This is what my motel room looked like from the
outside. Nothing special, but it was away from the road by a block
or so, and I felt more secure being on the ground floor with an external
door and my Nova parked right outside my room.
We got up a little early (for a vacation, anyway)
at about 8 am to get our cars ready for the racing. It was sprinkling
and the skies weren't looking too nice, although they had predicted 82
and partly sunny for the day.
Somehow I had to install a firewall between the
trunk and passenger compartment to pass tech at the 'strip, since my battery
is in the trunk. I had rough cut a 19"x60" piece of sheet steel and
threw it and some tin snips in the trunk before I left home Friday morning,
now it was time to do some fast work! I successfully cut it down
to size to fit between my back seatback and the factory steel panel that
the back seatback normally rests on. Success! Then I yanked
my 6"x9" speakers and cut what little steel I had left into two 9-1/2"
squares to cover the speaker holes in my rear deck. It worked.
More on passing tech later.
As I was cleaning up my car from Friday night's
downpour, Rick (ThreeRRRs) came by to introduce himself and chat for a
while (great guy!). Craig stopped by too, but then went back to finish
getting himself and his car ready to go. This is Rick and his wife's
Blazer:
Craig and Angella took off to grab a bite for
breakfast while I finished up my car (yes, they did offer to pick up something
for me, too...). I called Shawn, told him to meet us at 11:10 and
we'd head out to the track. Craig and Angella got back and Craig
loaded his Nova onto the trailer.
Nice setup he's got, huh?
We finally got off and running. This is
the first picture of Nova Extremely Mini Power Tour from the motel to the
track:
The skies aren't looking too good, but they got
better. Much better!
See? We knew we were in for a great day
weather-wise. The Mini Power Tour continued...
You're looking at two cool bridges and two cool
cars, all of which will soon be over the Missouri River.
Oh, man, we're almost there! I can almost
smell the burning rubber!!
Here we are, about to pull in (beats pulling out...)
:
Life is good...
We made it. Took about 40 minutes on a nice,
warm, partly cloudy morning. Life could be worse. A lot worse!
So Shawn, Craig, Angella and I pull into
the line awaiting the opening of the gates. Here's the car that was
in front of Shawn in line to get in. There were Novas everywhere!
Not only were there Novas everywhere, but by the
time the gates opened about an hour after we got there, there were about
50-60 cars waiting to get in, stretching down the approach road in both
directions for a quarter-mile (ironic, huh?)!! The scariest part
was that there Shawn was with his 6-cylinder '72 and me and my total street
car. I'd say about 90% of the cars there were on trailers.
Some had 'chutes, most had big ol' slicks, narrowed rearends... Can
you say "intimidating"? I knew you could.
Anyway, Craig thought this would make a good time
for him to hook up his battery disconnect switch (required if the battery
is in the trunk) as Shawn offered moral support. Or was he taking
a snooze on Craig's fender? I can't remember:
We finally got into the track and we all signed
up for Trophy Street bracket racing. We considered Test-n-Tune, but
they said we'd get more runs in with brackets, and that's what we were
after. We found a nice pit area, unloaded our cars, and put all of
our crap on Craig's trailer and into his pickup (thanks Craig!).
Craig unbolted his B.F. Goodrich Drag Radials
and bolted on his M&H Racemasters. I took off my BFG Comp T/As
and installed Craig's Drag Radials. Thanks again, Craig! They
look a whole lot more dragstrip-worthy than my street tires!
Gettin' ready for the racing (no center caps or
trim rings allowed on the track)...
Did I mention that these Drag Radials were virtually
treadless? I was lovin' it (and so were my 60' times)!
Meanwhile, Craig was bolting on his wrinkle-wall
D.O.T.-approved M&H Racemasters.
They
are seriously sticky!
It was time to go through Tech Inspection!
More stuff from Saturday on the Next
Page, but FYI, there are quite a few pics on the
next page so it might take a little while to load them up.
They
are seriously sticky!
