2:30 am:  What the heck am I doing? It's very late, the rain's coming down heavy, the traffic on the freeway is heavy (where the heck are all these people going at this time of night?), and I'm just on my way back to the motel now.

The past four hours were a marathon typing session in my friend Casey Binz's basement, hacking out what I'd written during yesterday's first day of qualifying at the Northwest Nationals.

It didn't turn out quite like I'd planned, mainly due to the late start, and partly because the brain cells weren't at full speed from lack of sleep over the past week.... month.... year.

The creative process just wasn't happening so I switched to autopilot and simply posted my version of what was seen elsewhere, like Drag Race Central. No, I didn't rewrite their reports, but I really didn't get much more done than the results. No backgrounders, no human interest bits, or any stupid human tricks.

Now all I can concentrate on is aiming for the motel and bed. No doubt my Aussie roommates have set the alarm for 0-too-early, but I'll just have to hope for a late start to Saturday's proceedings.

7:30 am:  "Scattered showers, decreasing in intensity through the afternoon, with the wind picking up strength out of the west and lower than normal temperatures...." Put a sock in it weatherlady; just tell me I can roll over and go back to sleep until tomorrow.

But there's no respite from her incessant droning of the bad news, and I'm finally forced to admit defeat, roll out of bed and crawl into the shower.

Then it's time for the usual breakfast of losers: coffee and cigarettes. Or is it cigarettes and coffee? Whatever; three of each and it's time to hit the road to S.I.R.

8:00 am:  The gates are open, but we're able to cruise in through the nearly empty entrance roads, straight through several "security" checkpoints and directly into the pits. There's virtually no activity and very few spectators wandering through the waterlogged pits.

No one's sure about today's schedule, or even assuming that there'll be anything other than the jet dryer making laps today. The consensus in the alky pits is that we've seen all the qualifying sessions already, and the only person left out is Bernie Plourd, who failed to get his car ready to run yesterday. It's all done now; just a day late, from all appearances.

While ingesting an after breakfast snack of coffee, nicotine and beef jerky sticks, I find I've got plenty of time to schmooze with the racers.

First stop is Leo Grocock's (where we've managed to snag a parking place). He's fairly pleased with yesterday's second session 6.36 (at only 179 mph). If he hadn't shut off so early, he felt a low 6-teen would have graced the scoreboard. A post run inspection showed some seriously weak valve springs, which he's in the process of replacing.

Bill Edwards (Sr.) comes by to find out more details about the pedigree of the cylinder heads on his car. They worked well yesterday, to the tune of a 5.67 at a career best speed of 243 mph, but at a cost of six rod bearings. He knows these heads have slightly smaller combustion chambers than his previous heads, hence increased compression and that (he feels) resulted in the squished bearings.

All I can tell Bill is that I purchased the heads from Winnipeg, Manitoba's Ken Murray at the 1984 Winternationals, and that we picked them up from Brad Anderson's shop where they'd been for freshening. So we can figure that they're at least 18, and possibly 19, years old. They sat on a shelf in my shop for 14 years before I sold them to Don Gryte and now they're on loan from Don to Edwards. Small world, eh?

Next door to Grocock's pit is Mike Cofini, who was hard at work trying to extract a very recalcitrant (and very dead) lifter from his engine last night, but it's all buttoned up and ready to go this morning. Mike tells me that a broken pushrod started a cycle of destruction that used up a few parts, but caused no lasting damage. At least none that they weren't able to fix.

Mike Johnson was very pleased with yesterday's 5.36, his first trip into the ".30"s and good for the #2 qualifying spot. He wasn't nearly as pleased to find #6 rod bearing spun and a blackened crank afterwards. It wasn't a case of faulty parts, just a sympton of the vastly increased stress on an engine when it steps up from 5.40's to 5.30's. "The price of going fast... etc...."

Mike Austin, the new alcohol racer on the block from Medford, Oregon, drops by to let me know about some parts he has for sale. He knows that I've got some contacts in Australia and enquires whether anyone would be in the market for a Whipplecharger, Buzzard catcher, barrel valve and restraint. The price is right, very right, at $4500 (USD), so I promise to spread the word for him. (Email me for the details).

After this event, he's only planning to run at Spokane's AHRA "World Finals" in two weeks time, then call it a season. Then he wants to sell off some of his equipment and start planning some upgrades for next season. Looks like he's planning to be around for a while. Mike also mentions that he's got a low-mileage set of Hoosier slicks, tubes, liners and Centerline wheels going cheap... so cheap in fact that I'm buying them.

While I'm talking to Mike in the Edgecombe Racing pits, Dave Edgecombe starts listing off all the B-1 parts they've got for sale. His father Larry has already mentioned the blocks, heads, blower manifolds, valve covers, rod & piston sets, rocker assemblies, etc., but Dave adds a few more items to the list. (Again, email me for the details, but only after I've finished purchasing the gear I need from them).

Across the road from the Edgecombe's there's a new attitude evident in Duane Shields' pit area following his win at Woodburn's Federal-Mogul event two weeks ago. Duane's always been a very friendly, easygoing guy, always having a good time, but now that he's won, he's developing a serious side.

Not that he's got an "attitude", but now that he's had a taste of victory, he wants more. Based on his performance yesterday, he's definitely got a good chance this weekend.

11:00 am:  It's a long hike down to the media centre from the pits, but the lure of coffee and donuts.... hmmm... donuts... is too great to ignore. They've even got some healthy stuff like orange juice and low-fat muffins, but it's not mandatory to partake of them.

When I arrive it looks like a major case of "whole lotta nuthin' goin' on" as nobody has any idea what's in store for the day. NHRA hasn't posted any revised schedule yet, but the p.a. is announcing that the start of racing (in Super Street) is imminent. We'll see.

Dave Kommel, of Auto Imagery fame, pops his head in the door and re-introduces himself. We compare notes about what we've been doing lately and exchange anecdotes about our experiences from the "other side of the fence" at national events. Good to see you again Dave; keep in touch.

The clarion call of race cars; well, Super Street cars, echoes off the NHRA trailer and draws me outside to see what's happening on the track. It's still very cloudy and threatening to rain at any second; the wind is still blowing and it's still darn cold. Conditions not very conducive to serious drag racing, but after all, it's only slow doorslammers right now. If they start spinning the tires, then we're really in trouble.

1:00 pm:  We've been running for two hours now, working through the first round of eliminations in the sportsman categories, and now we're into Super Comp. We're getting warmer (figuratively, as in closer to the fast cars), but not literally, as the weather is still looking very marginal. The track temperature is probably too cold to hook up any serious horsepower, but the relative altitude readings should be excellent. Sounds like a very bad combination: lots of horsepower and minimal traction.

The first call has just gone out for Pro Stock, so maybe we will see some real drag racing today. Despite a cold, damp start, we just might get this event rolling again. Time to ramp up the excitement level.

So when am I going to start ranting about what an "excrement-excavation" the SIR facility is? Excuse me for a minute while I partake of the delicious hot lunch, graciously provided by those fine folks at NHRA.

Now where was I? Talking about what a great facility SIR is? No? Well, it couldn't have been that important, could it?

However, we do have a few random observations gathered over the past 36 hours:

 -  Sections of the grandstands missing (tower side)
 -  Falling down "Welcome Race Fans" sign at the front gate
 -  Non-existent traffic control; example: at 10:30 last night, two hours after qualifying ended, it still took nearly two hours to exit the facility
 -  Uncut grass and unpulled weeds everywhere
 -  Did we mention the rocks yet? They're still here... larger and more numerous than ever
 -  Scars on the guardwall from incidents of years past (does a can of white paint really cost that much?)
 -  Lax security; any track that will let me drive into the pits without a challenge has not got competent security
 -  Did we mention the port-a-johns yet? Let's not....
 -  And the list could go on and on but they're bringing out the Baked Alaska dessert now... gotta run.

2:00 pm:  Amazingly, as if on cue, the skies start clearing as the Pro Stock cars begin their qualifying session. The wind is stronger than ever, and cold, but the weather's looking better than at any time in the last 18 hours.

If we see anything significant happen during this prologue to the fuel and alcohol cars, we'll report it. Otherwise: Nitro.... now!

The 30-person grandstand in the media corral starts filling as the Pro Stock cars go through their paces. Where do these people hide the rest of the time?

Side by side 6.8's at 200+ mph. Ho, hum. Where's the canapes? What happened to the hors d'oeuvres? Where's the espresso machine? And where the heck are the fuel cars? Let's get this show on the road.

It's hard to admit but the Pro cars are really laying down some big numbers. Sub one-second 60 foot times, very low 6.80's, speeds of over 202 mph. The bump spot has dropped from 6.92 to 6.90 in the space of five minutes. I've got to say it: I'm almost impressed.

2:10 pm:  The Top Fuel cars have reached the head of the staging lanes, so we'll switch over to the results page for a while now. But don't forget to come back and see what's happening between rounds.

8:00 pm:  With the late start and condensed schedule today, we never got out of the media corral until the final pair of fuel funny cars blasted down the track approximately thirty minutes ago. Despite the inclement weather conditions; the wind never really died down all day and the temperature never got past 70 (F)... but at least the rain held off; we were able to get everything done, almost on time, with the only casualty being the third and final session of Federal-Mogul qualifying.

As mentioned before, the only loser in that scenario was Bernie Plourd, who finished up his car just twenty-four hours too late. Try to be a little better prepared next year, eh Bern?

For the other 30 alcohol cars in the pits, all they lost was one attempt at getting the tuneup right, but on the other hand, didn't have to abuse their equipment once more for the meagre qualifying money on offer. They're expected to make four runs for $800 first round money. Return on investment? Don't get me going.....

Anyways, the cares and tribulations of day two are washed away in the glow of Lezlee Hentges' barbecue and garden party as she once again serves up the dinner of the year to her crew, friends, racers and even a few lost tourists. Salmon... heaps of it; snags (sausages); salads; fruit; cake; soft drinks, etc.etc. until people could barely walk away without assistance. And I thought NHRA was feeding me well; thanks again to two of the nicest people in drag racing: Mark and Lezlee Hentges, champions on and off the track.

The only downer of the barbecue came as I prepared to leave, when nature gave me an emergency call to action that involved a trip to one of S.I.R.'s portable washrooms: the dreaded port-a-dumper. When they were delivered on Thursday morning, they were fresh as daisies. By Friday afternoon they were starting to "ripen"... at this time, on Saturday evening... indescribable is about the only adjective fit for posting.

11:00 PM:  Back at the Binz residence and ruining another of Casey's evenings. If no for other reason than to avoid incoveniencing people, I swear this is the last roadtrip race report I'll ever make without having my own laptop. After last night's tour de farce, we decide on a limit of midnight for this post... and only miss the deadline by about an hour. Problems connecting to the server at my website host in Vancouver are the culprit this time.

1:00 AM:  So tired that I can hardly see straight, I'm on the road south to the motel at Federal Way once more, looking forward to another four or five hours of sleep before the final day of this year's Northwest Nationals. Tune in again tomorrow night for all the news.