2:30 AM:  Bedtime? Bedtime!

7:00 AM:  "Traffic's already backing up on the 5, the 405, 18, 503.... and just about everywhere today. Now for the weather.... And so starts our day with an altogether too perky traffic girl as the alarm jolts us awake. I win the morning reaction time contest and hit the kill switch on the radio before my roommates, Rob & Shane Tucker even stir.

7:10 AM:  I'm showered and dressed before the Aussies have even moved, when the radio blasts into action again. Apparently I hit the snooze button, instead of the off switch. To heck with it; I'm going for breakfast and the Tucker's can deal with the noise.

8:00 AM:  Balanced breakfast (2 cups of coffee & 2 cigarettes) and it's time to hit the road for S.I.R. A quick stop at the ARCO for petrol and soft drinks for the eskie (cooler) and we're soon out on Highway 18 and heading for the track.

The weather isn't looking very promising: Heavy cloud, cool temperatures; and the forecast for the weekend is worse. Not a good sign; it's reminiscent of many a Fallnationals in the old days.

9:00 AM:  We've got our credentials and with the assistance of some lax security guards, we're able to drive right into the pits. Sweet.... As long as we don't get towed away. Splitting up, the Aussies head for the Pro pits, while I start counting noses in the alky stalag.

10:00 AM:  I've been once around the pits already and bumped into quite a few of the racers I see at Mission regularly and we exchange opinions about the state of national event racing, the condition of S.I.R. and other sundry topics. Despite his protestations to the contrary, Leo Grocock has brought the Northwest Drag Racing School car to ensure there's a full field of dragsters.

The situation isn't much better in the alky flopper pits, with again, just 16 of the breed on hand. Top Fuel: same deal. Nitro funny car: overflowing with 18 cars. Hmm, this is one of the smallest turnouts on record for this event.

12:30 PM:  It's nearly time for the first qualifying session for the Federal-Mogul cars so I start heading for the tower-side grandstands, only to find nearly half of them missing. There's a huge chunk of stands gone between the 300 and 600 foot mark, replaced with a sea of motorhomes. What the heck happened? Did time and decay finally reclaim the wood? Did Rockstad's lawyers order their destruction?

One hypothesis postulated by a well-known trackside troublemaker has it that the small percentage of seat sales pocketed by the promoter on the missing stands paled in comparison to the revenue generated by the motorhomes. All of that income goes directly into Rockstad's pockets, according to our source.

1:00 PM:  The track looks good, with no sun on it yet; the air temps are down, and the relative altitude readings are excellent. This could be a great qualifying session if the track can hold it. Apparently the NHRA staff worked late into the evening last night, doing their best to prop up the usually substandard S.I.R. surface.

The skies are still threatening as the Federal-Mogul Funny Cars start their first session. First out of the lanes are Randy Parker and Bucky Austin. Let the party begin....

For the results from the first session of Federal-Mogul Funny Cars and Dragsters, check out the Friday Results page, then come back here to pick up the story thread.

2:45 PM:  Here's some quick pit notes jotted down while travelling between the tower side grandstands and the media centre (on the pit side down at the finish line).

Grocock: shake, shake, and more shake. Jones: Career best e.t. and speed and the Edgecombe gang are very happy. Bill Edwards (Jr. & Sr.) confirm that they're very happy also. They had a reading of only 85 degrees track temperature when they ran. Excellent.

Shields had no high gear (that explains the very early shutoff), but was running 214 mph at half track. Bernstein's ugly-sounding, and looking, burnout was the result of a rag trapped in the injectors. After they removed it, he set low e.t. of the session. Late note: Apparently the "Bud Prince" car was a few pounds underweight when it crossed the scales, and his run's been disqualified.

The 16th alcohol dragster in the pits (Bernie Plourd) is still being put together and it's almost certain not to be ready for the second session later today. They've got to hope for good weather tomorrow and a chance to get in the show in the final session. As long as he can keep it lit and stage the car under it's own power... then it'll be a done deal.

3:30 PM:  The sun's been out for an hour now; there's very few clouds in the sky; the air's getting worse and the track temp's are climbing. This is not overly conducive to great performances this afternoon.

There's no Pro Stock Trucks or Bikes here, so we lead off the first Pro session with Pro Stock cars. My track appraisal looks accurate as the first few pairs barely get down the track and that's with a lot of tire shake.

The "hitters" are still deep in the lanes so we should hold off on a final judgement for a while yet. "Funny Cars to the staging lanes" rings out over the p.a. system. Good news: the nitro's getting closer....

It looks like our predictions are as "accurate" as usual; the track e.t. record for Pro Stock is broken... twice. The bubble ends up in the low 6.9's. Maybe these cars can hook up, but what about the fuel cars? The floppers are up first: let the thunder begin!

Go back to the results page to see the next part of the story.

5:00 PM:  Pit Notes: Whatever happened to Al Hofmann? We see him cruising up and down the return road on a minibike, so we know he's here. But what about the Jim Dunn "Mooneyes" flopper? Guess it's time to make another round of the pits.

5:30 PM:  Whoops. No time to cruise. Back to work as the second session of Federal-Mogul is on tap. Heck, there was barely enough time to grab another free meal at the media centre.

Go back to the results page to see the next part of the story.

7:00 PM:  Where's Al Hofmann? How about the head of the staging lanes, as he's out first against Scotty Cannon in this second nitro qualifying session. The air is cooling; the sun's getting lower; the shadows longer; it's looking good for this nitro at night festival.

Go back to the results page to see the next part of the story.

8:15 PM:  "Brad Hadman: You're needed in Brandon Bernstein's pit area a.s.a.p." Hmm, looks like it could be a long night in the offing at Progressive Metalcraft. We'll try to follow it up in the morning.

9:00 PM:  Due to a bit of parking chicanery and a fortuitously open side gate this evening, we were on the highway and back to the motel less than 30 minutes after Scelzi cleared the traps. Now all I have to do is drive up to Casey Binz's in Des Moines and get all these pages (21 of them) of notes translated into a web page. Hmm, looks like a long night in the offing at the Binz WebWorks.

2:00 AM:  I wasn't wrong, except it's not evening anymore; it's now closer to early morning and I'm still tapping at the keyboard. So before my eyes completely glaze over and I drop face forward onto the desk, let's call it a night and do it all over again tomorrow.

The one bit of bad news I can report at this time is that it's raining here in the Seattle area, has been raining since 10 pm and should contuinue precipitating until at least Saturday afternoon. Stay tuned: this could be a long weekend, indeed. More news as soon as we get a chance.....