My DW 2013 Report - LONG (you've been warned!)

[AdvAutoBob]

My Drag Week 2013 Experience (or "Confessions of a Drag Week Newbie")

(NOTE) - I didn't quite intend for this to read like a novel, but I wanted to convey the experience I had.. so if the length of this is too much, or boring, I apologize.

After reading about Drag Week for the better part of the last 4 years, and finally watching the live feed back in 2012, I decided to take the plunge and give Drag Week a try for myself. This is the story of my experience leading up to and during Drag Week 2013.

THRASHING TILL THE LAST MINUTE

You've all seen the build pics and reports I've posted along my "Road to Drag Week", but I've left out some details..

The roller lifter delay I referred to in one of my previous posts... ah, yes..
The Morel Ultimate series bushing lifters I ordered through my WD... were "in production" at the time of my order, and a delivery date date of approx. 2-3 weeks turned into a wait of 2-1/2 MONTHS before they arrived. This of course, set us behind schedule for the engine build, considering valve to piston clearance had to be checked, pushrod length measured, etc. and we needed the lifters we were going to use to do those items. The shortblock was already together, and considering I was busy building the rest of the car from a rusty hulk, the delay was not so big a deal (at the time, I thought!). The lifters finally arrived, Bob comes back from vacation, and the engine finally gets finished. We get around to installing it in the car... which brings us to the "oil pressure situation".

Normally, when Bob (my primary engine builder) or I build a BBC, we like to use high-volume/high-pressure pumps... Engine in the car, oil pressure priming tool in place... we spin it up and get... 20 pounds of pressure (what?). We try bypassing the remote oil filter/engine oil cooler and get 25 psi (uh oh!). Before condemning the oil pump (and questioning our engine building ability), we switch to an old modified distributor, long retired.... 45 pounds on the gauge. Chalking the pressure up to the low RPM's, we go forward and drop in/phase the crank trigger distributor. Might I mention at this time, there's roughly 8 days till we have to leave, and the front end sheetmetal isn't on the car, it needs aligned, and road tested? Still PLENTY of time to get it done as I would post on the boards.

We fire the engine, and it has about 45 pounds of oil pressure cold (at idle), which drops as it warms to about 15 pounds, turning on the Pro Lite. Oh noes! I then recheck the build sheet, and find our Moroso oil pump is in fact, a high-volume/STANDARD pressure pump! Not wanting to chance things, we pull the engine BACK out of the car... and get a Melling Select billet high-volume pump. After some thought, we stay with the "high pressure" spring in the new pump, install it, button up the engine and get it back in the car.

Fire up the engine... 55 pounds of oil pressure, then it drops to 20, occasionally dropping below and flickering the Pro Lite. This is getting ridiculous! We've now only got two days left till we leave, so we button it up the rest of the way, and get it ready for the alignment shop in the morning.

Alignment day arrives... we still have some minor items to get done (like the window trim), but the alignment is primary goal #1... I load the Camaro into the trailer and take it over, where, thankfully everything goes without a hitch.
(at the alignment shop)

Once back at my shop, we attempt to install the rear window trim, first with brand new OER repro pieces (which fit worse than a parir of pants bought at an outlet mall - in other words.. they DON'T!), and they don't even ccome close to fitting! We try a refurbed set of OE pieces.. they "sort of" fit, but not really. The main problem being our window glass installer used entirely too much sealer, which interfered with the retaining clips... so the rear window gets no mouldings..

FRIDAY - DEPARTURE DAY
Friday morning... we're supposed to be loading up, but the oil pressure is really bothering both of us.. so we try attaching a gauge to the upper port (as recommended by World on the Merlin III block - mine is a first gen Merlin 1). We find a difference of about 7 psi higher on the gauge... Neither I, nor Bob really like it, but time is a factor.. so the decision is "roll with it as is, and if it blows up, it blows up".. I take the car around the block to make sure it drives ok, then we load the trailer and Camaro into the trailer and set off.. with a quick stop for supplies.
(literally right after the test drive)


Now Bowling Green is about 900 miles away.. so we're leaving at 1PM Friday, figuring a stopover in northern Georgia, then setting out Saturday morning, and arriving late afternoon.. plenty of time to relax, socialize, etc... little did we know what was in store...

[AdvAutoBob]

FRIDAY (continued)
We stop at the local warehouse club to load up the cooler, get supplies, etc., and get back out to the truck to load up. I start the truck and turn on the A/C to cool the cab, and we load everything. We jump in the truck, I put it in drive, start to pull out of our parking place...and pffft! The engine shuts off. This being a Duramax diesel with 100K+ plus on it with no prior problems.. it's baffling at first. It cranks, but doesn't start.. hmmm.. I call my friend Craig (who designed and built our DW trailer), and have him come take us back to my shop, 4 miles away, so I can grab my scan tool and take a look at ALLData/iATN for any diagnostic help. Once back at the dead dually.. I plug the Tech 2 in, to find no problems, codes, etc.. Alright.. just for the hell of it, we try a new fuel filter (last change was about 4000 miles ago).. The old one has a rotten smell like maybe stale diesel, or who knows what. Prime the filter pump, and hit the key...

Voila! She starts back up, revs good, etc. Good to go! We bid Craig farewell, and set off again.. stopping first at a local parts store to grab a spare fuel filter, and take the scan tool with us ("just in case!"). Good thing we're taking off early.. it's now about 4:30 (3-1/2 hours late!).. We hit I75 northbound...

We go about 25 miles, and see on the Interstate Warning system (those reader boards you see with traffic conditions), that about 10 miles ahead, I75 is shut down both northbound and southbound due to an accident on the exit ramp. So.. we bust out the iPad and look for an alternate route, since the next exit is about 5 miles ahead, and traffic is starting to pile up already (but still moving pretty well). We find the way, and duck off the Interstate.

Since we're now using surface streets, and routing to US 41 (the original Tamiami Trail and for years the only route to southern Florida), it's a lot slower going.. plus, we're about 25-30 miles out of our way! I find the road heading back towards I75, and notice DARK clouds built up in the general direction we're going in.. typical Florida afternoon thunderstorm, yes.. but not good for trailer towing, or traveling. The sky doesn't open up, but it's threatening to..

We get back on I75.. and start heading north again... until 5 miles down the road, we run into a parking lot! Taking a look at the trusty iPad, my copilot has found a traffic condition site, which confirms what I hear on the CB.. ANOTHER accident, with the northbound lanes clogged up. It's now close to 7PM, so we see an exit with food just ahead about 1/4 mile away. After about 10 minutes, we reach it, and the rain starts to fall.. not so bad, but it's coming out of the north, so it's a good bet that's what caused the latest pileup.

Once we get into the restaurant.. the sky opens up! At least we're not out in that, but a time check shows it's taken us about 6 hours to go 55 miles. Not conducive to making miles, or getting to BG on time. We finish up, and wait about 15 minutes.. then take off north again. The traffic flows good, the rain had slowed to a drizzle, things looked good. I was thinking "well.. it's good we're getting the brain damage out of the way early", and we run pretty hard till about midnight.. and stop in Lake City. Still not out of Florida, but at least we made SOME miles!

[AdvAutoBob]

SATURDAY - THE JOURNEY CONTINUES
Saturday starts without incident.. We resume traveling north again on I75, and cross into Georgia at about 11AM.


Things are going pretty well, routine stops for fuel, etc. and we clear I475 (the bypass around Macon).. I start to notice the dually laboring a bit on the hills.. hmm... then start to misfire on hills.. then, around Locust Grove.. it stalls out and quits... we coast to the exit ramp..
(this would be a familiar scene for today)

After letting it cool a bit, I grab the "just in case" fuel filter, and pull the old one off.. and notice some rusty particles floating in the fuel. (uh oh... bad load of fuel maybe?).. Swap out filters.. prime it, and she starts back up again. Doing a quick search on the iPad, we're lucky enough to find a parts store at the same exit ramp we stalled at! So a quick side trip to grab another filter (they only had one, or I'd have grabbed a couple), and we're off again...

We're approaching south Atlanta, when.. it starts losing power on the hills again (oh noes!)... the 285 bypass is coming up, so it's decision time. Normally, I run straight through downtown Atlanta, but with the dually acting up, I decide to take the bypass around instead. We make it another 8 miles, when she stalls out again... coasting to the side of the road.. it's now become a routine.. grab the tools to change the fuel filter (the last one we have). Again, i notice rusty stuff, and now there's some metallic particles too (I know where this is going, I just don't want to acknowledge it yet!)..

The filter is changed, system bled, primed... she starts up and runs... It's noticable down on power, and about 2 miles later.. there's a ton of white smoke, and it shuts off again... I break out the scan tool and find a code for low rail pressure, and check the failure snapshot (having a factory scan tool is great for this)... looking like the injector pump is failing and metal is getting everywhere in the fuel system.. We can see an exit about 3/4 of a mile up the road, but it looks like we're stuck.

Just on a whim.. I give the key another crank, and the truck starts! With the hazards on, we try for the exit ramp... and make it up to the intersection.. and notice that the neighborhood is sketchy (to be kind), so we limp on across and get back on 285... hoping maybe we can make past Atlanta.. no such luck. The truck dies within a 1/4 mile of the next exit. We look at the iPad for a U-Haul center, thinking we might be able to rent a truck.. and the exit we're looking at has one! We just have to get there...

The truck cools off a bit, and I manage to start it... with the trailer on the back, it can only go about 25MPH, and I manage to get it into the U-Haul parking lot where it dies again. We ask inside about renting a truck, but they won't rent a truck and let you tow your trailer with it, you have to use their trailer (and of course, they don't have a car hauler anyway..point is moot). We try all the rental places, and get the same thing... At this point, I post on FB that it looks like we're dead in the water and will have to write off Drag Week this year.
(sitting at the U-Haul)

We start thinking of what to do, now simply to get home... after about an hour of running through plans, calling people, etc. we arrive at two courses of action. The first being... try to limp the truck/trailer to a nearby motel, unhook the truck, and wait for AAA to tow it to the nearest Chevy dealer on Monday to repair it. Looking at this, I start running the numbers on what it's going to cost to fix it, and the timetable involved... not the least of which is also... what do we do with the trailer? Looking at paying dealership retail on a D-Max pump and injectors... I start to consider Option B.. which is...

Get a new truck.

Breaking out the iPad again (I am SO glad I brought it along!).. we locate three Chevy dealers within 20 miles of where we are.. So while I browse the Net, looking at their respective inventories, Bob starts calling and asking.. we start first looking for diesel duallys (HA! none to be found anywhere), then even 3/4 ton "heavy duty" models... nothing doing. How in the bloody blue hell are there NO diesel Chevy pickups for sale in a major metro area? Who knows... and at this point.. who cares? We look at GMC truck dealers, same thing.. If I wanted a luxed out Denali, SUV, or 1/2 ton truck.. no problem... got plenty of those, but no Duramax (or even 1 ton) trucks at all.

So... we think "How about Ford?"

I take to the Net again... and find a PowerStroke F350 Super Duty truck at a lot only 5.7 miles away.. Bob gets on the phone and gets ahold of a salesman... I call Bob "The Hammer", because he's especially good at negotiating with our suppliers, etc. (plus he can be tighter than bark on a tree when needed).. so I hear him say "but if we come down to buy a truck, you WILL stay open right?" - apparently, it's 15 minutes till the dealership closes. He then asks for the sales manager. The manager gets on the phone, and then I start hearing more "positive" type on conversation... Bob's answering questions about my trucks overall condition ("average wear for the age" - LOL). So the sales manager says he has to run some numbers and he'll call back in a couple of minutes.. keeping in mind it's now 5 minutes till 6PM, their closing time.

5 minutes later he calls back... and makes a trade offer, sight unseen. Then he asks, "how far away are you?", and Bob replies that we're about 6 miles up the road, and can be there in about 10-15 minutes. We're told to "come on down!".. We explain the situation to the guys at the U-Haul store, who are more than kind, and make a space for us to park the trailer by the security camera. They try to refuse a tip, but we insist, and we get the trailer moved, with the dually unhooked. It seems ok, definitely not as much power as before unloaded, but it runs. I take off for the Ford store, driving like I have an eggshell under the throttle pedal.

We pull into the the dealer at around 6:20, and the salesman comes out to greet us... it seems like he's the only one there. The sales manager comes out and wants to test drive the dually, so I toss him the keys and tell him "go ahead...have at it!", all the while praying under my breath "start, baby..start!" It starts right up, and he pulls out onto the road for the test drive... and drops the hammer down! Bob and I look at each other and wince... thinking that the trucks going to die right there and I'll get nothing for it... but amazingly.. it doesn't die.

He rolls back in a couple of minutes later, saying how well it runs (I'm thinking.."just don't hook it to a trailer!" LOL), and after I test drive the Ford... we do the deal. Bob and I madly thrash to grab all the stuff out of my old truck and throw it into the new one... then we grab the ball mount to put into the new trucks hitch reciever... and find it's too small! The old Silverado dually had a class IV hitch, and the new Ford is a Class V. What the hell?

Everything loaded up, it's now 10 till 8PM... and we run down the street to an Advance Auto Parts store that has an adapter sleeve... so we can put the ball mount on the truck. Once that's done.. we head back to U-Haul to collect the trailer and head on out... No chance of hanging out in the hotel parking lot with other Drag Weekers now... we still had to GET to Bowling Green, and it was 450 miles (and 2 states), away..
(Plan "B".. or Plan "F" as I referred to it on FB)

We get back on the road, and head north towards Chattanooga and the cut for I24... thankfully without further incident (save for the trailer swaying a bit on bad roads)... We travel up Monteagle Mountain, which I was dreading doing in the dually due to its power problems, but the Super Duty soldiered right on up, and down the other side with no problems. We turn north onto I65 in Nashville, and finally arrive in Bowling Green at 3:15AM local time (or 4:15 our time)..


After getting into our room, I run downstairs to the "business center" to download and print the "write a novel about you and your car" form that HOT ROD emailed to us on Friday (after we had already left - thanks!). Once that was done.. it was upstairs to fill out the form, and hopefully get a few hours of sleep before heading to Beech Bend Raceway Park.

[cantvalve16]

We love these stories. Keep it coming.

[AdvAutoBob]

SUNDAY - TECH/REGISTRATION
Sunday morning... we roll out of bed and get going about 9AM. Most of the Drag Weekers had left for the track (I saw the line on HOT ROD's blog entry posted 2 hours previously).. After a quick breakfast downstairs, we set off for the track. We saw Jeremy (GTA91) in traffic, and noticed a spare on the front of his car. We followed him in and then took care of the entry stuff, got directions, etc. etc... So we pull in, and as we're unloading... a SHORT BUS pulls in next to us with a flamed purple Duster on the trailer behind. The infamous Eddie "Elvis" Miller parks right next to us.


We talked with Eddie and the guys who traveled with him, including his friend with the Maverick (whos name escapes me). Eddie's persona in real life isn't as loud or obnoxious as his online persona, but he definitely is an opinionated kind of guy! When I told him I was a newbie.. he laughed and said something like I was "fresh meat for the grinder" or something to that effect. We both had a laugh about it, and I wished him luck in his "YB Callout Race". Then both our respective crews unloaded our cars/trailers and set out for tech.
Tech, for the most part was a breeze... just a lot of waiting. While waiting, I walked around, looking at the various entries... amazed at some of them (Jeff Lutz' car sits "in the weeds"!), while admiring the diversity of cars that showed up and generally getting pumped up about the fact that... despite all the crap we'd been through getting here... we were finally, really *at* Drag Week!





Coming with an untested car, I had some butterflies, but I had small goals... first off, was getting to Bowling Green - check. Get to the track - check. Get teched in...
My turn arrived... and it took hardly any time at all... then I was getting my paperwork handed in, and the class designation/number was put on my car. Get teched in - Check!


Back to the trailer for a final once-over and supply check before battening down the tow rig. I knew we didn't have to stay away from our rig until the official drivers meeting, but we hadn't done any real testing of the car, let alone with the trailer on the back, so we locked up the car hauler and considered it "off limits". I was hoping to get a test run in, but rain kept falling on and off, and LS Fest was still trying to wrap things up during the delays. Finally, the rain was coming down pretty good (not Florida rain, but enough to wet the track).. so we decided to grab some eats, then head back to the hotel to relax, and enjoy a cigar, thinking it was going to be the last good rest for a week... how right we were!

(yeah! White Castle!)

(bedded down back at the Hilton)

[AdvAutoBob]

MONDAY - DAY 1
We got up early to head back to the track... loading up our trailer with the luggage we carried from the room. Setting out down Scottsville road, I got up to 45, and the trailer started swaying violently back and forth (what? it towed fine last night!).. so I had to slow to 25 MPH till we got out to the track.

Disconnecting the trailer, we found it was way too light in the front, with no tongue weight at all. Oh well... time to completely unload and redistribute the carge to get some tongue weight before we leave for Indy.
My dad, who had come in the night before and stayed at the campground, stopped by to say hello, but was careful not to do anything related to the car. (we were paranoid about muling, and drove that point home to him as well). He hadn't seen the Camaro since he came down to Florida to visit back in March, (when it was still basically a shell), so he was blown away by how it looked as a complete car. Bob and I busied ourselves changing tires, etc. as 8:30 was drawing near, and the announcement finally came over the PA for the drivers meeting.



Freiberger does his "collection of cars that didn't run yesterday" spiel.. and even the DW vets still laugh at it. Then the show of hands for first-timers (I raise mine), and the catcalls, laughs etc. from the vets telling us "just wait...." (and they were right... I had no idea was I was in for!)
After all the sponsor reps talked, the call to Larry Larson (who didn't show), and some final words... the meeting was adjourned, and Drag Week 2013 was officially underway.

I came into Monday with a couple of goals - the first being the car goes safely down the track, and the second goal was to survive the dreaded "Trail of Tears" that I had read about - the first 30 miles out of the first track that supposedly claimed so many cars for early elimination. Anything else was gravy... making a 9 second pass, getting to Indy, etc. were considered to me "icing on the cake". Just make it down the track, and survive the "Trail of Tears".

The car was set, and I got it into the lanes, figuring the very first pass down the track I'd take it easy... make sure it tracked ok, etc., since all our DW test time consisted of was driving it around the block and dropping the hammer, then, loading it into the trailer..


Once I got to the water box... I found that my linelock didn't hold (great!).. so I did my burnout the "old school" way and it worked out just fine - add 1 item to the "fix list" when I get home. I stage, the Tree comes down, and I walk it out of the hole, shortshift 2nd, and slightly shortshift high gear.. running a 10.56 @ 128 MPH - good enough for 3rd place at the time in SR/BB-PA.

Getting back, we look the car over... don't see any problems, so I program the progressive controller for a soft nitrous shot. Stage up, and roll out of the hole, I can feel the nitrous come in about the top of 1st, shift into second, and now the 565 is talking! I shift into high gear around 7200, and the trans seems to soft/slip shift into high, with no real RPM drop, but still pulling pretty good... and run a 9.992 @ 136, taking the class lead in the process.

(pic courtesy of HOT ROD)

I attribute the strange shifting to the engine blowing through the torque converter, like it did when I had this engine in my Chevelle. Oh, little did I know...

I get back to the pits, and we start changing the tires for the trip to Indy.. Bob and I talk to some people, including Dan Ashlock with his 10 second Grand National with no trailer who was pitted next to us, (we kept running into him throughout our trip) and I tell my dad good bye, and we'll see him at Indy (he lives in Brownsburg). He takes off in his motorhome and we begin to reload our trailer for more tongue weight. After fiddling around for about 45 minutes... we started out the gate, and our next goal - survive the "Trail of Tears".

At this point... out of the 230 confirmed entered cars, 13 had already dropped out without leaving the Beech Bend gate. We were determined NOT to join them, so after a quick fuel stop before leaving town, we headed out on the directions provided us by the HOT ROD staff. Pulling onto I65 northbound, the Camaro settled into a comfortable cruising speed of about 60. Our relocation of the trailer contents worked out - the trailer was towing solid as a rock. Aside from some cam surge, and the Dominator running rich at part throttle (we took it off my Chevelle bracket car and ran it "as is"), it wasn't too bad. Fuel economy? Ha! - we guessed it would come in at about 5MPG.



Looking at the oil pressure, it started out at about 40 cruising, then slowly dropped to about 25 when the engine heated up... coming to a stop would turn the Pro Lite on, but it held to about 15 psi at idle. No strange noises, no clattering valvetrain (the first sign of oil starvation), no rods knocking... apparently the volume of the billet pump made up for the lack of pressure, so I just kept driving. 10 miles... turned into 20... then past 30... our goal was achieved - we survived! Now to find the checkpoints and get to Indy...
The first checkpoint was a place called Pepper Tackle, on the outskirts of Louisville. To get there, we were directed off of I65, and onto highway 31W around Elizabethtown. We ran into a construction zone at one of our turns, and as we made the turn, the car started to flood out. Quickly pulling over, it was a simple matter of lowering the rear float level.

(Bob readjusting the rear float)

It was set higher than normal to compensate for the carbs original home, my Chevelle, which pulled much harder off the line. That minor issue fixed... we set off again. We ended up stopping about 10 miles down the road for our first meal of the day (the only one as it would turn out).



Properly refreshed.. we continued along 31W, past Fort Knox, and finally found Pepper Tackle, right along the left side of the road, with a bunch of Drag Weekers in the parking lot. We pulled in, got our picture in front of the sign, and hung out for about 10 minutes, talking with fellow Weekers, and some locals, answering questions, etc.


The place had a real "party" type vibe going on, but it was only the first of many checkpoints. Looking at the clock, it was about 5PM, so we took off for our next checkpoint: Long's Furniture World in Franklin, Indiana on Highway 31. But first, we had to get through Louisville...

[AdvAutoBob]

DAY 1 (continued)
We get on I65 (31W intersected with it again), and started through downtown Louisville.. driving along, we notice several Drag Weekers, that we pass, or they pass us.



Things are running smoothly... then WHA-BAM! The Camaro jerks violently to the right, then straightens out and starts pulling to the left.

Looking in the rear view, I notice the trailer heeled hard over on it's left side, and the left trailer wheel rolling away towards and bouncing off of the retaining wall on the left side of I65. Luck was with us as there was nobody on our right side (we were running in the middle lane), so I pulled over onto the shoulder as quick as I could.. then watched as the trailer wheel goes rolling past us and into the ditch about 100 feet in front of us. How it didn't hit any cars, I still don't know. I remember seeing it go past, and I couldn't help but laugh as it did... thinking this was something right out of World's Dumbest or something like that. It really was comical, though it was a bad setback.

Bob goes to break out the jack while I walk up the road a ways to retrieve our missing wheel. I initially thought that the spindle or hub had failed, considering that our trailer was built on the same Harbor Freight cheapie trailer kit that a lot of Drag Weekers use. However, it was "only" the wheel that had come off. Taking the wheel with wallowed out lug holes back with me and rejoining Bob at the trailer, we assess the situation. The hub has no wheel studs in it, and wallowed out holes just like the wheel. Either somebody forgot to check the lugnuts, or they just worked loose, but no time for the blame game now... what to do?

OK.. we need a hub assembly and we already have a spare wheel. I grab the iPad (did I mention I'm GLAD I brought it along?), and look for a Northern Tool (they sell the exact same trailer kit, plus repair parts for them), to hopefully get a replacement hub. However... we have a slight problem: there's not a Northern Tool store in Kentucky, OR Indiana, or anywhere for 800 miles.
I then look for a Harbor Freight store... surely they'll have repair parts! The search reveals a store about 8 miles away, across the Ohio River in Clarksville. Now if we can just get there... before they close...

Taking stock of the trailer, it was apparent we needed to get the wheel back onto the hub.. but the studs were sheared off. Bob grabbed a bag of assorted hardware, nuts, bolts, washers, etc. that he had hastily thrown together on Friday morning in case we needed the odd bolt or whatever. We managed to scrounge up two 1/2" Grade 8 bolts with nuts and washers, as well as a pair of 7/16" bolts. I swear I started to hear that music they play during those Viagra commercials ("This is the age of getting things DONE!" LOL), while we were bolting the wheel back onto the hub.


We got it centered as best we could, considering both sets of holes were egg-shaped. Wheel bolted up, trailer back on the ground.. we set off for Harbor Freight.

We limped along I65 at about 30MPH, as anything over that speed would make the trailer shake violently. Not a lot of fun with semis blasting by, but we managed to get across the bridge over the Ohio, and into Indiana. It was now about 7:30, we had been on the road for about 6-1/2 hours... and were not even halfway to Indy. Nothing we could do except keep on going, so we got off I65, and following the navigation app from the trusty iPad, made our way through Clarksville to the Harbor Freight store.


(Bob's like "wtf?" see what we gotta deal with?)
Going inside, we went looking for the trailer parts and... there weren't any! No spare hubs, no bearings, not even any spare tires (that fit our trailer). I'd even considered buying another trailer kit to rob it of the wheels and hubs, but they didn't even have those.. Un-believable.

I was beside myself at this point... and getting frustrated when I remembered that we had passed a Pep Boys about 4 blocks before the HF store. We quickly backtracked and rolled into their parking lot at about 5 minutes past 8PM. We got out, and (wait for it!), they were CLOSED!

Bob spies an employee closing out her register, and runs over to the door and starts pounding on it to get her attention. She comes over and says "We're closed" through the closed door, but he convinces her to open it anyway. The manager comes over to see what's going on, and Bob goes into his "Hammer" mode.. explaining that we're Drag Week competitors, and Pep Boys is one of the sponsors, blah blah blah, and could they let us in to see if we could find anything to help put our sick trailer back together. Neither the employee or the store manager knows anything about Drag Week being sponsored by the Pep Boys Speed Shop, but to my surprise, they let us in anyway!

We ask about trailer hubs, of course thay have none... We ask about tires or wheels, and when I provide him the size, the manage goes into the back and comes out with a brand new wheel/tire assembly for us. We then go to the hardware section and pick out some more 1/2" Grade 8 stuff. The manager then goes into the service area, and comes back out with a bucket of spare hardware (odds and ends of new stuff left over from shop jobs), and tells us to take what we need - no charge for any of that stuff. We sort through it, and take some more bolts, nuts, grab some other supplies, pay for everything and go out to the parking lot.

We remove the old egged out wheel, and they tell us to just leave it by the trash can, they'll get rid of it in the morning for us.

(one junk wheel!)

We get the new wheel centered up nearly perfectly, and bolt it up. We're ready to head on out, so we decide to take a look at the direction sheet for the next landmark again... and find the sheet is missing! I'm thinking to myself.. " You can't make this stuff up.. what a comedy of errors!". Bob's looking through the trailer, and I've finished looking in the car, but still no sheet.. then I hear a Drag Weeker rolling down a side street. I watch as a white Blazer with class numbers on it drives over to the Auto Zone about 1/4 mile away and pull into the parking lot. I yell at Bob to get in and we take off in hot pursuit..

We get across to the Zone and manage to catch the guys. We ask if we can copy their route sheet (figuring we could ask the Zone employees to copy it for us), but they have a spare sheet and give it to us. We hang out for a few and find out they were trying to get wiring to fix another car (on the side of the road somewhere) that had a major electrical meltdown. After some brainstorming, we come up with a plan for them to fix their problem, they get the stuff needed, and we go our separate ways.

Back on I65 after what seemed to be all night (only about 3 hours), we head north toward the turnoff and Highway 31.

(sitting at a Love's travel center on one of many fuel stops)

We cover the roughly 85 miles to Franklin without incident (finally! a break!), and start looking for Long's Furniture World.. the second checkpoint. The road is dark, and i'm thinking we're going to drive right past the "big rocking chair", when I see it on the left, lit up by headlights. We pull on past, hang a U-turn, and drive into the parking lot at just after midnight.

(the "big rocking chair".. checkpoint #2!)

There's a couple of Drag Weekers there, and about 4 other cars with their lights on the big chair. We pull up and get the required picture, then pull around to take a break before driving to Brownsburg. One of the Drag Week cars was a Malibu that had a radiator failure earlier, and another Drag Weeker had come along and TIG welded it back together right there in the parking lot. The other guys were locals, who had been watching the live feed and following us on the Net. One of them told me that it took them awhile to figure out where our checkpoint was, and when they did, though that we (all the Drag Weekers) might miss the big chair because it wasn't lighted very well..so they took it upon themselves to come out and shine their headlights on it, and wave people down to make sure it wasn't missed. THIS was what Drag Week was all about! We stayed a little while longer, answering questions about the Camaro, telling the story of the wayward trailer wheel for the first time, etc. and generally having a great time just hanging out.
About the time we start to leave, in comes Eric Yost along with "Capslock Kevin". We wave to both of them as they roll past us in the parking lot, and I'm thinking that at least we're not the only ones arriving late at the hotel tonight.
We continue our trip to the hotel about 45 miles away (not long now!), and finally arrive at 2:30 in the morning, noting that there are still people hanging out in the parking lot. We park, grab our bags, and head to the desk to check in.

[AdvAutoBob]

Once at the desk, we appear to have a trainee checking us in, and after getting our room keys, we head upstairs to our room... and find it OCCUPIED! The dumbass gives us an occupied room... I am so ready for this day to be over!

We trudge back downstairs, running into Freiberger in the elevator, and go back to the desk. At first, the trainee was saying that there wasn't any way the room was occupied, but both Bob and I stared at the manager on duty, who finally just give us another room (a suite..right around the corner from the desk.. free upgrade!).

FINALLY.. I get a shower to get some transmission fluid off my leg (more about that later!) and grab about 2-1/2 hours of sleep..

[nesabo]

The Suspense is killing me...

[Orange65]

Great read! You have me reliving the road here. Your carb problems showed up about the same place mine did- near that construction zone. Except it took a day more and a call to Quick Fuel to figure it out for me. I passed you guys working on your trailer on the side of the road in Louisville. We were moving pretty fast so we did not have a chance to stop (sorry).

And you aren't the only ones to have someone in your rooms. Happened to me in BG on Saturday night and either St. Louis or Indy (it all kind of runs together). Then at Millington the freaking key wouldn't work.

[CDMBill]

This has been an epic read so far. I think you are first guys I've heard of that had to buy a new truck on the way to DW, that may well be a first.

The press on regardless (POR, I think there is a dog sled, or rally race with this name) aspect of DW seems to bite all of us at one point or another. Thank you for sharing your story.

[squirrel]

I think you are first guys I've heard of that had to buy a new truck on the way to DW, that may well be a first.

That's really hard core, buying a new truck to get to Drag Week!

[BlueCuda340]

That's really hard core, buying a new truck to get to Drag Week!

And jumping Brands in the process lol.

[Hemi Joel]

Awesome story! I agree, the new truck to get to Drag Week is over the top.

[AdvAutoBob]

Well... I kept hearing that quote by Gene Kranz during the Apollo 13 mission: "Failure is not an option!" (I have a NASA shotglass with that on it, too). Thanks guys... now to continue the story in the next post...