk about, so it went by pretty quick. He was impressed by how much quieter the Valiant was inside than the Duster seemed to be.
"We've been wearing ear muffs over there, and texting each other", he explained with a laugh, "normal conversation is just too difficult!"
"I've got the entire floor done in dynomat under the carpet", I explained, "and with the fenderwell headers and the mufflers towards the outside of the car, it's not too bad".
We came to a stoplight about five miles from the checkpoint and I rolled up to 3 grand in low, then hammered it. The front end topped out on the shocks and I clicked it into second at 7, then stayed in it a couple hundred feet before lifting and shifting to drive. Will had a big grin and his eyes were wide, "that front end bounces up quick, and it rips nice and clean...even on pump gas through the mufflers!"
"That's kind of the whole point of having a street car", I laughed. "If you have to drive it on egg shells when you aren't uncorked or have C-12 in the tank, you're missing out on half the fun!"

Checkpoint #2 was a large IGA grocery store.
"The checkpoints are kinda boring this year, and so are the routes!" Rachael complained, when she started moving her stuff back over to the Valiant. "I told Michelle they were missing out, since there aren't nearly as many switchbacks and tiny roads with turn after turn this year".
"Well, it's kinda tough to stop at a little hole in the wall checkpoint, now that we have 400 entries, and I'm sure the simpler routes have something to do with setting them up to use google maps!"
We were shooting our pictures when the driver of the Ford walked up, shoulders slightly slumped. "Man, I think I'm going to cut you guys loose", he explained, "I'm just wore plum out, so I think I'm going to enter the address to my hotel and take the quickest route there!"
"That's cool, I wish we could do the same thing, it's been a long day", I laughed. "But we'll see you tomorrow at the track, right?"
Definitely", he smiled, "I'll look you guys up for sure!"
He turned away then came back. "I'd feel guilty if something happened, so I'm just going to say it, that Valiant seems to walk around a bunch on the rear suspension. Are you sure everything is tight under there? Is it a diagonal link, panhard bar, or wishbone?"
"It's a diagonal link...and I just had it all apart, so I know it's tight, but I feel it. We have more weight in the car this year, so maybe I need to put a few extra clicks in the shocks? I appreciate you pointing it out though!"
"Well, be careful out there", he smiled and headed back to his truck.

Will, Michelle and Derek decided they were going to stop at the convenience store across the street to get more snacks and use the bathroom.
"Rachael and I are going to keep rolling", I explained.
Once we were back in the car, I looked at Rachael. "How do they make any miles stopping constantly?"
"They don't...it would drive me crazy!"
I was glad she agreed with me, it was 9:45 pm and we still had a hundred miles to cover.

Posting on 3-18. very appropriate my small block brother!

Ran into John Ens mechanic for Dave Schroeder yesterday, it was the first time I have seen him without a set of push rods and rockers in his hands for awhile. We had some good laughs about the driving directions they give you at drag week to get from track to track.
The Vette is in Winnipeg and they are getting it ready for this years race, hopefully they make it 2 in a row.

US-67 South was a dark lonely road out of Beardstown, and I was nodding off by the time we made thirty miles. Rachael wasn't happy with that development, and begged me to let her drive.
"Just find me a c-store where I can get some killer coffee, and I'll be fine", I explained.
"Twenty miles up the road, there is a Casey's in a little town called White Hall. That will put us at 88 miles on this tank, so we might as well fuel up too."
She had to bump me four or five times to keep my head up, but we arrived safe and sound.

There was a trio of Canadian Drag Weekers down at the end of the lot, so I walked down to see what they were up to.
Matt Blasco looked up from the Dirty Drag Week Dart and smiled, "Are you stalking me?"
"Yeah...maybe! how's it going for you guys?"

Joining Matt was Rich Guido, who's stunning black 65 GTO features a 517 inch Poncho, running through a T-56 stick. While Rich's love for the big inch Pontiac has been unwavering, his relationship with the pro-charger has been an on again off again affair. He's ran the car NA two drag Weeks, and with the belt driven supercharger twice. His opening shot on Drag Week 2017 had been a stunning 9.99 at an unreal 144 mph, a pass that was 5 tenths quicker than the car had been in previous years, so the boost was finally paying dividends. The third Canadian was Drag Week rookie Pat Myker, who's radical 67 Chevelle is powered by a pro-charged 540 BBC, through a lenco, with the largest amount of "stuff" ever strapped to a roof rack in Drag Week history!

Matt explained to me that Pat's car was the reason they had spent so much time at this particular stop.
"He killed the battery, it wouldn't do anything. So Rich and I start trying to locate a replacement, but all these small towns around here roll up the sidewalks at 6pm, so nothing's open. (White Hall, pop. 2300, Roodhouse, pop. 1600, for reference) When we realize no stores are open where we can buy a battery within forty miles, we got desperate and started going door to door to see if any of the residents had a spare they'd be willing to part with!"
I shook my head, "That sounds sketchy even to me, it's a wonder you didn't end up with trousers full of buckshot!"
Matt laughed, "It was crazy, but we got lucky and found a toothless old fellow who was willing to let us buy the battery out of his Jeep on the side of the house for twenty bucks!"
"And it's going to work?"
"Yeah, we test fired it a while ago, so as soon as he gets everything strapped back down we'll be back on the road!"

Rachael had finished filling up the Valiant, so I excused myself and went in the store for a 24 oz coffee/hot chocolate and several snacks. We waved goodbye and drove back out on US67 a few minutes later.
I handed Rachael the confirmation sheet for our hotel and asked her to enter that as our finish point instead of the track.
"How many miles to go?"
After a few minutes she replied, "58 miles to the parking lot!"
"I can do that, no problem", I assured her.
We had passed through another small town, Carrollton Il., when I noticed headlights catching up to us fairly quick from behind. We had pretty much been the only car on the road since we left the Casey's. Rich, Matt and Pat blew by us a mile later at easily 15 mph faster than our pace!
Rachael held her hands up and glared at me, "but you always say you don't need a gear vendors!"
"I don't...we'll get there, eventually!

It was 12:15 when we took the back road off of I-255 to get to the hotel parking lot. We were about two blocks away when I looked over to see Tom Bailey and Sick Seconds 2.0 in a huge parking lot with the front end off the car. Typically when the big hitters are preparing for a major thrash they tend to try and find just such a location away from prying eyes where they have plenty of room to work.
"That doesn't look good", I pointed it out to Rachael.
"Nope, not at all", she agreed, "going to be a long night for them!"

Top pic: What do these two cars have in common? Both have been over 140 in the quarter...just let that sink in!
Bottom pic: Happy to still be rolling!

"We just left the second checkpoint", Boone explained, "we spent quite a bit of time there trying to get some juice in the Duster's batteries."
I had taken my shower already, and decided to call them before I went to sleep so I could give them directions to the hotel, and our room numbers.
"Good grief, you still got a long pull then, is the alternator situation still a problem?"
"It's worse than last year. I don't know if the batteries are toast, or if the alternator is failing, but it won't keep up even with the cooling fans turned off!"
"Great! Did Rick and Sharma get the Dart back together?"
"Yeah, they are running with us".
"OK, just call me when you get close, and I'll bring down the card to the other room and talk you guys in".


Tuesday Day 2, Gateway Motorsports Park
I fell asleep within a few seconds after talking with Boone, and was completely unconscious until my work alarm went off at 6:00 am. I scrambled to reach my phone and looked around stunned to see the first hint of dawn coming through the window.
"Why were Rachael and I the only two still in the room? Why hasn't Boone or Dale called me? Have I slept through their attempts?"
I sat up and went through my phone...no new calls. I re-dialed Boone, and he answered, explaining they were still eight miles out.
If they still had Rick and Sharma in tow, they would need a place to sleep if only for an hour or two, so I jumped up and took a quick shower, then got Rachael up and around. By the time the eight of them arrived, we were ready to go, so we did what we could to get them all situated, then carried our bags down and took part in the continental breakfast.
"Was that your brothers just arriving?" A slender man in a Drag Week t-shirt asked us from a nearby table.
"Yeah, they had a long night!"
"That's going to make for another great story, I can't wait to read this year's edition", he laughed.
"Thanks...Drag Week always provides the drama!"

"Who was that?" Rachael asked me, as we arranged our bags in the Valiant.
"I don't have a clue!" I shrugged.
"But he knows all about us."
"Yeah, and after all this time, that still catches me off guard...I don't think I'll ever get used to it!"

With the number of times we've raced at Gateway, and stayed in Collinsville, we know our way around the area pretty good, so Rachael and I stopped at Wal-Mart to load up on ice and supplies before heading to the track. We ran into Tonya Turk and Tara Fling doing the same thing and were reminded that the Drag Week staff puts in long days at this event as well. We still rolled through the gate before cars had even started running, which is like a record for us on the second day. I decided to use the time to go over the car, and change the plugs, which had been in since day 3 of Drag Week last year.
Will, Michelle and Derek pitted beside us just as I had finished one side of the engine.
"Do you now what happened to Rick and Sharma?" Will asked, "they were supposed to share our motel room, but we never heard from them."
"They arrived at our motel, along with the brothers, about an hour ago", I explained.
He let out a low whistle, "They are going to be dead tired when we hit the road this afternoon!"
"Yeah, for sure, but we have to get our runs in first", I smiled, "one hurdle at a time!"

Its amazing that Richard drives his Goat from Canada,competes and drives it back home.Last year he did DW and RMRW both.He is the Canadian Chuck Norris.

Texans John Dodson and Jason Doisher were once again the first pair down the track. Jason's Marquis wagon put down a nice 8.54, but John's Malibu blew the radials off hard and he had to pedal. The fourth pair down saw Danny Allen's radial equipped twin turbo LS powered 65 Nova wagon blow the tires off and nearly get to the center stripe before he gathered it under control. James Karger's small tire fox body suffered the same fate two pairs later.
I looked up at Rachael, who I was teaching to gap plugs and shook my head. "I don't understand why these guys rush up there to be the first down a green track on a cool overcast morning like this. The track is going to have teeth today, but let the slower guys put some heat in it first!"
"Yeah, 'cause you're mister radial track prep expert", She quipped.
"Nope", I chuckled, "just an old Super Street racer who knows the value of being 5 or 10 sets back in line so you can get the lay of the land!"
Two pairs later Curt Johnson's small tire notch Mustang laid down a nice 8.85, and was followed up by Scott Klepinger's third gen Camaro on a super straight 8.30-166.
"See there", I pointed at the scoreboard, "now the track is coming around...ten sets in, just like I said!"
"Even a blind squirrel finds an acorn once in a while, right?" She laughed, and handed me the next plug.

The next ten pairs down the track was pretty much loaded with Mopars. The small block A-body contingent, featuring Corey Pant's 74 Duster, Marty Gorman's 72 Scamp, and a pair of black Darts, a 68 for Rod Munchiando and a 69 for Ron Maguire, all made nice clean runs comparable to what they turned in on Monday, so it appeared they could be one and done if they so chose.
Things didn't go as planned however for Lee Brooks and his 69 Satellite. A loud pop was heard at about thirty feet out and the car made a move to the wall. He expertly lifted and guided the car to a stop next to the wall, but it was clear something in the rear wasn't happy. The passenger's side rear tire looked awry, like there was a broken axle, but when they tried to push the car backwards it would bang and lock up, like a broken ring and pinion gear.
"At least he has time to fix it and make another run", Rachael commented, "unlike us if something bad happens, since you seem to be determined to wait until the last session every day!"
"Point made, little lady, but I'll live by the sword and die by the sword...it's all I know!"

"A slender man"

Well that rules most of us out...

The few I can think of you would know.

It took eight minutes to get Lee's Satellite off track, using a set of wheel dollies. Scott Hendrix's 70 512 Duster ran a 10.65-124 to nearly duplicate his pass from Monday, then a few pairs later the track shut down for an extensive lane cleanup following what appeared to be a perfectly clean run by a CTS-V of all things. The racing was silent for twenty minutes, so we had effectively lost thirty minutes of run time in the first hour of track availability. Considering my brothers were still looking at the inside of their eyelids, that was probably a good thing for us.

With the plug change done, I fired the Valiant, made sure it was hitting on all eight properly, then drug out the timing light.
"Sit in the seat, and fire it up when I tell you to", I instructed Rachael.
"No, I'm the trunk monkey this year so I want to learn how to do it...and not just holding the light on the thingie, all of it, hooking it up, moving the plug wire holder in the back, all of it!"
I chuckled, shook my head, then drew in a deep breath and decided we had time and if she wanted to learn that was a good thing.
"First", I pointed as she looked over my shoulder, "That's the balancer, not a thingie, the piece cast into the cover with a zero mark is the timing tab, and that back there, is a distributor not a plug wire holder!"
I called Will over to man the driver's seat and showed him the process to fire the car, then talked Rachael through the entire process with my hands behind my back, letting her do it all. I realized at some point that this is really what's required to keep these old dinosaurs alive, one generation teaching the next how it was done before laptop screens with plug and play.
"So we've backed it off from 34 to 30", Rachael noted as she carefully removed the timing light leads from the engine. "Are those the settings we're going to use all week?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much it, the MSD will pull out another 9 degrees when the nitrous is applied", I explained.
"That's quite a bit isn't it?" Will asked as he climbed out of the car.
"More than you're used to hearing around my brothers, I'm sure, but small blocks are more sensitive to timing on the bottle than all their big blocks are!"

We heard Heinselmann over the loud speaker and looked up in time to see the purple AAR Cuda stop the counters at 9.31-144.
"That big Hemi is flying", Will exclaimed.
"No doubt", I agreed, "and that run is within thousandths of what he ran at Cordova, so I'm sure he and Connie will be heading for Byron shortly!"

I've compared Drag Week to running a Marathon on multiple occasions, and if that analogy holds up, day two at the track is similar to the five mile mark in the famous foot race. Everyone was excited Monday morning, but now the approach seemed more measured, and even though presumably just as many cars needed to make runs, the lanes weren't nearly as crowded. Doisher and Dodson had to wait for 118 cars to make it back around for a second try on Monday, but on Tuesday they were back to the water box after just 54 others had made an initial run.
Drag Week veterans like Radar Watkins with his big Fury, and Ross Dudley in the yellow 68 Road Runner, don't let the ebbs and flows effect them, they came up a little later than usual, but made solid runs within a tenth or so of their Monday runs, and were still ready to head for Byron before the first session ended.
Mark Hill's orange early Barracuda showed the true potential of the low deck big block on board, running it's first Drag Week ten second pass, a nice 10.95-127. Another rookie, Ross' Canadian buddy in his 69 small block Dart, Ron Maguire, decided to take a second whack at the track and made it pay off with a nearly half-second improvement to a 12.25-110.

I decided that since my brothers still hadn't arrived, I would use the time to go over the rear suspension again, as I had promised my "friend" in the Ford pickup the previous night. I jacked it up as high as I could, and slid the stands under the frame rails, then lowered the rear until the slicks were barely off the pavement. I shook it back and forth, checking all the bolts in the back, and they were, of course, all tight. There was a popping noise in the front, however, so I crawled under in front of the tire and grabbed the diagonal link. To my horror, I could move it back and forth a half inch or more in the front. The link was tight and secure in the bracket, but the nut which held the bracket to the rod end was backed off considerably on the over long pivot bolt, allowing the movement!
"Well...CRAP!"
"What's going on under there?"
"Nothing Rach, just your dumb dad trying to get us killed!" I knew I was blushing as I crawled out from under the car and grabbed all the pertinent tools I needed.
"This car won't move another inch until I've tightened every nut and bolt on this rear suspension!"

Some how, Billy, I knew you were going to find a problem under there when you mentioned the seat. At least it didn't require a welder.

Frank Perkins' Day 1 Drag Week experience was great, with a stout 9.91 from his small tire, leaf spring 69 Valiant. I'm sure one of his goals quickly became to run in the nines every day, but an opening pass of 10.08-134 at Gateway put that in jeopardy. Since he was making the trip with fellow Canadian Ross Dudley, who famously gets on the road pretty early, He probably had to call in a favor for a second pass. Late in the first session, he made another run, but a close 10.02-134.59 would have to do! Sometimes goals get adjusted on the fly, so a nine second average for the week would have to do! Then again, owning the sixth quickest normally aspirated Mopar ever on Drag Week isn't a bad consolation prize either.

Despite three or four minor lapses for track clean-up, the Gateway staff managed to get 154 passes logged in the first hour and forty-five minutes. The information was passed down from Lonnie Grimm that the first session would close in exactly forty more minutes, and as soon as the announcement was made, you could feel a perceptible push towards the lanes by some of the guys who had yet to make a run.

The crazy young Swedes with their short wheelbase Opel Ascona backed up their first seven on Monday with an impressive on the edge, skating around 7.91-171 mph blast to whet our appetite for some Matt Blasco and the Dirty Drag Week Dart action. When the power from Matt's boosted wedge hit the rear tires however, the little Dodge decided to live up to the "Swinger" moniker, dancing from the center stripe to the wall as Matt struggled to keep the front tires heading down track! The 10.73-82 on the scoreboard did little to explain what a crossed up mess and great save that run actually was.

Street Machine Mag had some great coverage of it, both in and out of the car.

https://youtu.be/HHCC89QaDAM

Thanks, Clark
I hadn't seen that yet, Street Machine Magazine always does a great job covering everything Drag Week!

While my brothers were still sleeping, and everyone else was throwing down numbers in the first session, Aussie John Faraone was using fellow Drag Weeker Geoff Dugopolski's shop for a little Tuesday morning check-up on his Valiant Charger's 572 wedge. Apparently, nothing is "routine", on a seven second street car!!

As the first session neared completion, many guys were making improvements over their Monday runs, while others were inexplicably slower. Paul Cornman's Demon made two hits, but could only manage 9.50's after starting the week with a 9.35, he would return later in the day for a 9.49-141.9 pass. The defending class Champ in Street Race Small Block NA, Jason Tabcott and his 70 Camaro, found his mojo at Gateway, with a 9.36. after an opening 9.48 Monday, so Paul would leave St. Louis with a scant eight thousands lead.

Terry Keifer's 67 Barracuda improved, as he continued to acclimate himself to the new twin turbo, blow through carb setup, turning in a 10.71-129. Scott Abbott's 67 Belvedere showed strides as well, and while the 10.26 was a nice number for the small tire B-body, the big normally aspirated, millennium headed Hemi was really starting to get attention by carding 137.6 mph.

Glenn Hunter's Pro Street Power Adder winning 56 Chevy laid down an incredible 7.47-186 mph pass, that squarely put pressure on Matt Blasco and the Dirty Dart to try and keep up with. Tom McGilton's '13 ZL-1 Camaro, also competing in that class, couldn't achieve boost on the line and idled down on his first attempt, so answers would have to wait for later in the day. Schroeder's Vette was the talk of the morning however, with a straight, problem free, 6.60-214.3 that led everyone to really start believing this might be the year. Bailey's Pro Mod Camaro rattled the tires at the top of low and made a move to the center stripe. He gathered it in, and managed a 7.41-214, but like so many of us, they would have to come back for the all-run session in the afternoon.

The SME cars were well into their runs before the rest of our group filled out the pits. Rachael immediately grabbed the grille out of Darren's truck, and started preparing to feed everyone. The group looked surprisingly well rested as they methodically began prepping and unloading.
"10:55", I raised my arm to examine a non existent watch, "thought you were going for a record!"
"Considering we rolled into Noble a few years ago with mere minutes to make a pass, this seems fairly routine", Dale shrugged.
"How many passes have you made so far?" Boone inquired, as I helped him and little Billy push the trailer back from the Duster.
"Uhh...well, I'm pitted all the way back here, and the starting line just seems so far away...".
"What have you been doing?"
"Scouting the competition, getting the lay of the land, making crucial adjustments to the car...".
"Rachael!"
"I think he took another nap under the car...he was down there for a long time", she laughed.

Cornmans Demon..... that's straight up PORN right there!!!

The Street Machine Eliminator session went off very smooth, with most of the discussion hinging upon the possibility of an all ten second quick 32 field. The bump had been around 10.95 after day one, so many of the low eleven second guys were making multiple passes at Gateway, looking to find a way to scrub a hundredth or two. Lohnes couldn't help himself but to implore more people to bring their bracket cars to Hot Rod Drag Week when Kim brought the Primal Scream Satellite to the line. "This right here, is exactly what we need more of", he explained. With an hour and twenty minutes of track time, it appeared everyone had at least two shots at the track if they were ready, but I was still surprised by how many were still in the all run lanes as we went into the final session at straight up Noon.

Pic 1: Kim Prepares to go under the tower, beside Robert Lee's 2017 Mustang.
Pic 3: Cody Walker's Swinger went 12.32-106 at Gateway, and would head to Byron in 68th of the 123 SME entries still in. There were 9 DNF's already in the class by the end of track time.
Pic 4: John Stukey's Charger HellCat was holding down a top 5 spot with a 10.14, while 2015 Runner-up and 2016 SME Champ David Burke was in danger of missing the Quick 32 bump with his low eleven second 79 LeMans.

Still amazed you can remember all the small details

Billy is that good!

(I have to go back and watch the replay of the live feed, to remember the details)

Billy has said he has a photographic memory. Which unfortunately he has had to listen to me talk at Drag Week, and waste valuable space, with pure BS.

The replay of the live feed is an awesome resource which not only helps me establish my timeline, but in truth, changes the way we do the event! Prior to the availability of a recorded journal of all the track time, participants felt the need to hang around the track for fear of missing all the action. Now you can do your own thing, confident that when you get home, the option to enjoy it all again from a different view point will be there.

Top pic: For every minute of sleep that little Billy steals on Drag Week, the Duster rusts twice as fast!

Middle pic: The only victim of the Gateway SME session was this Camaro's T-top, which departed the car at the eighth mile mark and shattered when it returned to the track.

Bottom pic: If the look on engine builder Steve Morris' face doesn't tell you that Bailey's Pro Mod Camaro was done for Drag Week 2017 in the pits at Gateway, just take a close look at the chunks in the oil pan just under the driver's front tire!

What happened to Bailey's motor?

I think it broke a rod? I don't recall exactly. That billet motor sure has not been nice to Bailey.

I got a closer up pic of that oil pan....ugh!

Actually getting a little ahead of ourselves chronologically, but that's alright. Sick Seconds 2.0 was in the 7th or 8th pair of the all-run session and the final two hours of track time at Gateway was already building into one for the ages by the time Bailey followed Josh Lester's Olds powered Cutlass into the right lane water. Joe Barry and his "Creamsickle" 56 Chevy opened the festivities with a stout 7.06-201 that let everyone know the track was ready to take some horsepower. Following that pass, Janne Uskali assaulted the left lane in the Flying Finns' 67 Plymouth VIP with a beautiful 8.07-170 MPH pass out of the Brewer wedge powered C Body. Directly behind him in the water was Matt Blasko in the Dirty Drag Week Dart, and while the Canadian A body still had a significant wiggle at the 330' mark, Matt drove through it to a solid 7.71-186. Tom McGilton's ZL-1 answered Matt's run with an unreal 7.53-197 in the same Pro Street Power Adder class. To put that pass in proper context you need to understand that Pro Street at Drag Week is a fairly restrictive set of rules: back halved, stock floor pans, almost a nostalgia type build. Tom had became the first to run over 190 miles per hour just a day earlier at 190.5, so to see him lay down that 197 had all of us in attendance just shaking our heads in awe!

That was the back drop which anticipated Bailey's second attempt at maintaining the overall lead in Drag Week 2017 at St. Louis. The Pro Mod 69 Camaro left hard (1.06 to 60'), and while it avoided the sudden move to the center that had forced him to pedal the previous run, it was still headed towards the cones by four hundred feet out. He wrestled it to within inches of the line, with the big slicks black tracking hard, until he finally had to lift (or the engine expired from the increased rpms) at a thousand feet. The chute was fully blossomed when the scoreboard lit up with 6.39-187 numbers, but Tom must've already knew it was hurt bad because he brought the machine to a full stop well short of the turn off at the end of the track.
That is the cruelty of Drag Week in a nutshell, one second you are laying down the quickest pass of the event, and in the next second you are searching for a ride back to Cordova so you can fetch the truck and trailer!

Since we decided to eat what Rachael had prepared, and had sat around trading stories about the drive, everyone seemed to migrate to the all-run lanes at roughly the same time. There were only about fifty cars in the lanes, and it was still a good hour from cut-off time so we felt fairly confident that if any of us had a bad pass, there would be an opportunity to come back up for a another run.


1st pic: Team Scrab brought their 92 Spirit R/T back around for a late day 2nd effort. The Shelby Dodge Auto Club members were rewarded with a 13.42-104.57 pass with Teri behind the wheel.

2nd pic: Kurt Stewart and his 91 Eagle Talon were among the SME cars that were concerned about a ten second bump spot for the quick 32. His day 1 pass had been an 11.02-111.9, so he felt compelled to push the little DSM 4G63T a little harder. The resulting 10.76-126 would have put him solidly back in the field, but the little turbo four gave up the head gasket at 1100 feet, spewing out steam and water that would mark the end of his DW17 competition.

3rd pic: Derik took his GMC down directly behind the Eagle, and before the track officials realized there had been a problem, but a little top end fluid was no problem for the fourteen second, ninety-six mph Jimmy!

4th pic: The top end crew rolled out right after Derik went down, so for the second day in a row Michelle would have to nervously wait in the water box for a track cleanup...

From 1997 to 2002, our family vacations went like this for six years in a row: We would spend Labor Day Weekend at Mo-Kan Dragway testing our Mopars to prepare for the second weekend in September, in which we would load up and head to Gateway in St. Louis for the big Monster Mopar Weekend. We would load up every nitrous bottle we could find, and throw everything we had at that world class facility for three straight days! Twenty of the eighty quickest runs I've made in my life, a full 25%, have been at that track, which is 1456 miles from my front door! During that time we would pull whatever it took to get beside each other in the lanes, often asking to move in front of one car or another, or allowing guys to drive by us. That led to match races which we can still remember like they happened yesterday, some of our most cherished time-slips and moments.

When Lonnie Grimm waived me forward out of the far left staging lane, and paired me beside Tracy Grim's post Olds as we entered the two lane that would take us under the tower and to the water box, racing one of my brothers was the furthest thing from my mind. Even when I noticed the Gremlin was in the right lane two pairs back I doubted it was even possible...but this is St. Louis, and all three of my siblings were in the lanes, so with a little luck, and a little mischief, history has a habit of repeating itself!

Pic 1: Darren walks into the lanes, and gives Dale a grin...the game is afoot, and he's roped Dylan in as his helper!

Pic 2: They walk by me to make their way to the front and count back cars.

Pic 3: Darren takes up a look out position at the corner of the tower, so he can keep an eye on the crew and relay back instructions.

Pic 4: Boone and Little Billy take up positions behind the Gremlin, so they can ask other cars to move forward if need be. At this point they've boxed in and taken control of a hundred feet of the staging lanes!

The big block in Michelle's Duster blew soot out of the pipes for the first sixty foot and struggled to an 11.96-113. She hadn't got the rpm up at all in the smokeless burnout, and by the look of Will's body language as he left to head for the time slip booth, he would be directing her straight back to the lanes. Clark Strong was up next in his Road Runner, and a nice 10.75-125 would keep him well within the quick 32 for SME.

Part of the luck we needed to make a match race between Dale and I a reality came in the form of Brian Kohlmann's fuel coupe that Squirrel and Dan were pushing into the water box. The track officials decided to run the little green beast as a single, so that moved the Gremlin from two pairs back to only one! A nice 1.27 '60 was negated when the 354 Hemi fell on it's face about 400 feet out. He eased back into the throttle, and rolled through at 11.09-111.

Billy, you're on a roll!

With Brian and the 31 Chrysler coupe's single, I went from being paired with Tracy Grim's 442, to beside Larry Armstrong's Willy's pick-up, with Dale just one pair behind, at that point the brothers went into full launch of their plan. Boone was consulting with Dale, while Darren yanked my door open.
"We've been talking with PJ in the Falcon, and he's agreed to drive around you, so we can match you up with Dale", he explained.
"Darren!" I shoved my hands forward toward the windshield, "we are under the tower, and I'm only two sets from running!" "There isn't enough room to make this happen!"
"Hey!" He laughed and shook his head, "the Valiant and Falcon were compact cars in the early sixties, we'll get him to pull in the middle, then we'll guide you back, so he can pull in front of you!"
"We are already paired, and under the tower, we are twenty feet from the red line where you are supposed to be strapped in and ready for competition, and you want to attempt this now?"
"Relax", Darren instructed me, "this isn't a National event, and it isn't an elimination round." He slapped me on the shoulder, "the Gremlin is going to whip your butt, and the rest of us are going to have a front row seat for it!"
With that he shut my door and started guiding PJ Nadeau and the more door 60 Falcon to a spot between me and the Willy's.

PJ had been struggling mightily with his new turbo setup, so for him to agree to this little operation is a credit to him. It was tight quarters, but we pulled it off in the length of time it took BJ Bax and Larry Dixon to do their burnouts and stage up the pair of Novas.
I wasn't exactly looking forward to it, as I've been foot braking the Valiant so I can concentrate on getting on the nitrous at just the right time. It's a fine line between a slow sixty foot and a wheelstand, so I need to have the rpm right at the hit, and be ready on the button. That method is not conducive to a good light on a pro tree, which isn't a big deal since these are only time runs, but now I'm beside Dale, and he's going to be on the trans brake and he's going to kill the dang tree!

Dale did a massive burnout across the line while I did my little second gear only warmup, then I purged the nitrous into the engine a few times and rolled towards the beams. The 428 had sounded really crisp with the plug change, but I was nervous so I thought my way through what I needed to do.

"Listen. You are going to get treed, it's going to happen. You need to put the tach on 2800, and when you leave, be ready to grab the button twenty feet out. Not when the front end is safely back on the ground, that's too late. Not when you see the Gremlin leave on you, that's too early. Concentrate!"
"OK, we got this", I muttered into my helmet and lit the bottom bulb.

When you have experience racing on a pro tree, all your concentration is on letting go of the button, or getting to wide open throttle as fast as you can when you see the three ambers flash as one, but you train your mind to take a snapshot of the other car out of your peripheral vision the instant you feel your car react. It's important for you to know who got the tree and by how much when you are index racing, so that you can form a plan as to how to race the stripe. As soon as the Valiant's front end began to rise, my brain showed me the snapshot of the Gremlin, and it was a car out already.
"Oh good grief, that was ugly" I thought, but even as it registered, my thumb was planted on the nitrous button.
The front end was cresting to come back down when the small block wailed under the spell of the juice. The front end stayed up and torqued to the right as the Valiant accelerated through low gear and halted the Gremlin from pulling any further ahead. The tach light flashed in my eyes, and I slipped the Cheetah SCS back into second. The bottom of second felt wonderful as I concentrated on the Gremlin in front of us.
"You're reeling that monster back in! You wicked, wicked little minx, I love this small block!"
The Valiant was clawing back to the Gremlin's rear bumper when the shiftlight flashed again, and I put the 904 into Drive. The loss of gear multiplication halted our gains and the Gremlin even pulled back away in the last 200 feet.
"Wish I had a second kit for drive! Who am I joking? The shift light was on for the last 150 feet, the needle was past 7! You'd need a different converter, different gear...she's giving you all there is to give!
I pumped the brakes and started easing down in the shutdown area. Dale braked hard enough to get back even with me and we exchanged thumbs up salutes and then he took the exit in front of me.

I couldn't wait, I had to find the live feed re play on YouTube!

The Gateway time slip booth is all the way down the return road in front of the bleachers, then you turn left about even with the Christmas tree and exit into the front of the pits as you are handed the slip. Since we nearly always end up at the back end of the pits closer to the finish line and the circle track, I normally exit straight to the pits, park my car and walk down to pick up my slip, saving a half-mile of idling my car around at two hundred plus degrees. I decided since we were likely one and done today, I might as well follow Dale on the full tour. I saw Boone was staging the Ruster Duster in the left lane just as we drove by and pulled up to the little red shack. I Looked at the time slip and saw 9.43: "that must he his" went through my mind immediately, so I looked at the other side. 9.47 at 142.5, "no, we can't run that fast...OMG, the 9.43 is ours! We actually got down the track quicker than that 580 cubic inch monster!". I pulled my helmet, neck collar and gloves off as we idled back to our pits, then I patted the dash and let out a whoop, "Nine freakin' forty-three! Dang! Didn't know you had it in ya, old girl!" I followed Dale into our spot, and it was equally difficult for both of us to contain our emotions when the engines shut off and the doors opened.

"It might have looked like a good side by side race if you hadn't stole three tenths from me at the tree", I complained as we started to break down the slip.
"Lohnes said Dale's light was 'handily the best of the day, if not the whole week', if I remember his quote exactly", Rachael interjected.
"Well...I figured I might need all of it", Dale laughed.
"Did you see my eighth?" I pointed at the slip.
"I did notice that", Dale shook his head, "Congrats, you've got a five second car now!
"It was all set up by that sixty foot. My best was the 1.36 last year when it was on the bumper at Indy, so to go 1.33 and stay in the groove was awesome. Can't tell you how it felt though because I was too focused on that Gremlin out in front of me!"

Congrats on the awesome passes guys! So by Drag Week rules Billy won because he had the lower ET. By drag racing rules Dale won because he crossed the finish line first. Did you guys decide between you who won?

Dang dude, I know he is your Brother but three tenths head start is a little excessive, isn't it

The perfect way for it to end in a win-win and yet set up the next race!

No offence to Billy, but when your brother is in the other lane, Drag Week rules are out the window, and first to the finish line is all that matters. I'm guessing it is one pass neither will forget, and what makes Drag Week so special to the Gebharts.

By the way Billy, I have the same fondness for Gateway. LOVE racing there. Ran my first 9 second pass, in 2003, and fastest ET ever in the GTX back in 2004 at MMW. It was so much fun at those events.

What does the valiant weigh? That 428 is making some horsepower.

With him in it or me? LOL.

My take on it was...Dale beat me, but the Valiant drove off the grounds in possession of the quickest pass of our group for the second Drag Week day in a row, so I was fine with that! The Valiant goes 3100lbs. with me and a nitrous bottle on board.


While my light was horrible, Boone took it to a new level. He could hardly be blamed, as he was lined up with Robert Berry's 45 Chevy rat truck, and he was spooling his Cummins deisel with so much fervor, that he blacked out the tree to the point that Boone never saw it come down, literally.
The Ruster left great, but the popping started around 800 feet and persisted all the way to the finish line. The 9.97-137.25 was only four hundreds quicker than his 10.01 from day 1, but it might as well have been a half a second for the difference in Boone's demeanor.
"The track workers flagged me down at the scales", Boone laughed, "They told me I really needed to check my engine out before I tried another pass, because it was missing so bad when I went through the traps!"

The next pair in line behind Boone featured John Faraone's 72 Valiant Charger. With the news that Tom Bailey was out, John had already moved to second in the Unlimited class, and third overall if he could only repeat a pass close to his day 1 pace. The silver beast left incredibly well, and looked to be on a stellar run, but he clicked it at 1100ft. and the chutes were blossomed at the stripe. The 7.481 was only a tenth slower than Monday, but he scrubbed twenty MPH, down from 194 to 173.

Michelle would bring the Duster up two pairs later for a nice, smooth 11.26 at 121.5 that seemed to satisfy their hopes.
"Is that just all it has?" I asked Dale as the scoreboard lit up.
"No...not by a long shot...but it might be all it's got with a rookie tuner and a rookie driver trying to finish Drag Week, so as long as it keeps moving forward and putting down those numbers and they are happy, I'm happy."
Will walked over a few minutes later, and he wasn't happy.
"I've been talking to some of the other racers, and they tell me that at Byron you have to back into the burn-out box! What are we going to do with the Duster, do we need to look into the trans tonight?"
"Back into the burnout box?" I asked, "I've never heard that before".
"It's something new", Will explained, "Someone got hit by something flying out of the box, so they put up barriers to protect the cars and people behind them and that requires you to drive around then back up to the water."
"Listen", I decided to borrow Darren's phrase from earlier in the day, "It's not a National event, they'll be hosting street cars on their third track in three days with five hundred miles under their belt, so I'm sure leeway will be given."
"Yeah", Dale took up my train of thought, "She'll pull around the barrier, kick it in neutral, three of us will run out there and push it back in the water, and no one will say a word, guaranteed!"
"OK, if you guys say so, I just don't want her to get kicked out because of something like that", Will shook his head.
"Don't know why you're worried, she hasn't done a burnout all week", Bone interjected.
"Well, thank goodness you didn't say that in front of her", Will smiled, "I've been critiquing that very thing and she's pretty sensitive about it right now!"
After Will walked away, I gave Boone a slap on the back. "Dale and I are trying to save you, but if you want to be a joker maybe we should tell them to get it on stands. Then guess who is going to be on his back under that purple car for the next three hours!"
"Why does it matter to you?" Boone gave my shoulder a shove, "You and Rachael will be on the road to Byron in thirty minutes regardless of whether the rest of us are ready to move anyway!
"That's a fact right there!" Rachael exclaimed from the ground where she was installing the driver's side exhaust on the Valiant.
"Yep", I laughed, "call us the scout team this year...out in front, checking for danger!"
"Out in front, avoiding getting your hands dirty is more like it!" Dad piped in.

Rick brought the green 71 Dart under the tower, preparing for his first run of the day. He would have time to come back if anything went terribly wrong, but both he and Sharma were wore plum out, so I had a feeling that anything remotely representative would be good. The 11.53-115 was an improvement of two tenths and twelve mph over day 1 numbers, so they were ready to pack up and call it good.

With all of our runs done and completed, we headed to the tower to turn in our time slips, and get the route sheet for our drive to Byron. Even as we made our way up, we still had an ear to the PA, and an eye on the scoreboards, paying attention to the last forty minutes of track time left in the day. There weren't many people left that needed a last ditch effort to stay in class, or greatly improve upon a previous run, instead we were watching participants who were using multiple passes to chip away at their goal.
"Some of these guys are getting greedy!" Dale observed as we found the tower stairs.
"Yeah", I agreed, "hopefully it doesn't bite them later on down the line."

Earlier in the day Doc McEntire's Goodwin Hemi powered 68 Camaro had became the first naturally aspirated Drag Week entry to run in the sevens, with a stout 7.99-165. Chasing him in Pro Street NA was Steve Stanick's nasty sounding 68 Firebird in gray primer. We had watched them struggle to get the car through the first drive, apparently having as many charging issues as Boone was with the Duster, so we weren't surprised to see him staging the car this late in the afternoon. The Lohnes-Freiburger exchange had more than a few of us laughing as we marveled at how lucky we've been to have these two on the mics for the entirety of the event.
"Brian, I think you and I had the same reaction to this Firebird in the right hand lane, like, I don't know there's just something about it, it's wicked, it just has the right look..."
"Yeah, it's a roll it off the trailer in the middle of a corn field kinda Saturday night car and throw some money on the hood, because it's just angry looking...bar fighter type of stuff!"
You don't have to see the racing, they paint such a good picture", I commented.
"Very entertaining for sure", Boone laughed and shook his head.
The Firebird went 8.96-146 to maintain second place in the class, just a tenth ahead of third.

Five hours after they had pushed the 69 off the track with a broken rear, Lee Brooks and his bright yellow Satellite were once again staging in the Gateway starting beams. The 11.57-116.1 was an improvement over his day 1 lap, so we figured he was good to go. We would see him later with a tire and wheel off yet again, and he didn't make it to Byron however, so maybe all the problems weren't solved, or he just decided to limp it back to Cordova instead.
"Did you see Clark and his Dad?" Dale asked as we waited in line to give our slips to Tonya Turk.
"Yeah, Clark (Bad340fish/Moparts)and Bill (340Cuda/Moparts) made the trip from Tulsa, while Charley (mprhound/Moparts) and Bill(wyldebill/Moparts) made the trip from Texas. It was great to get to visit with all of them, but it was also clear that Drag Week has it's hooks in deep, so I expect all four of them to be back particpating again in the future!"
Boone handed his time slip to Tonya and she looked up at him and asked, "Are all the brothers still with us?"
"Nope", Boone replied, "Darren is out with the Charger again...he's brought that car five times and it hasn't finished once!"
Tonya shook her head, "Well...I'd say he needs to get a different car then, wouldn't you think?"
We all burst into laughter at that remark.

Can't speak for the Texans but Clark and I plan to be in Commerce GA the second week in September and he did get signed up.

Once again Tonya proves, with the possible exception of marrying Keith, she is a smart lady.

I was showing my checkpoint pictures to Tara Fling when Dennis Taylor began his burn out in the "Bad Rattitude" 55 Chevy Gasser. When he left Cordova, he was thirty-six hundredths down to Jarrad Scott's 62 Hemi powered Ranchero in A Gas. His daughter Alex lost her "Badmaro" on the first drive to valvetrain issues, so he and traveling buddy Clark Rosenstengel hadn't made it to the motel until daylight. Despite that, here he was, back at the starting line for his fourth pass of the day. He already had a stellar 8.80-156 in his pocket, that had gained back twenty-two hundredths on Scott, so I really didn't understand why he was still trying to make laps this late in the day. Like Scott's Hemichero and Finnegan's BlaspHemi 55, Taylor's Gasser features a big hp blown mill with a clutch and a stick. That combination makes the leave interesting, as they walk a fine line between blowing through the clutch or tires, and tossing the front end high in the air.
The ferocity and quickness with which the 55 rotated skyward on this particular run caused an audible group gasp from everyone in the tower. From our vantage point we could clearly see the trailer hitch dig into the track as the back tires cleared the ground as well. He lifted, which is all you can do at that point, and the front slammed down so hard on the leaf sprung straight axle that it tossed the nose up a good five feet on the first bounce and two or more on the second bounce. Dennis managed to bring the Chevy to a safe stop in his lane about 500 feet out, but both front tires were flat, a subsequent inspection revealed both wheels were ruined.
The tower room where we were turning in our time slips went from stunned silence to everyone talking loudly at once.
"He probably should've saved it for Byron", Dale spoke directly behind me.
"Yep", I agreed, "No amount of extra effort goes unpunished on Drag Week!"

Dennis runs an auto in the '55.

I couldn't figure out why Dennis made more passes either. But Dennis is hardcore and doesn't do anything half ass, including front axle destruction lol.

We will be there! I got signed up, and I am already behind on getting the car together!

In typical Drag Week fashion, if there are three hundred and eighty cars, and two of them are hoodless red Firebirds, at some point they MUST line them up!
Terry Miller's 3rd Gen 82 was holding the third spot in Modified NA, just ahead of Dale's Gremlin and features a 355 Pro 1 headed 565 BBC with a 2.75 low gear set turbo 350.
Stephen Chechak's 2nd Gen 80 is powered by a much more conventional twin turbo LSX. It was an odd race in that the turbo car walked around on the radials out of the hole, ran the NA car down, but then fell off at a thousand feet as the NA big block drove back around. 8.94-160.5 for the NA 3rd Gen, 9.154-155.7 for the LSX.

We were walking back to our pits and Rachael was already complaining about the route. "This is boring, it's nearly a straight run again, 150 miles up I-55, one checkpoint, then 180 up I-39 to the motel...terrible!"

Tom McGilton brought his '13 ZL-1 back to the line for his third hit of the day, and Lohnes confirmed on the PA that this was all about trying to get the big beast into the two hundred mile an hour club. The 7.51-199.17 was very impressive, but just short of his goal, and only an improvement of two hundredths over his previous run.

One of the last cars to enter the water box at Gateway and round out day two of track time was Finnegan's Blasphemi 55. His opening day 9.53-141 had him solidly in third place, but he had only mustered an 11.78-90 earlier in the day. The all aluminum blown Hemi would need at least a 10.90 or better to stay ahead of Forbes and Grabiak, who were fourth and fifth in the A Gas class, running in the 10.20 range both days.

His first burnout attempt resulted in very little tire smoke, and a few pops from the engine, so he backed the 55 up for another attempt. The wheel speed and engine speed were both higher on the second attempt, but the engine was once again breaking up, and as he rolled towards the staging beams, the tire smoke was replaced with thick blue oil smoke from the headers. He would turn in the 11.79, but the 55 was done, and Mike's first attempt at Drag Week came to an end.

Rachael and I headed the Valiant out of the Pilot Travel Center ahead of the rest of the gang, and started the drive to Byron as the scout team once again. Out on I-55, I put the tach on 2800, nervously watched the temp gauge climb to 210, and did my best to maintain a gap between the Valiant and the cars ahead to get as much clean air through the radiator as possible. Ten miles out, the traffic eased up, and my focus on the temp gauge eased. Rachael had barely looked up from our phones, as she was syncing the map on one and group texting on the other.
"Look to your left in that field, Rachael", I pointed out the window. "What do you see?"
Her face lit up with delight as she recognized the place.
"That's the Pink Elephant Antique store, checkpoint one on Drag Week 15!"
"That's it. How does it look in the daylight!"
"Awesome! We've been on the road for what? Twenty minutes? It took Dale and I like four hours from Gateway to there in 2015!"
"True, but they ran us about eighteen miles out of route that year just to that point, definitely not a straight shot!"

The traffic thinned out even more, the scenery was great, and the small block was purring along. I had the bit in my teeth was ready to chew up some miles, but Rachael shook her head about thirty minutes later, and turned her phone screen towards me.
"The natives are getting restless!"
"What do you mean?"
"The group text", she explained, "Since we are out in front, they have tasked us with finding a restaurant for dinner!"
"Well...kick it down the road if you can, I don't want to stop right away!"
she spent a little while looking at the map on one phone, with google opened up on the other.
"We're about thirty miles out of Springfield Illinois, and there is a Bob Evans just off the highway?"
"That'll work, I guess...they are a chain right? Never been in one."
"I'll put it on the group text, and see what they think", she decided.

We pulled into the parking lot and Rachael spotted Squirrel's red Chevy II A/FX already parked there.
"Hey! Jim and Dan are here!"
"Well, that sucks", I commented.
She looked at me like I was crazy, "I thought you liked those guys?"
"I definitely do, but I don't see Brian's coupe anywhere, and I'm sure they'd be traveling together, so I'm assuming they are out!"
"Oh...yeah, that would suck", she agreed as we walked towards the restaurant.

yeah, that did suck.

Billy I grew up about 1/4 mile from that restaurant and worked for the company that owned the power plant at that exit.

Even stranger the serial killer John Wayne Gacy lived about 4 blocks from there. He was the Springfield Jaycees man of the year in 1965.

Now back to drag week.

When the wait staff and the cook staff start arguing about whether or not either will be able to handle a party of thirteen on a Tuesday afternoon, it's probably a good indicator that you should choose another place, but we are Drag Weekers, and don't scare away easy.
We did have to wait quite a while on our very average meals, but the company was good, and they kept the iced tea and water coming, so I have no complaints. It was a comfortable atmosphere for our group to chat about what we had been through so far, and what was ahead.

We went across the street to the Shell station to prepare for our next leg of the journey as the sun was just about to disappear. It was one of the few times that we were all together on the road at the same time all week. We had spent an hour and forty minutes in the restaurant, then another thirty at the station, so I was itching to get moving, and Rachael and I were once again the first to hit I-55.
"How far to the checkpoint?"
"Sixty-six miles", Rachael shook her head, "easiest route ever, just look for exit one sixty in Bloomington".

Twenty miles down the road,we were cruising along without a care in the world, enjoying the cool evening air and the drive when the temp gauge dropped from two hundred to zero. I furrowed my brow, leaned forward in my seat and pecked on the face of the gauge with my index finger.
Rachael laughed, "I've seen that in the movies a hundred times...it never works!"
"I guess you're right", I agreed, "but I had to try!"

We took an exit five miles later, crossed over the street at the top of the overpass and parked on the gravel as we started down the entrance back onto I-55. I removed the hood, checked the hoses, fan belt, wiggled the wires to the sensor, everything looked fine. Eventually we decided nothing was wrong with the engine, just that the gauge wasn't working. We saw Michelle, Derek, and Rick drive by, but Dale and Boone hadn't caught up by the time we accelerated back up to highway speed.

The checkpoint for our Tuesday drive was Carl's Ice Cream Factory in Bloomington. We didn't arrive until 8:45 pm, but it was still loaded with Drag Week cars and onlookers. We grabbed our pictures and moved to the back parking lot to allow others a place to pull up and get the sign and the car in the same pic as required. They had closed down the dining area, and were preparing to close completely, but Dale managed to grab some sundaes to go so we could get our ice cream fix.
Boone dug around behind the place until he found a live electrical outlet, and ran his 50ft drop cord to the Duster so he could get the battery charger on it right away. The ice cream was enjoyable, the company was enjoyable, but I was itching to get moving. We still had a hundred and twenty miles ahead of us and I desperately wanted to spend more time in a comfortable bed than we had the night before.

Rachael and I once again were the first on the road, and we decided to hit a station and top off the tank, hoping to run all the way to the motel without stopping again. After spending twenty minutes at the checkpoint the temp gauge starting working, but only lasted about forty miles before it quit once again. It was cool out, so I wasn't too worried, but another twenty miles down the road, I looked over to notice the voltmeter hovering at about 11.8, and I was immediately filled with dread!

We pulled over, got out our Harbor Freight flashlights, removed the hood, and checked everything. The belt was tight, the plug in the back of the alternator was tight, the power cable was tight. I fired it up again, and it showed thirteen and a half with the lights and fans off, so the alternator was working, just wasn't keeping up for some reason. I began to suspect that one of my Optimas might be going bad. Back on I-39 North, I started cycling the fans on and off, which was dicey since I had no temp gauge, and slowly but surely the voltmeter climbed back up to 12.6 or so and I breathed a little easier.

Billy have you ever tried plugging your scoop on the road? I have often wondered if a forward scoop works against the radiator airflow when going down the highway. My car with the stock hood is very sensitive to airflow, it will warm up when there is a semi a long ways up the road, i can't imagine a scoop jamming air in would help any of that.

Clark, Have not tried that.

It was a little before midnight when we pulled into the curved entryway to the Country Hearth Inn in Rochelle Illinois. It was a fairly new motel built across the street from an equally new Super 8. It wasn't a very developed area, so both motels were surrounded by large expanses of grass fields but featured small parking lots.

The truth about "Trailer Week" as our own Ray Meyers (sixpackgut/Moparts) likes to call it is that many of these guys love using those small, short trailers to haul all their extra stuff, but nearly all of them lack the skill or patience to back them up more than four feet without jackknifing them. So four of our trailer pullers had chose to park along the curb of the barely two lane wide curved entryway. I started laughing as we drove past them, and I saw the semi with his 53 foot trailer sitting in front of the office with his door open, all lights and four-ways on, engine running.
"What's so funny?" Rachael asked, giving me a look.
"As a truck driver, I can tell you that the only way he can make it out is with his passenger's front tire rubbing on the outside curb, and his back trailer duals rubbing on the inside curb. That means every single one of those Drag Weekers are going to have to move their cars for him to get out of here!"
I was able to barely squeeze the Valiant past his front fender and find a spot to park, then we grabbed our bags and headed to the lobby.
The Driver was standing in front of the desk, clearly agitated, and it was obvious that he had been berating the night clerk for quite some time. The young man's hands were shaking as he checked the computer screen in front of him, trying to match the tag numbers on a hand written note to those turned in by the room registrations. I interjected myself into the conversation in the hopes of calming everyone down, and expediting the issue of our rooms.
"The yellow 67 Mustang is Rich Pedraza, if you have that name on your guest list."
The clerk's shoulders dropped and he exhaled audibly, "Thank God...I wasn't having any luck with these tag numbers!"
The trucker turned and sized me up. "Any idea about the white notch or the blue Camaro?"
I gave them two possible names for each car, and the clerk found matches for both on his list. He was clearly relieved , and happy, but his hands were still shaking as he reached for the phone to call the rooms.
"Sorry, I have no idea who owns the tan fox body though."
The trucker laughed, "He doesn't know what a fox body is, but that's the one owner he found by the tag number."
"Okay", the clerk stammered, "I reached all of them, and they'll be right down to move."
The trucker spun on his heel and walked back out to his truck without another word.
"Thanks...thanks a bunch...I thought he was going to pull me over this counter!"
"No problem!"
A disheveled twenty something walked by with shorts and flip flops, shook his head with an embarrassed smile and walked out to one of the cars.
"Two rooms for Billy Gebhart, pre-paid", I explained.
"The clerk brought up our info and issued key cards. One of the rooms smelled of cigarette smoke, so I sent Rachael back down to confront him. She returned a few minutes later to explain that these were the last two rooms, and the smelly one had been "converted" from smoking to non-smoking in the last week.
"He said they shampooed it and aired it out", Rachael shrugged.
"Dylan smokes, Dale's wife smokes, Darren's ex smoked, so we'll leave this room for them, and take the other one. You know Boone would have a cow if he had to sleep in here!"
I had already gave Darren detailed instructions on the phone to find the motel while Rachael was in the shower, so I went straight to bed after mine, and I never heard the other guys even come in the room, so Rachael must've got up and handed out the keys.

Wednesday Day 3, Byron Dragway
I got up, showered and dressed before I got Rachael out of bed, then I grabbed my bag and headed down to the car. I recognized Car Craft Editor John McGann in the hallway and I introduced myself.
"You know I have an IMM built small block in my 62 Valiant", I explained.
"Brian and his Dad are good guys", he nodded, "We've worked together on several articles."
"I've seen those, good reading, so that's why I mentioned it".
"So you like the engine?"
"Yeah", I smiled, "Pump gas driver, 10.30's on motor, 9.40's on juice, fourth Drag Week in a row with only plug and oil changes..."
"That's awesome! Certainly nothing to complain about there!"
"So, you enjoying this so far?" I asked as he popped the trunk on the HellCat Challenger and slipped his bag inside.
"Yes! This is awesome, so glad Hot Rod invited me to tag along!"
"The event, or the car?" I asked with a slight chuckle.
"Both!" He laughed, "Driving this HellCat, getting to make a pass each day, taking pictures of all these great cars and interacting with all the people...it's been a dream week so far!"
I walked over to the Valiant and stuffed my bag in the back, listening to the rumble of the Challenger as it disappeared into the morning fog, and I couldn't help but be a little jealous of John.

I thought the fog was Thursday morning, not Wednesday morning?

Wednesday morning was just an appetizer, it burned off pretty quickly. Thursday morning was the main course!!

In my mind's eye, it was about fifteen miles from the motel to Byron Dragway, and had that been remotely accurate, we would have rolled through the gate on fumes and been ready to dump in some Rockett 114, to make a nitrous pass. It was, however, twenty-eight miles in reality, and that was about to become a problem. The fog was gone, and the morning sun was bright by the time we covered the eleven miles north on I-39 to exit 111. IL State Route 72 is a narrow, meandering two lane that is completely without shoulders. The curbside boundary lines had been sprayed at the very edges of the asphalt, and there was less than six inches of gravel before the lush green drainage ditches on each side came up to meet the road. It appeared that every participant and spectator attending the event was using this stretch of road, and we were in bumper to bumper traffic as far as I could see ahead and behind us. This development had me once more nervously watching the temp gauge, which had decided to work again. I should have been nervously watching the fuel gauge, but that's a feature on the fifty-five year old car that I have never attempted to repair.
The first time the noisy electric fuel pump changed pitch, Rachael's eyebrows shot up, and she turned her head to look directly at me.
"Dang it Dad, is that what I think it is?"
"Yes dear, we're scavenging the bottom of the tank!"
"You should've stopped at the BP when we came off the exit."
"Apparently! How far are we from the track?"
She looked down at her phone, "still nine more miles".
The engine coughed, and I tapped the accelerator pumps a few times while shaking the car side to side.
"We aren't going to make it that far. Is there another station ahead?"
She worked her phone with both thumbs, "no, nothing between here and the track".
I was looking for a place to land when the engine finally died, I managed to ease the Valiant into the mouth of a private driveway just enough to clear the line of traffic, and instructed Rachael to call Boone or Dale and see how far behind us they were going to be.
Roughly ten cars had passed us by before Jesse Madaffari pulled alongside and stopped. He looked over from his John Deer Green 83 Chevy C-10 and asked, "What seems to be the problem, Billy?"
"Ran out of gas", I shrugged.
Jesse nodded, then instructed his co-driver/grandson Cameron to jump out and give us a gallon or two of their race gas as it would be easy to reach. He had positioned his truck just off my quarter panel and was blocking traffic, basically forcing everyone to drive around us. It was exactly the kind of move we have come to expect from the cool headed Oklahoma Tractor mechanic/School Bus Driver/Substitute Teacher/Church Pastor. His "No racer left behind" attitude, combined with his rock steady demeanor in adverse situations led him to become the 2015 Spirit of Drag Week winner, but the picture of him dealing with a carb fire on Keith Harrison's Coupe while on the side of the road during Drag Week 2017, simply added to his legendary status among Drag Weekers.
Cameron muscled the John Deere Green Jerrycan out of the truck while I opened the trunk, removed the cell cap, and grabbed a funnel. We were back on the road in a matter of minutes.

The scene as we drove through the gate at Byron Dragway quickly reminded me of just how far Hot Rod Drag Week has grown in both size and stature over the last decade. In the early years, a medium sized facility like Byron might look at Wednesday as a chance to grab some easy rent money in the middle of the week, and they'd bring a skeleton crew in to run the track, minimal track prep, open the gates for five or six hours, and call it a day.
Now it's a major event with multiple media outlet coverage, and a serious spectator count, not to mention three hundred plus cars. Byron rolled out the red carpet, and it was all hands on deck. They had multiple greeters and traffic directors at the gate, and throughout the facility. The stands were full, the spectator parking was full, the pits were full. It was amazing day at the track, but the property was pushed to capacity, and the staff handled it wonderfully.

As drag week motels go, the Country Hearth Inn was fairly nice, but other than coffee, and a few pieces of fruit, they had no breakfast. When Rachael purchased small boxes of cereal at Walmart on day 1, I thought it was a waste of time, but they made for a nice little break after we unloaded all our belongings onto the grass and attempted to hold spots for the family's arrival.

To take us a back a few posts, I have a very poor video of Dale vs Billy at Gateway. I went back to look at my youtube channel for something today and saw this. I had forgotten that I even took the video, much less uploaded it to youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sY7RMH3ll7E

Billy you should write/publish a book about you/your family members & friends many Drag Week experiences - I'm certain they would fly off the book store shelves! Always enjoy reading my friend! Hope you/family are doing well.

Wes

Billy had mentioned authoring a book awhile back. I asked him if he could possibly do it before I croaked but I am beginning to wonder about the time line.

By the time Rachael and I had unloaded our stuff from the car and sat down to enjoy our breakfast, the first session was already thirty minutes in and the first five mopars to hit the track had already ran the passes they would turn in to get their route sheets for the trip to Union Grove.
Corey Pant and his 74 Duster went 10.63-125.9, which was just thousandths off what he ran on opening day. Rick Callahan however, was struggling with his big block Roadrunner. He was nearly three tenths slower than on day 1, and down sixteen mph as the beautiful B-body visibly slowed on the big end. I don't know what the issue was, but since he turned that slip in, he must've realized it was something he couldn't remedy at the track. Rod Munchiando and his familiar black Dart GTS were enjoying their eleventh Drag Week, and an 11.85-110 was indicative of what the small block car has ran the last three years. Certainly an improvement from the low fourteens it averaged in 2007!
Marty Gorman's 72 small block powered Valiant decided to square off against the 70 Hemi Roadrunner of Mike Chenoweth, and due to a hole shot, the little "purple people beater" had a fender on the Lime light B-body for the first fifteen feet. It was all big inch Hemi after that though, 10.79-131.6 to 12.83-107.9.

Even though Rachael and I arrived well after cars had started running down the track, the rest of our group didn't roll in until about an hour later. The Tuesday night drive had been fairly easy, and the decision to sleep in was a good one. Across the board, our entire entourage looked better than they had since Friday morning before we started packing to leave. We helped get the cars situated, then pushed Boone's trailer around to a position next to our pile of belongings on the uneven grass covered low spot just behind the lanes.
"This place is awesome!" Dale could hardly contain his smile.
"Yeah! I can't decide if it's the people, the facility, the weather, or just the fact that we all got some quality rest, but it just feels right!"
"So...we're just going to enjoy it, soak it all in, prep our cars, and plan on a 1:00pm hit in the all run third session?" Boone asked with a toothy grin.
Everyone seemed to be in agreement.
"I think I'm going to change the oil and run the valves on the Gremlin", Dale nodded.
"Rachael has to set the timing, and I'll probably put in a fresh bottle, just because, other than that the Valiant should be ready."
Everyone returned to working on their own cars, and after Rachael put the small block on 31 degrees, she grabbed Boone's camera out of the Duster and put it around her neck.
"I'm going to go shoot some more people and cars", she declared.
"By all means", I agreed, "I doubt you've made a dent in that memory card yet!"

The Wednesday track portion at Drag Week, going back to my Marathon analogy, is like hitting the half-marathon timers, and taking a second to look around and gauge how you are doing. Two of the four drives are behind you, and a solid pass that is close to the average you established on the first two days is what you are looking for. Most marathoners, unless they had something go terribly wrong in the first half, don't think, "I'm going to run the second half quicker". Likewise for Drag Weekers, usually they are pretty tentative on Wednesday and Thursday, just looking to maintain what they've already done. In a Marathon, the people you pass in the second half are usually slowing down or struggling, not because you sped up. The same is true on Drag Week, if you are moving up in your class on Wednesday, Thursday or Friday, it's typically because your opponent is struggling, not because you suddenly found a huge increase in performance.

The next pair featured what was likely the heaviest Wedge powered Mopar alongside the lightest Hemi powered entry. Radar had the best seat on the property behind the wheel of his Fury to watch Jarrad Scott crush the wheelie bars on the blown Hemi powered, G-force shifted 62 Ranchero Gasser. It was on the bars so hard that the little beast pivoted in the air and came down pointed toward the wall. He was able to correct it and stay with the pass, but only due to the near four wide tarmac that Byron Dragway is famous for.

After the disappointment of accepting a 10.02 at Gateway, Frank Perkins and his Valiant were back to their nine second ways with an excellent, well hooked 9.94-134.7.

Terry Keifer's 67 fastback fish rolled off the line soft, then kicked out a little fuel soot as the boost hit and really started to move just after the 60 foot clocks. The front shocks were extended all the way to the stripe as the twin turbo big block A-body made the best pass ever in three Drag Weeks, 10.42-133.5. Terry and his crew wasted very little time hooking up the trailer and heading for Wisconsin, as we watched them drive out the gate before we had even put a car in the lanes!

Matt Blasco and the Dirty Drag Week Dart, also on their third drag week attempt, were heading in the other direction ET wise. After leaving the first two tracks with time slips in the 7.7-185 range, the 8.17-171 at Byron didn't seem all that encouraging. While he would maintain third place comfortably in Pro Street Power Adder, it was definitely not the Swinger's best day at the track.

The two baddest small tire, stock suspension, street driven, normally aspirated Mopars on the planet struggled to get the grip they needed at the Indiana facility. Monday's 9.30s couldn't be found, despite both cars running nearly the same mph they had earlier in the week. The 9.57-141 was especially harmful to Paul Cornman and his Demon's chances in Street Race Small Block NA. They had started the day with just a few thousandths in hand against Jason Tabscott's high flying 70 Camaro, and despite multiple attempts, would leave for Great Lakes seventeen hundredths down.

Randi Heinselman's Hemi powered E-body gave up a tenth to the sun soaked Byron launch pad, eventually accepting a 9.42-143 for his efforts on Wednesday. 2017's event had to be bittersweet for Randy and Connie, as they finally had enough power on tap to outrun Vince Rasch's 69 Pontiac Firebird for the first time in four years, but Curt Johnson's 582 Chevy powered fox body was rewriting all the marks for Super Street Big Block NA.

Stopped by, first time in awhile, and am looking forward to catching up on this thread later. Thanks for putting all the time into it!

We were enjoying our Wednesday at this legendary little track, and the same could be said for the Mopar crew from Alberta. Both Ross and his buddy Ron made multiple passes while at Byron, and they were determined to make sure one of those were side by side. Much like Dale and I at Gateway, it took some effort in the lanes, but it looked as though they had it worked out until a car right ahead of them stalled and was pushed out of the way. Not to be denied, Ross gave them the "I'm just an old guy from Canada" routine, acting like he couldn't figure out to back the Road Runner into the burnout box until they lost patience and sent the guy he was paired with on a single and brought Ron's black 69 Dart alongside! Now, I'm not saying that's exactly how it went down, but that's how it appeared from my vantage point. The end result was that the big block powered B-body put a whippin' on the clean little small block Dart.

Squirrel brought his A/FX Chevy II to the line late in session one, and the blown 427 seemed to be down a bit on power, yielding a 10.35 at only 124 that was a tenth and 5 mph off his efforts of the first two days. Jay Grabiak's 55 ran a 10.23-129 two cars behind him to up the stakes.
The 62 is only legal to 10.0, so Jim and Dan couldn't do anything about the pair of high eight second machines leading the A Gas class, but they needed to find a way to hold Jay off if they wanted to maintain a podium finish. When Jim won the class in both '15 and '16, Jay and the 55 had finished second and third respectively and Jim was only holding a 6 hundredths lead over the first two days, so it was clear that the Sierra Vista boys were going to have to wrench on the vintage Mark IV to find some power and return for the all-run session.

Clark Rosenstengal and his 2010 Camaro seemed to lead a charmed life at DW16, taking the SSSBPA win despite losing a head on his Steve Morris built twin turbo LSX, and recording a 7.99 five day average. 2017 was proving to be a monumentally tougher task however, as the class had exploded from twelve machines to twenty-seven! Quality in the class had also taken a huge jump, with thirteen of those competitors running in the sevens or eights.
Steve Morris had been riding with Tom Bailey in Sick Seconds 2.0, but had switched to Clark's co-pilot when Tom lost the engine at Gateway. He was backing Clark up from his burnout when the track officials ran out with mops to clean a few spots. Clark shut the Camaro off a few inches from the stage beam and waited for the clean up process to end. Every racer has an internal clock in situations like that where you begin to contemplate backing up for another burnout, but when the starter gave the all clear sign Steve and Clark decided to just put it in the beams and go. The decision bit them as the drag radials never really grabbed the tarmac, and after a few soft pedals, Clark just cruised to a 9.44-129. As he hit the stripe, Lohnes put out the call for Street Machine Eliminator to come to the lanes.

When Dave Schroeder finished his burnout a few cars later, he upped the ante on Clark for celebrity help with backing up and staging the car as Jeff Lutz stepped in front of the blue Corvette at the sixty foot mark. It was a task often performed over the years by Monte Smith, as co-driver and cousin John Ens prefers to watch from the back. Dave was lucky to have someone with as much experience as Jeff, because he was quick to give Dave the cutoff sign when he noticed something wrong just as the nitrous assisted monster was backing across the beams. There was a small amount of liquid on the windshield and some spots on the track, and usually at most races this would mean a push back to the pits, but Lutz and Enz were frantically working to save the attempt, Lohnes and Freiburger had everyone hyped up in the stands and on the live feed, and the starter and crew were willing participants to help out. Lutz grabbed a roll of paper towels and dabbed at the top of the engine while the track workers took a torch to the starting line. Someone handed Lutz a wrench and he appeared to tighten a fitting and give the all good sign at nearly the same time the starter decided the track was also fine. The entire process from cutoff to restart and stage took just over two minutes, and like Clark, Dave put the 66 in the beams without another burnout. Unlike Clark's Camaro, the Vette features monstrous slicks out back, so even though it bucked around a bit and made a hard move towards the wall, Schroeder was able to corral the 872 inch beast and salvage a nice 7.04-199. Granted, an all six second week was undoubtedly a goal, but finishing and winning was everything for the Canadian duo, and given all the problems that have prevented them from making it to Friday in previous drag weeks, they were going to take that run and load up for Wisconsin with a healthy car and a healthy lead.

Very cool stories Billy, really appreciate the time you put into this.

Hey Jeff! Has it really been a month? Longer? Wow.

The Street Machine session was twenty minutes in, and as Dale buttoned up the Gremlin, Boone roped him into assisting on the Ruster. Boone's investment of a rebuild and a roller cam into the 440 Source low deck 512 was not paying the benefits he had expected, and he was laying the blame directly at Dale's feet.
"Dave thinks the popping at the top end is lack of ignition, not fuel, so I want to swap from the 6AL and blaster 2 to the 7AL2 and HVC coil", Boone explained.
"Dave is an idiot who should be paying more attention to the Valiant, and less on giving advice", Dale retorted with a smile as I was within easy earshot.
"I also want to throw more jet at the carb, and the nitrous system", Boone persisted.
"So we are really doing this?" "Right now, less than an hour away from the final session?" You've ran 137 the last two days, that's within a mph of the Valiant, and two mph faster than last year!" Dale let out a slow whistle and shook his head with his hands on his hips, "I just can't make you happy!"
"I've got a SR headed, roller cammed 512 and I'm supposed to be happy about running slower than a conventional headed small block?" Boone tossed his hand up, and raised his voice, "I should be blowing that Road Toad in the weeds!"
"HEY", I spun around and pointed my right index finger at him.
He laughed, then quickly added, "It was a term of endearment!"

Since we were already into the SME session, we figured Derik would be the first from our entourage to get a run, but Rick's impatience got the better of him, and somehow he managed to sneak his 71 Swinger through the lanes to lay down an 11.42-115.78 which was his best pass of the week so far. Derik went 14.73-95 in the GMC a few pairs later and both guys were satisfied with those time slips, so we had two down, and four to go.

Nice of you to post an update, waiting for the coffee table book to be published!

"This is the car that I really, really, really, really like because I've always wondered why more people don't do it! This is the Plymouth now known as 'Primal Scream', and what is it? It's a bracket car! This is a bracket car being driven by Kimberly. These guys just bought this Mopar, swapped the gear ratio, and brought it out to Drag Week! It's a stripped out bracket car, tin interior and everything, it's got a big block in it, and it's just the coolest thing in the world! I've always wondered why more bracket racers don't literally just hook up the directionals, headlights and taillights, throw mufflers on, pull out some gear and show up for Hot Rod Drag Week...well these guys did exactly that! This car was painted twenty-five years ago and still looks that good! Freiburger has no idea why I love this thing so much, but I love it because it's the most grass roots way you can show up and compete in this with a car that's relatively fast! Kimberly goes 10.31-129!"

That was the call as Jim and Kim's 72 Satellite made their first run at Byron. Brian Lohnes was alone in the announcer's booth for a time and just couldn't resist bragging on the beautiful red B-body!

Jim and Kim's Plymouth wasn't the only B-body in SME, it wasn't even the only 72 Satellite! Steve Moberley's beige four door had completely escaped my notice until he lined up directly behind "Primal Scream" at Byron, and while the forty-five year old machine had survived a life of utilitarian work as either a taxi or squad car (had to be one or the other, right?), unfortunately the high twelve second beast didn't finish Drag Week 2017, bowing out on Thursday after a posting a best of 12.72-104.

Clark Strong's 69 bird continued to hold down a spot around 20th in the SME Quick 32 with a solid 10.77-125 at Byron.

I kept waiting for updates. Think the 4 door 72 was basically stock 318 with spray if I remember correct. I sure don't have your memory!

I was ready when the call went out for the final all-run session, but it was still hectic attempting to reach the lanes. The small grassy area we were pitted in was directly behind, and lower than staging, but featured only one small road as it's entry and exit. It was as steep as it was narrow, with a rapid incline, so management had placed a volunteer at the opening to direct traffic, and he was pulling cars from both our lot and the regular pits in an alternating fashion, six to eight at a time, to fill the lanes.
Walt Herr's eight second 69 Camaro was pitted next to the entrance, and the line formed so quickly that he was trapped in his pit spot. When they cut off our line from advancing I left him a hole, so his trunk monkey gave me a thumbs up and motioned for Walt to pull out. Then I heard that sickening sound gm starters make when they are about to toss parts on the ground or rip teeth off the ring gear. One attempt and he let off, the second attempt was no better. His crewman tossed his hands in the air, and motioned me on as our line was moving once again, but I refused, knowing that they couldn't push it up the hill, and if I went on he might have to wait for fifty more cars. On the third attempt, Walt laid on the starter mercilessly, and after hacking and banging through 5 or 10 revolutions the big block finally came to life. He gave me a big smile and a wave out the window as he jumped into the line and I followed him into the lanes.
Once staged, he walked back to the Valiant and greeted me with his fingers crossed. "If it'll just start one more time and I get a good pass, then I will change it out", he shook his head. "We picked up a new one last night, but we were so worn out, we put it off until today!"
"I know how it works", I smiled, "it seems like there is never enough time to get everything done, and the schedule gets tweaked as we go along!"

The Byron track is very unique, and like most of the competitors on Drag Week I'm guessing, it was my first real look at it as I watched a few sets before buckling in. From the stands you don't realize how wide the racing surface actually is, despite Lohnes' history lesson about four wide racing at this facility in it's infancy. Approaching it for the first time, you understand why it makes for such a great venue for the crazy World Power Wheel Standing Championships year after year! The shutdown and return area kicks uphill which is not entirely unique, but the first turn comes up pretty quick and it's the only one, if you need to use the rest of the asphalt shutdown you are required to drive past the single left hand turn and do a u-turn before the sand trap. The already wide racing surface feels even more expansive in the shutdown as the right side wall disappears, and is replaced by a manicured grassy area. The effect of this is that drivers feel compelled to treat the singular left side exit more as a big sweeper on a road course than the exit off a drag strip. Most national event style NHRA facilities have walls that actually kick up higher after the finish line, with narrow exits that force you to turn at nearly a crawl. In that context, it's quite easy to remember the drag strip etiquette that has been pounded into our heads over and over by NHRA officials for thirty years: The car in the lane nearest to the exit has the right-of-way, always. The car in the far lane must wait to exit second or have clear visual confirmation that they have room to exit safely before turning. The crux of this rule is to prevent the car in the far lane attempting to take the first exit and turning in front of the driver in the near lane who may be heading for the second exit, or possibly even the sand trap!

With the luxury of hindsight, and sitting here at my PC watching the replay of the live feed, I realize that wasn't happening at all during Hot Rod Drag Week's 2017 visit to Byron Dragway! The sweeper was just too inviting, and many Drag Week competitors are street car guys without much racing experience, so I have watched set after set where the guy in the right lane crowded over towards the grass on the right then swung left at twenty, thirty, some times forty mph using the generous curve to take the best line, often ahead of the near lane car. That's all fine and dandy if it was indeed a road course curve and the car on the inside is expected to brake harder to maintain his line, but what was happening was that the car in the left lane was being denied the option to drive past the turn, and this led to quite the experience on my first pass as well as a competitor who spun out, nearly repeating the carnage that befell the Schroeder-Ens Team a year earlier.

As luck would have it, I was paired with Walt and his Camaro. I navigated around the burnout barrier and a track worker directed me back into the water. The burnout felt decent, and I was comfortable as I eased the Valiant into the first stage beam after purging the nitrous into the engine a couple of times. I was concentrated on getting the launch rpm right where I wanted it so I was dead late on the tree and Walt was out on me by four tenths before the Valiant moved. The Hoosiers seem to spin a revolution and the front tires barely left the pavement, and while I contemplated that result, I was late on the nitrous button, like after the 60 foot clocks late! The 428 screamed to life and I worked through the two shifts perfectly, and the shift light was on bright for the last 100 feet of track. I lifted at the line and cursed myself for waisting so much ET at the hit. I reflexively squeezed the brake pedal, but didn't really apply pressure until I noticed that the curve was coming up really quick. I braked hard enough to set myself up to take the curve fairly fast, when I suddenly noticed that Walt was already starting his turn at a much lower speed and our paths were on an intersect course! I crammed into the new rear discs harder than I ever could have with the old drums and pointed the Valiant at the Camaro's broadside using the old adage of "aim where they are, and they will be gone by the time you get there." The end result was that he took the corner a good forty feet before I arrived, and to the casual observer everything appeared well within the bounds of a safe exit, but my heart was in my throat for a couple of seconds!

I would've been thrilled with the 9.76-138.5 run last year, heck, I probably would have been happy with it on Monday at Cordova, but following the 9.43 at Gateway, it felt incredibly disappointing! Looking back now, it's the 7th quickest pass the Valiant has made, but as the old Steve Earle tune laments, "I ain't ever satisfied"!

The pairing that I alluded to in my previous post was a race featuring Dennis Taylor's high flying 55 Chevy gasser called "Bad Rattitude" in the right lane, already on it's second set of front wheels, and the equally unique 69 Triumph TR6 of Ed Olson with a big inch, turbo charged Pontiac for power!

Dennis and the 55 got out first, as Ed spooled up, so even though both cars ran nearly the same ET., 9.14-152 for the '55 to an 8.93-152 for the TR6, Dennis hit the stripe well ahead of the Triumph and dumped the laundry. The 55 slowed hard immediately, but Ed let the little roadster settle down for a couple hundred feet before he really applied some brake. Watching the live feed replay in slow motion and overlaying my own shutdown experience over the scene you can see the exact moment that Ed comes to the realization that Dennis is going to exit and he's going way too fast to avoid him. To Dennis' credit it appears that he was watching Ed and had prepared to keep to his lane if necessary, but Ed bombed the brakes, lost the rear end on the Triumph and flat spun into the 55's lane and off into the grass! Had the right lane wall extended all the way down the return, the awesome little TR6 would be a crumpled mess, but Ed simply collected his thoughts for a moment and drove back onto the tarmac before the Ambulance and track safety crew chased him down!

Wonder when that lil smallblock is going in for some “updates”....

Much to the delight of the Dodge social media crew that was following Paul Castiglione and his big block 72 Challenger all week (or perhaps they arranged it), he was paired with Sean Devine's red 16 Challenger Hellcat for one of his runs. Paul got the better of the match 10.77-123 to Sean's 10.99-125. As I made my way back to the pits, I saw Michelle pull the purple Duster around the burnout barrier, and a few of our group push her back into the water. She ran 11.22-120 for her best ET of Drag Week 2017, and checked off one more box on her way to finishing.
I parked the Valiant, crawled out, and opened the trunk to turn off the bottle. Lohnes was already giving the "thirty minutes until the lanes close" call and I shook my head as I noticed Dale and Boone still working on the Duster.
I walked over and slapped Boone on the back, "You guys thinking about maybe putting your junk in line!"
Boone nodded, then commented, "Like I told Dale this morning, if it ain't right, it's just a waste of time!"
"It's right, right now! This thing is going to fly!", Dale raised up with a crooked smile and pointed at me. "What about you? Surely you aren't going to settle for a .76! The Gremlin's getting ready to lay down a .50, and all your lead on us for the week is going to evaporate!"
"It's pretty greasy and warm out there", I pointed at the tree, "plenty of guys slowing down later in the day, so I think your chance for a fifty is long gone!"
"Watch me big brother, watch and learn!"

"You going up again?" Boone asked me as Dale jumped in the Gremlin, and fired it up.
"Not sure I really need to", I shook my head, "rather see Dale run first!"
"We're running out of time, might as well follow me up and take another shot at it!"
I just nodded as he closed the Duster's door and fired up the 512. He started to move the car, but Billy grabbed the passenger door open to get inside for the 200 foot ride into the lanes. Boone just shook his head at me as he finally drove away.

After just a moment's pause, I joined them, putting the Valiant in the lanes. The atmosphere reeked of desperation, most of the guys making passes at this point either had two or three bad ones already, or were like my brothers and were just squeezing in the lanes at the last minute. Dale was sitting one pair behind John Faraone's Aussie Valiant Charger, which was currently leading the "Fastest Mopar" competition, and really only needed about an 8.50 to maintain that, but he was also firmly entrenched in second place for the unlimited class, behind only Schroeder's Vette.
The silver twin turbo wedge did an awesome burnout but then failed on two attempts to come up on boost, so he idled down to a fifteen second pass, with less than ten minutes to get back in the lanes for a final pass to stay in contention.

Dale and the Gremlin pulled alongside Dennis Taylor and "Bad Rattitude" 55 for what had to be the Gasser's 4th or 5th attempt at the eight second run that he desired. Dale ran a nice 9.49-141.5, outrunning the Chevy to finish off a long day of wrenching, and I heard Lohnes announce that we had just seven minutes until the lanes closed when I pulled my helmet on.

Boone was staging the Duster as I drove around the barrier and backed the Valiant into the water box directly behind him. I had the best seat in the house to see the soot from the drive belch out of the headers as he grabbed the nitrous right from the hit. He had never before launched the car like that, and the gas shock suspended Plymouth clearly didn't like it! The Super Stock springs wrapped up so bad, they topped out the shocks at the same time the front tires were six inches in the air, causing the car to crab walk off the line headed in the general direction of the passenger's side wall. Had this been any other drag strip, he probably would have left some oxidized red paint on the concrete, but the extra width a Byron allowed him the room to shift, then wrestle the Ruster back towards the center line. He had just about found the groove again when the 2-3 shift sent back to the right once again.
"Oh Man!" Brian Lohnes boomed over the PA (the man is a master at modulating his volume to project when he's excited), "that A-body Mopar is wondering around out there like it's up on stilts!" "Still goes 9.95-140, but it was tiptoeing through the tulips!"

As soon as Boone's scoreboard lit up, I attempted to start my burnout, but the Valiant pushed through the line lock. With my thumb still on the button, I pumped the brakes twice and tried again, but apparently I hadn't got back to the water because it shoved forward again without rotating the Hoosiers. Disgusted, I released the line lock, maneuvered the Cheetah shifter to R, pushed the trans brake button and attempted to back back into the water. Despite bringing the revs up a little the car refused to move.
My heart started racing, "is the 904 broke?"
I shifted back into low, and the car wouldn't move forward either. I tossed my hands up in disgust and glanced out at the track workers, expecting them to be looking at me wondering what the hold up was. Racing NHRA races puts a clock in your head, like the 24 second shot clock in basketball, they expect the burnouts and approaches to the line to happen at an advanced cadence, but this crew wasn't even noticing yet so I took a deep breath and focused. "The line lock is stuck", it came to me quickly, because the suspension had raised, so it wasn't in the transmission. I tapped the button a few times and felt it release, then backed into the water and did a successful burnout. Despite a few deep breaths, I was still a little rattled and definitely pumped when I turned on the first stage bulb. I brought the small block up to 3K and bumped in. At the first flash I floored it, and grabbed the nitrous almost simultaneously, determined not to be late. It felt like to me that the front end rotated skyward much faster this time than it had last year at Indy, but maybe I just had a better understanding of what was happening having experienced it once already. In any case, it felt much worse, so I lifted off the nitrous and the throttle. My attempt to get back on the throttle as soon as the horizon started coming back did little to lesson the impact when it crashed back down, in fact the fourth picture below is of the rebound wheelie, not the original launch. When it touched down the second time I was on the gas, but the engine sounded weird, and the front end was pulling hard to the center line, so I abandoned the pass and just idled down track.
"Dang it! You just had to get greedy! What is that horrible sound? How bad is the front end screwed up? The alignment is all out of whack!" I tortured myself as I herded the wounded Valiant back down the return road to our pits, wondering if my Drag Week 2017 was just about to come to an end.

Ruh-roh!

Now i have to go watch this pass. Byrons replay drives me crazy the audio and video are a couple minutes apart

I had to go watch it also....

Again Billy thanks for all the great stories ...and keeping it real!

"Well, it's still got oil pressure, the 904 still pulls, and the rear end isn't grinding itself to bits right?" Dale shrugged his shoulders after I explained my debacle to the group, "so anything else we can fix!"
"He's right, you know", Boone chimed in, "but we need to go turn in our time slips before we get too deep into it!"
We already pulled the hood off, and discovered the passenger's side header gasket had blown out in the middle, and was hanging down from the bolt on one side. Darren and Dylan agreed to tackle replacing it while we made our way to the tower to get our official time slips and route sheets.

Waiting in line, we watched and listened to the stragglers who were still fighting to get a quality run, and stay competitive in DW17. Scott and Kim Abbott have always been on the road quickly with their familiar orange and primer 70 Road Runner, but the big Hemi in their small tire, stock suspension 67 Belvedere was a little trickier, and for the second day in a row, they were still on hand to shut the place down. With a hot greasy starting line affecting his judgment, Scott just eased out towards the sixty foot clocks before bringing the elephant to full song.
"Now that he got his foot off the brake pedal, that big Plymouth is moving pretty good!" Lohnes sounded off on the PA. The joke brought a chorus of laughter from everyone waiting to turn in slips.
"10.68-134", Dale shook his head, "it's got 9 second potential once he sorts it out!"
"Certainly", I agreed, "but that's a bunch of power, a heavy car, and a small tire, so it won't be easy!"
"Did Squirrel get another run?"
"If he did, I missed it", Dale shrugged.
"ten oh nine...one thirty, I think", Boone chimed in.
"Dang, they found something, somewhere because he was only twenties on Monday and Tuesday!"
"Well, even a blind squirrel finds a nut..."
"Just stop Dale", I interjected, "That joke is low hanging fruit, you can't go there!"
Everyone around us was laughing just the same, gallows humor, I suppose.

We collected our official time slips, then picked up our route sheets for the evening drive. I quickly flipped it to the back so I could check the total miles.
"Only 153 tonight", I breathed a sigh of relief, "That makes me feel a little better about the repairs I've got to deal with!"
"Piece of cake, brother", Dale clasped his big right hand onto the top of my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. "But tell me, since math isn't my strong suit...does that twenty-four hundredths the Gremlin put on the Valiant today wash away your two day advantage?"
"You know it does, but tomorrow is a return to Union Grove, and if I remember correctly, the Gremlin didn't enjoy the last visit there!"
"Don't remind me", Dale laughed as we walked along the fence to catch the last cars running before returning to our pits.

"This is the guy that is 2nd in my class", Dale pointed as Matt Bryson staged up his four eyed hatch back fox body.
The 8.97-151 was impressive given the weather and track conditions, but it was a full tenth and two mph off his Monday pace. Terry Miller's red 3rd gen Firebird, who was a tick behind Bryson, holding down 3rd in Modified NA was up next, but blew the tires off early, so he would have to settle for the 9.04-154 he ran earlier.
"He's had MPH on Bryson all week, but can't ET with him", Dale shook his head, "Gotta be driving him crazy!"
Rick Steinke's "Honk if parts fall off" 67 crew cab Chevelle was up next. They had left Cordova with a share of the SRSBPA lead, having turned in a nearly perfect 8.509-160 mph. But while a 9.46 on day two ruined their chances to finish in the top three of the class, the broken transmission that led to the poor showing threatened to saddle them with a DNF! They limped to the motel, pulled the trans, and rebuilt it in the motel bathtub just to get to Byron, so getting an opportunity to stage the car in the last few minutes of track time was a real victory. The 8.69-159 got all of us excited.
"Love the thrash, and send it stories!" Boone smiled.
"Yeah", I agreed, "They usually don't work out as well as that, though."

Steve Morris brought Clark Rosentengal's twin turbo 2010 Camaro back into the water one more time, and while the LSX sounded great the car just didn't seem to move out of the hole. The 8.98-167 definitely wasn't what they were looking for, and it seemed the problem that held them to an 8.23 earlier in the day was only getting worse.

That left only two cars in the lanes: John Faraone's Valiant Charger, who was trying to stay ahead of Matt Blasco's Dirty Drag Week Dart for the "Quickest Mopar" plaque, and Tom McGilton's TT 2013 ZL1 Camaro which was holding off Matt Blasco for 2nd place in Pro Street Power Adder, but was trying to stay with Glenn Hunter's 56 Belair, which had run 7.53 earlier in the day.

Faraone left extremely soft for about 80 feet, then really ramped the power in. The big predator headed wedge lifted the front tires slightly and started driving the Valiant towards the center line. The last ditch nature of the effort precluded John from lifting, and he deftly tip-toed the 3900lb A-body down the stripe until it finally just clipped the foam blocks for the eighth mile ET and MPH, forcing him to lift and manhandle the old girl back into his lane, finishing with an 8.72-167.

"Another rough year for John", Dale shook his head, "He deserves better!"
"I doubt that pass will count" Lohnes explained over the PA, "and we will get that debris cleaned up and let Tom run without eighth mile clocks!"

We were headed back to our pits when Rick caught up to us.
"Billy!" He held his phone up in front of me, "I got a killer shot of your awesome wheelie!" "That was so cool! Everyone in the stands was blown away! It was great!"
I spun to lock him in my gaze and spat the words out through gritted teeth. "It WASN'T cool...sure, maybe from the bleachers, but in the car it SUCKED Rick!" Now the front-end is knocked out of alignment, and who knows what other damaged occurred...it wasn't COOL at all!"
I regretted the outburst an instant after it happened. His shoulders slumped and he had a wounded look on his face. "Man...I'm sorry, I thought you would be excited..."
"I didn't mean to snap at you Rick", I attempted to apologize, "I'm just worried about the car..."
"Don't be", his smile came back and he slapped me across the back, "Sharma and I will get it off the ground and put an Oklahoma tape measure alignment on the beast that will have you back on the road in no time!"

McGilton closed out Drag Week 17's visit to Byron Dragway with a 7.60-187 pass as we made our way back to our pits. Darren and Dylan had re-installed the passenger's side header on the Valiant with a fresh Percy's multi-layer aluminum gasket. They are the only ones I've found that stay sealed for all the street driving, but they start to melt and degrade after about 6-8 nitrous passes. I installed the exhaust while Rick and Sharma inspected the front suspension and did an alignment. The passenger's side pipe wouldn't go in place without slotting the rear mount, so I knew the header had been tweaked when the 62 landed but couldn't see where exactly. Rachael had all of our stuff packed except the tools, and I was starting to feel like we might still make it out on the road at a decent hour. I fired up the 428 to check everything else out, and it was immediately apparent that we still had a bad header leak on he passenger's side. With the car back in the air on stands, Dylan crawled under with a flashlight and looked up at where the tubes met the flange.
"Yep", he confirmed our fears, "that back tube is cracked on the bottom...pretty much from bolt hole to bolt hole!"
"Crap", Boone shook his head, "what now?"
Dylan crawled out from under the car, and we were all standing around in a semi-circle discussing our options when Clark Rosenstengal walked down from the upper pits to check on us. It's not uncommon for the stragglers at the end of the day to commiserate with each other, and we had noticed that both his Camaro and John Faraone's Aussie Charger were up on four jack stands with attention on the trans area. During the conversation, I wasn't sure if both were having issues with their Rossler transmissions, or their Gear Vendors, but they were waiting for parts to arrive. Dylan eventually asked Clark if he had a welder and generator in his trailer, and I was surprised when he said yes and volunteered to drag them out so we could use them.
"It's settled then", Dale smiled, "Let's get that header back off and get it fixed!"

I accompanied Dale and Dylan up to Clark's little pull along trailer with the header, and talked to him while Dylan welded up the pipe. I noticed that Dennis Taylor was loading up the 55, which had made multiple passes during the day.
"Yeah, they lost the Badmaro last night, and have decided to throw in the towel for this year", Clark confided. "I might be joining them soon", he laughed. "It's been a trying year for all of us, and it just wears you down after a while."
The conversation proved prophetic, As Byron would mark the end of competition at Drag Week 2017 for both Rosenstengal and Faraone, as well as Dennis Taylor.

It was dark by the time we pulled out of Byron Dragway. Rick and Sharma had left several hours earlier, so it was just the eight of us when we pulled into Phillips 66 in Byron to fuel up and regroup at 7pm. We were surprised to see McGilton's Camaro and Barry's 56 there also, figuring they were well on their way before then. Plans were made for a late supper stop at Applebees in Freeport Il., some thirty miles away. Rachael and I took the lead out of Byron, and headed west on Il-72 with Dale and Dylan in the Gremlin directly behind us, followed by Boone and Billy in the Ruster then Pops and Darren in the Ram R/T. I was cruising along at 3K, enjoying the breeze through the windows and chatting with Rachael, when after about six miles I looked up and realized there were no headlights behind me.
"Where the heck did those guys disappear to this time?"
Rachael set her phone down and picked up mine, "I'll text them and see what's going on".

"A rear caliper locked up on the Gremlin", Rachael reported "they're pulled over in a farmer's driveway!"
"So after all that time sitting there helping us, now he's broke five miles down the road?"
"Apparently! What's that old saying you always quote? 'No good deed goes unpunished', or something like that?"
I chuckled, "very, very true...ask them if we need to turn around and come back".
Rachael had both thumbs going furiously for a few minutes then looked up at me and shook her head. "They don't want us to come back, in fact, Dale wants you to go to a parts store in Freeport, and pick up a new caliper!"
"Great! How far out are we?"
She sat down one phone and picked up the other. "We're fourteen miles from town, and the store closes in twenty-five minutes!"
"Great", I shook my head and kicked the small block up to thirty-seven hundred.
Rachael looked over with a smile, and asked how the car was handling.
"Wonderful, as a matter of fact, the front end feels better than it has all year, so Rick and Sharma did a great job!"
"Did you touch it since the wheelie in Indy last year?"
I thought for a second, "no I'm pretty sure I didn't..."
"Probably been screwed up since then, you just got used to driving it like that", she surmised. I had no answer so I just kept my mouth shut.
A minute later she pointed to the left of the road, "isn't that PJ's Falcon?"
"And Blasco's Dart, along with Guido's GTO! The Canadian contingent!"
"Which one were they working on?" She raised up in her seat and looked out the back as I continued on.
"Looked like more than one actually", I surmised, "but we have a date with a parts store, so we can't stop!"

Little did we know that both the Falcon's and the Dart's engines were opened up for major surgery. The Dirty Drag Week Dart would survive the ordeal, the little 60 Falcon would not.