Event Coverage Through the eyes of a Trunk Monkey: Drag week in a hot rod

This is the best reading on the hamb. Thanks for taking us along for the ride.

 

Awesome thread. You've lived my dream.

 

Would it kill ya to take a week off work and finish this story????
My butt is killing me from sitting on the edge of my seat for so long and I am afraid to go for a pee incase I miss your next post ... my bladder will thank you

(not an actual X-ray of my bladder but you get the point)

 

Hint, subscribe to the message.
Now go pee

 

I'm glad you guys are digging the story! Here is the next chapter:

When we got back to our hotel on Sunday night, Joel instantly fell asleep when his head hit the pillow. Not sure how that happened, as he didn't walk 22 1/2 miles that day. I was absolutely exhausted, but yet could not get to sleep. The thought of missing my appointment was all I could think of. As the minutes slowly went by, you keep thinking to yourself, if I could just fall asleep now, I can get 5 hours of sleep... 4 hours of sleep... 3 hours of sleep.... At that point, I would have been happy to get a half hour. So I got up about 20 minutes before the alarm was set to go off, and took my shower, and got ready for the day. The instant the alarm went off, I woke Joel up. "Lets go, I'm not missing my appointment". Joel, with only 7 hours of sleep was not moving with Cat like reflexes, or speed, but he was at least moving. While he was getting ready, I walked down to the lobby area of the hotel, and got Joel a morning coffee, to speed him up some. By the time I got back he was almost ready to roll, but again at least moving. We left the hotel a little after 6:00am. It was a short 15 minute drive to the track.
As we pull up to the gate, I tell Joel, just let me out here, as this was my meeting point. Joel kept on driving through the gate... We made it all the way to the tower 3/4 of a mile away, and then go over to the pit side, towards the back of the staging lanes, and Joel parks the truck. He then tells me "We have work to do". my response back was "No YOU have work to do, I have to now walk all the way back to the front gate, and hope I make it there in time. So I grabbed my needed paperwork, and started walking. I must add that at 6:30am in Martin Michigan, it is absolutely PITCH BLACK out. The track lights were not on, and there was a cloud cover that morning, as there was a chance for rain early on. I kept on walking, and as I made my way to the gate, cars were coming in fairly steady. I kept checking my phone 6:45... kept walking 6:50. By 6:53 I could actually see the front gate. Cars were still coming though at a steady pace, as no one was at the gate to check cars in. Just as I walked through the front gate at 6:55, a lady had closed things off at the gate, and started to check people coming through. I stood next to the building for 2 minutes, when I see a Tan minivan pull up, and knew that was the lady I was to sign paperwork with. I had here pull over to the side parking lot. She got out, and asked where we could sign everything? "I have no clue, the building is locked" "We can sign them in my van then. As we are going through the paperwork, the lady asks me what we are doing at race track on a Monday morning? I briefly explain Drag Week to her, and her reply was "You guys are crazy". By this time it starts raining out, and I'm thinking great I have to now walk back in this...More paperwork... Cars keep rolling in, and then the lady says "Some of those cars are really loud, can't they quiet them down for the street?" "Those are quieted down for the street" LOL. I'm thinking this lady wouldn't be very happy if she was staying at a hotel with a bunch of Drag Weekers, and the early morning rumble of race cars out her window. But overall she was very nice, and we finished everything. The lady say, well I'd give you a ride back to where you need to go, but I can't get in the gate without paying. "No problem, I guarantee I will know someone coming in that can give me a ride. So I grab my 2" thick stack of paperwork, and start walking back into the track. Completely relieved that everything went well, I was in a much better mood. Now to see what kind of mess I have to straighten out when I get back to Joel. As I walk by the ticket booth, the lady running it asks me for a favor. "Can you move those cones, and let in people with wrist bands?" "Sure, if you can find me a ride back to the pits." "Deal." So I moved the cones, and then started walking the line, telling people with wrist bands they could go through. A mad rush went into the track, and right past me. Thinking I gotta get moving, I start that way as well. I made it about 150 feet past the ticket booth, when the lady yells out "Still need a ride? Got one right here!" so I hurry back, and a newer Shelby Mustang pulls up. I open the door, and hear "Sure I'll give my buddy Jeff a ride!" I look in, and it's Brad Dryer, a past Modified NA class winner. I've gotten to know Brad some over the years, as he was Jay Brown's main competition in Modified NA for years. Brad had a killer Nova, that puts on quite a show with it's big wheel stands. "What are you doing up here Jeff?" "Refinancing my house." with a shocked look, Brad says "Well that has to be a Drag Week first". "where do you need to go?" Just get me close to the tower, and I'll be good. "No, where do you need to go?" Brad wasn't in much of a rush, as his Nova is in Chassis shop prison, and the Mustang was just a Plan B car. One minor set back, Officials would not let him run. He had forgotten about the Drag Tire only rule, so since everything was paid for, he was just going to enjoy himself, and drive along. He dropped me off right at the Coupe, where Joel had things from the trailer scattered all over the ground. They were now calling everybody to the stands, as the drivers meeting was starting in 10 minutes. "Joel. go get the Coupe into the staging lanes now, and then take the truck and trailer to the impound area." "Good idea!" So while Joel took care of those couple things, I sorted through our stuff, and got it ready to make the transition from race to Street as smooth as possible when the time came.
I have no clue if Joel made it back for the drivers meeting or not. Didn't really matter, as he's been through many of them, and not much changes. If it had, I'd let him know. Almost as soon as the meeting started, the PA system went out, and they wanted us to heard together like sheep on one end of the bleachers, so Keith Turk could yell out to us. No thanks, I'll stay to myself over here. Joel wouldn't have heard it any ways, as he couldn't hear a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant. End of the drivers meeting. luckily we were pitted just behind the bleachers from the meeting, and I met up with Joel. Told him to get ready as the track would go hot soon. He was maybe 30 cars back? Up ahead we could see Clark Lamb, and his familiar Blue 68 Barracuda. Up front like always.
Cars started going down track quickly, and I believe Clark ran 10.50 something in his Barracuda like always. Car always leaves nice, with the wheels in the air. My guess was they would take it, and hit the road. While Joel was getting ready in the Coupe he starts to tell me how the adjustment works in the Whatchamacallit Soft Lok. I plug my ear and start saying "Lalalalalalalalala Don't want to hear it. That's your baby". The anticipation is killing me as we get closer to the burnout box. Will the new fuel pump work? Will the car bog? Will it lay over on the top end? If it's bad it can make for a long day. I'm hoping it's a good pass, and we can hit the road, as you never know what the street drive will throw at you.
Joel pulls the Coupe into the burnout box. It sounds good. Kinda normal. He revs the motor up, dumps the clutch, and the car does a nice burnout. Good so far. Joel stages the car, and the lights start coming down. Reaction time isn't a concern on Drag Week, so Joel is still bringing the old HEMI up on the 2 step when the light turns green. He dumps the clutch, and the front tires lift off the track, and the nicest wheels up launch I've ever seen out of the car happens. Joel rips through the gears like Ronnie Sox, and it's obvious the face plating of the T56 Magnum has paid off. As always a healthy HEMI always sounds good uncorked, and at wide open throttle. Joel crosses the finish line, and the scoreboard lights up with a 10:15 @ 133mph! Joel's fastest pass ever, in competition at Drag Week! I can't wipe the smile off my face, and hoping Joel will be OK with that. I get back to the pit area before Joel, and shortly after he arrives. Joel has a big sh!t eating grin on his face, and with a sigh of relief, he gets out and gives me a high 5. "Are we good?" I asked. "Yup, I'm going to turn in the time slip, and we are out of here!" Perfect. Joel makes his way to the Tower, and I start changing the car over from Race to Street.
The change over for me consists of the following: Add air in the rear tires, Remove the header collectors, Cap the Headers, remove the V band clamps and plugs on the side of the header collectors, Slide the exhaust under the car, Hook up the rear tailpipes up to the rubber hangers under the car. Start the 2 attachment bolts under the car for the exhaust pipes, V band clamp the front of the exhaust to the header collectors, Tighten up the two attachment bolts. Install the passenger seat with one rear pin, and 2 Dzus fasteners in the bottom. install the 8 individual air cleaners. Start packing everything in the trunk. When Joel gets back from turning in his slip, his job is to install rubber pucks in the rear springs. First time for the change over? About 30 minutes.
With everything taken care of Joel looks at me "Well.. Saddle up partner!"
Pulling out of the gate is always the biggest "What's next" feeling. We make our way out the gate, and the drive down to our predetermined route.
"I can't believe we're really doing it!"... Yes. Every single time...

 

There’s not a time like the first time or the next time.
Damn I love his line and the humor. “Every time “

 

(I'll be back when I have more time, but.....) This is my trunk monkey............

 

Probably the first inspector's day job was that of a building inspector for a city or county.

 

Adding some of my own commentary to the trunk monkeys awesome the storytelling:

After tech on Sunday I had brought the coop up to the staging lanes to make a test pass, but when I got there they told me it was too late. The staging lanes had just closed. Missed it by a few minutes, but it might as well have been hours, either way I was destined to make the first official day of drag week competition nothing more than a test of a combination that had not yet made a clean pass down the drag strip.
My buddy Jeff has several different modes that he operates in. One of them is happy, fun loving, outgoing Jeff. Another one is let's go, get it done, hurry up Jeff. And then there is introverted, completive Jeff. And sometimes there is even cranky Jeff.
So when he told me Monday morning he had not slepped one minute all night, I was thinking "this is going to be hell day". But when he actually brought me a cup of coffee while I was getting ready, I knew it was going to be a good day!
As we were driving in to the track Monday morning and Jeff wanted me to drop him off at the gate I said that he should just call the courier and have them come into the pit area. That way he wouldn't have to walk, he wouldn't have to get wet if it rained, and he could help get things ready while we were waiting for the courier. Jeff would have none of that. He was walking down to the gate to meet the courier because that's the way it had been set up. I continued to urge him to call and change the arrangements slightly. It's a courier I said, they get paid to go where they're told. They don't care if they have to drive an extra 3/4 of a mile. They do this stuff all the time. Jeff said "That's the difference between you and me. You expect people to do stuff just because you ask him to. I don't operate that way. I told them we're meeting at the gate, I'm not going to ask them to drive into the track.". Okay, so maybe he was a little cranky from the stress, the constant uncertainty, and with having been awake for 24 hours straight. I'll get busy on the unpacking myself and Jeff can walk to the gate to get his papers signed.
The trailer was total chaos. I didn't even know where to start gathering stuff to carry in the trunk of the coop and I was only guesstimating how much crap we could carry. So I just started going through the cabinets and everything and grabbing what I thought we'd need. Half the stuff I was thinking was there wasn't.
In case I had to make several hits to get the car to run properly, I wanted to get an early start, and as soon as we saw anybody getting into the staging lanes I rolled the coop in as well. The playing around I have done with the clutch tamer at Stanton really paid off. The launch on that first pass was nearly perfect. Also I had looked up my notes and figured out where my shock settings were supposed to be. Upon checking them on Sunday, they were about 15 clicks to stiff. Correcting that is what solved the rear wheel hop at launch. Words cannot express how jubilant I was after that pass on Monday morning, after all that we had been through and as many times as I considered dropping out, this beautiful run down the drag strip happened! Jeff was as happy as I was! I knew it was going to be a great day and a good week, and I was certain that before the week was over I would have the coop running in the nines.

 

Enjoying the ride a long. Thanks for sharing.

 

No kidding. Ya’d think they have jobs and a life or something.
Mercy

 

Great read, thanks for posting "the behind the scenes" part of Dragweek, didn't know your track tires were your street tires.

 

Reading the rules, it doesn’t seem to prohibit changing wheels and tires between street and race. Drag tires required on the track. Carrying the replacements could be a problem, though.

 

It would be legal for me us use separate sets of tires for the track and for the street. But I don't have room on board the coupe to carry the slicks, and I don't want to pull a trailer. That is not very hot-roddy IMHO. So I run some DOT approved M/T ET street bias ply slicks. They are impossible in the rain. Rain = pull over and wait. I learned that the hard way in 2018 when I was in fear for my life, as told in the story on moparts: https://board.moparts.org/ubbthread...l/2018-drag-week-story-hemi-joel-version.html

Sadly, Jeffs mother passed away yesterday. My heartfelt sympathy's to Jeff and his family. She was a wonderful, spunky lady. So it may be a while before he is up to writing the next installment. The 2018 story can fill in some background while we are waiting.

 

Let Jeff know he’s in our thoughts.

 

Sorry to hear of the loss of Jeff's mom. Thanks for letting us know.

 

" he couldn't hear a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant"....LOL Thanks Joel. I hope you both find peace with your losses.

 

This IS a Great read.... Thank You.
Condolences to Jeff and his family.

BigMike

 

Lovin' it!

 

That's the kind of abuse I have to put up with all through Drag Week. Nobody makes fun of blind people or people with one leg, but you get a little hard of hearing and your fair game, Lol! I really got a kick out of that line as well.

 

I have a set of 30x12.5 I use on the Henry J for the street, definitely sketchy in wet conditions

 

From the PRI news letter....

 

Wow, I love it! I was hoping that a shot like that would turn up. Thank you for posting it!

 

Great stuff Joel. Real accounts of D W. Would make a cool movie or documentary. Sorry to hear of Jeff's loss. The coop looks fantastic in action.

 

Subscribed! Now for relief..

 

Roadkill did an episode in Mike Finnegan's 55 Chevy during the 2019 drag week. It's a fun episode to watch.

 

@Hemi Joel thanks for sharing these. I'm loving it and can't wait for the rest. I've been following drag week from my computer since the beginning and really hope to join in one year. MY heart goes out to your trunk monkey during this rough time.

 

Yes Sir. And that was also real deal accounts of the adventure . I love watching that episode and have over and over. However, this is all about Joel and his bad ass coop. OHHH YEAAA!

 

I dont want to hijack this thread, but I would realy like to hear about your engine combo.

 

See post 44, cool story.