Drag Illustrated Issue 125, September 2017 | Page 61
“ARE YOU
GUYS READY
TO DO THIS?”
I REMEMBER
ASKING,
speaking to a crowd of a couple dozen at the top of the
seemingly-vertical staging lanes at Bandimere Speedway.
Intermittent heavy rains had derailed what had thus far been
an almost perfect four days on The Mountain, but the skies had
cleared, the sun began to shine, and the time had finally come
for a winner to be decided; for the biggest, richest Pro Mod
drag race to be more than a tagline. Somewhat unbelievably,
still to this day and most assuredly in that moment, my question
was met with a resounding “Yes!”. Few times in my life I have
experienced a more blatant flipping-of-the-switch than in the
minutes and hours that followed that casual driver’s meeting.
For the better part of a week leading up to the race, which had
included two full days of testing, a pre-race party open to all
drivers, crews and family, it had been nothing but wide-smiles,
high-fives and hugs. While the decision to run the race without
scoreboards had fueled many a late night conversation at
the track and almost constant gossip and chatter throughout
the buildup to the race, the mood was surprisingly relaxed
given the circumstances. There had been moments, such
as when a crew member essentially went head-first into a
trash barrel to dig out the crumbled, torn pieces of his driver’s
time slip during testing for fear of anyone else getting their
hands on it, but I vividly remember wondering if somehow
I’d missed something, if I’d built the event up to be so big in
my mind that it couldn’t possibly mean as much to everyone
else as it did to me. That maybe that was why everyone -
particularly the drivers - seemed so decidedly even-keeled.
And then it was time to race. And then everything changed.
Photograph By J o e M c H u g h
DragIllustrated.com
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