Yesterday I gave you all a glimpse into what it was like during the days leading up to Drag Week 2014, as Larson and I thrashed to get the truck done and off to Tulsa. Once I finally got to Tulsa, slept for a couple hours, and then got to the track, it was a waiting game that nearly gave me a heart attack. Here’s how it went down. This is what it takes, what it’s like, what it means, to drive a 6 second S10 cross country.

IF YOU MISSED PART 1, CLICK HERE

IF YOU MISSED THE ENGINE BUILD, CLICK HERE

Before I even set foot in the pits at Tulsa Raceway Park my phone was blowing up. Text messages, emails, phone calls, all asking where “the truck” was and if we had gotten any testing done. Because of the extreme secrecy of this project, which I still can’t believe worked, most people had no idea that the stupid thing had only moved under it’s own power for the first time less than 24 hours before it went through tech.

What was funny about this on Sunday morning was that here I was running around shooting photos and shaking hands, and everyone is wondering why Larry and the truck aren’t there with me. Some of the inner circle so to speak, were told that Larry and a couple of the other guys were still thrashing until all hours of the night, and had left KC sometime around 7 in the morning. It’s a 4 hour drive, without a trailer, and I was in constant contact with either Larry or Sherry, trying to figure out exactly when they would pull in.

I talked to Dustin, who had helped finish the trailer at Larson Race Cars, and he told me there had been problems with the way the trailer was loaded and that it was scary and ripped a fender off, etc. I couldn’t even process how this had all happened, but didn’t really care as long as the trailer was on it’s way, correctly loaded, so that we would have what we needed for Drag Week.

Earlier in the morning, I had talked to Larry, who had been sleeping while Sherry drove, and had told him that Doug Cline had saved us a pit spot, and I had things ready to roll for the truck and trailers to be able to roll right in and park. Larry confirmed that something had been wrong with the trailer, as well as my Suburban, and that he had the trailer behind his truck and had left the Suburban at the shop. Crap, I was hoping they got everything out of the Suburban that we needed.

After getting a call from Sherry saying they would be in Tulsa in about an hour, I started getting antsy, especially because every single person I walked by or talked to asked  me something about the truck. An hour later, the truck, Larry, and Sherry, still weren’t there.  Just about the time I’m starting to get pissed, a text comes in from Larry saying they are coming in hot.

Coming in hot? WTF does that mean? I’m getting cars moved around in line so we have a clear shot to the pits, meanwhile cars are lining up to run the test and tune session, and Joe Barry is sitting on his golf cart next to me saying he got the same text. And then it hit me.

That bastard is going to drive the damn thing into the track!

And about 5 minutes later he sure as hell does. The minute folks at the end of the tech line hear and see it coming, the crowd starts to make noise. By the time he sees me and takes my direction through the crowd, I’m running for the pit spot and the crowd is waiving and cheering and trying to keep up. It’s about to become a mob scene. And we have a truck to finish building that we have not done ANY testing with and need to start making laps down the track.

After the hugs and kisses are over, and the crowd is at a complete frenzy around the truck, we remove the front end off the truck, get it on jacks, and tell the crowd they can look it over for a few minutes while we let it cool and then get to work. That work included caution tape to keep at least some semblance of organization in our pit, an inventory of all the stuff that was quite literally thrown into our Drag Week trailer, and the unsettling realization that a few key things were not here because they were still sitting in my Suburban at Larson Race Cars.  Ooops

Now is when it actually started to get stressful. It didn’t take much to get the truck ready for Tech Inspection, that was simple, but interviews, photos, questions, etc, all were taking hours, and we still needed to fire this thing on alcohol for the first time, get it into race trim, and start making some test hits. Wow, were we thinking positively, because  at 5 o’clock we were just getting started. 4 hours later we tried to fire it for the first time on methanol, were in the midst of fixing several small things, and realized we needed parts from O’Reilly’s which was closing in 6 minutes and was 4 miles away.

We made it to O’Reilly Auto Parts with about 10 seconds to spare, and were glad that the crew there was easy going and willing to let us hunt for hoses and such in the back without asking us for a VIN number or some such thing to get the right part. $40 worth of stuff later and we were on our way back to Tulsa Raceway Park in hopes of making a run before 10 pm.

Jimmy and the gang from Tulsa Raceway Park were incredibly nice to us, and continuously came by to give us status updates on the timeframe, how we were looking, track conditions, etc. And after finally firing the truck on alcohol and making it through a few gremlins, we were beat, and Drag Week hadn’t even started yet. I was trying to convince myself this wasn’t a precursor to things to come during the week. Man was I wrong.

With only a few minutes to spare we drove the truck up to the lanes. It was running well, although we had been thrashing like mad getting some of our electronics to talk to each other, and we were looking forward to at least a burnout and one initial launch to make sure all systems were a go. We would have nothing else to test for the night as the track was closing down, but if the crowd that had waited and was now filling the starting line at Tulsa was any indication, this was going to be a wild week.

After getting Larry belted in, the computer recording data, and water sprayed in the box, we were all excited to see it do its first burnout. Larry said it was going to be a shorty, and for some reason I believed him. Maybe I shouldn’t have. The burnout wasn’t “pretty”, as it wasn’t real thrilled with the start of it, but once the tires were smoking the little S10 we had worked so hard on for all of 2014 was on its way across the starting line and I could hardly stand it. This was really happening, we were going to be alright. Watch out world, Larson and Reynolds were about to kick some serious ass.

And then he lifted. The tires grabbed and the engine was no longer running. The first attempt at restarting it didn’t work. Crap. Were we really going to have to push our pride and joy back from 150 feet down track?

Tune in tomorrow to find out.