I FINALLY made it out to my first official race. Once a month on the first Saturday of the month Milan Dragway holds a heads-up series and I decided to enter the "ALL-MOTOR" class ...about 2 years ago. I had so, many helpers but, the TOP3 were my wife Michelle, Randy Johnson, and Jerry Tormala!!! All thru the 2 days we were having fun and laughing thru our adventure. Friday the 5th was the first (but not necessary) day of the race allowing for testing and 1 qualify attempt for a 16 car field. There are over a dozen 7 second car that could show up any given day. Lately (after 'Cov') things are different and we've had a low car counts. This was a decent showing with 8-9 cars. (4 'broke' before elims!!!) Friday we struggled to get the car out and as ready as could be. With some minor weather and tech delays I was able to get 2 hits in and qualified #5 with an 8.9x @ 130 lifting because I had no chute ands the car had a bad vibe out about 100+ mph since I had changed to 10.5x29.5 tires/tubes and the 4.10 gear. All was valuable to get situated in the program. Got home about mid-night and back up at 5 am with mind racing (about racing) and what to fix, including balancing tools etc. After the long drive back and breakfast on the road !!!Harvest Moon Cafe!!! we hit the ground running and got all over the car like a couple of spider monkeys. The weather was great and helped us loose a few pounds of unnecessary weight! The rest of the day was just one event of luck after another and I'd think we were entertaining. The car has a big bog now at the hit footbraking so, if i don't get the changes done by next month, I'll tbrake it. But went 8.71 bog 1.28, 8.70 @ 155+ with a 1.32 near back-fired bog on 3rd qualifier. ON-TO elims ...Incidently, 2600 DA and I have 33* timing and I'm at 2850# (which is 35# over my limit) First round the stage guy comes over and tells me I have a bye into round 2!!! Sometime during the day I had the epiphany that I was being helped by many forces (seen and unseen) and I'd have a great string of luck into elims. I drove it a touch harder rpm-wise hitting 7800 at the shift and 78 in the traps and was rewarded with a 8.59@157+mph 1.26 60 and still minor bog. The second round I ran my 2 buddies with a solid 7 sec '69Z28 ...and I lost bad reaction bad driving but I was still on cloud nine. Got the chute working well too! The car is more than exceeding my expectations while needing tuning and the comradery was perfect. Come out and see us in August!!!