7:00 AM:  "Hey Bob, we forgot to set the alarm; we've overslept!" Awwww, doodie. Have we missed the first round? Can I go home now? Slowly gaining a state of consciousness, I take stock of the situation. The gates are just opening now and we've got a pretty good chance of getting both my vehicle and the Tucker's past the peasants parking lots even if we are running a little late.

We've still got to finish packing and loading up for the trip (home in my case), off to Denver, by way of Salt Lake City (for Rob and Shane Tucker), but that should only take a few minutes after I've had a shower and a quick shave. First things first though; jump into my clothes and down to the lobby for some life-saving coffee and a smoke.

Despite sharing a room with them for the past three days, I realize that I've not really spent enough time with Rob and Shane. Focusing too much on the race cars and not the people, I feel guilty about not doing my part to show them some Canadian hospitality and help them see some of the sights in the Seattle area. They assure me that our late-night and early morning chats are more than enough of my time, and they can understand that I'm here more as a reporter than a spectator.

After riding to the track in their rental car for two days, this morning we'll go our separate ways, as they'll be on the highway south after the race, and I'll be heading north, probably before the final rounds. Making sure we haven't forgotten anything, we're out the door and gone before 8 o'clock.

9:00 AM:  Taking a last look around the pits before I head down to the media centre, there's obviously a few less racers here than previously. With the first round of most eliminators running yesterday, quite a few of the defeated have already packed up and left... leaving even more parking spots for "gate crashers" like us.

A quick look at the results sheets from yesterday shows there'll be quite a few very tough races in the Federal-Mogul ranks today. With weather conditions similar to the first two days: cloudy and cool, we could see a new national record for the dragsters, and some very strong performances from the floppers.

Dana Hopewell, crew chief for Brandon Henkelman, has candidly admitted that he doesn't know where that 5.23 timeslip came from yesterday, and he's certainly got no intention of trying to back it up today. They just want to go rounds, is his summation. Okay Dana, we'll see what you've got to say in about three hours.

We never did find out what Bernstein's problem (that required the services of Brad Hadman last night) was, but the car is on the jackstands and ready to go by the time we arrived this morning. In fact, it looks like everyone except me remembered to set their alarms this morning; they're all ready to go and we're still nearly three hours from the first Federal-Mogul round of eliminations today.

10:00 AM:  It's time for the quote of the day, courtesy of one of the media foxes: "...as long as it's not a porn site". Taken out of context, it could make one wonder just what sort of things I get in to at the media centre, but it's all quite innocent. Really.

Here's the true story: I needed to get the home address of a well-known Canadian webmaster before leaving Seattle, and since I didn't have my address book and couldn't remember his phone number, I racked my brain for a few minutes trying to figure out how to get the information. Then it occurred to me that the address was available on his website, and I knew there were several people in the centre with online access.

Approaching the young woman, with a certain amount of trepidation, I was able to explain my predicament and she kindly typed in the website url, warning me that her online use was being monitored and it had better be drag racing related content that we were accessing. No, it's not on the homepage; try the video order page... yes, stop, right there. Thanks heaps. And for the rest of the day everytime our eyes met she gave me a look like she recognized my face from one of the wanted posters down at the post office.

10:15 AM:  The pre-race festivities are in full swing, with the obligatory skydivers towing gigantic American and Canadian flags down as Miss Auburn 2001 manages to mangle both national anthems. To her credit, she remembers almost all the words to the Star Spangled Banner, but loses it entirely halfway through Oh Canada, starts making it up as she loses the plot, and is finally saved when the first pair of Top Fuel cars fire up and put her out of her (and my) misery.

From now until I hit the highway home in the afternoon, I'll be camped out here in the media corral -- with the new, improved, 75-minute turnaround time between rounds -- there simply isn't enough time to go back and forth to the pits between rounds to see what's happening. So to see how the day went, check out the Sunday Results page, then come back here for the day's wrap-up.

1:30 PM:  The on track action has taken a short (hopefully) intermission while sprinkles of rain decorate the top end. This is really strange though: the sun has actually broken through for the first time in nearly 48 hours and it's.... almost raining. Any second now I expect to see a rainbow, complete with leprechauns and a pot of gold to appear.

Either that, or lunch, which has finally arrived in the media trailer behind me. Back in a few bites, or a rain shower or two. Looks like they'll be running off some sportsman cars to test the track in between the sprinkles. Sacrifice the slow?

While enjoying the excellent prime rib, Susan Wade, who's writing for the Seattle Times this weekend, naively asks if SpeedZone magazine is looking for any more writers. "Heck, yes" is the obvious reply... quickly followed by a major caveat: nobody gets paid though. Oh......

Not dissauded by this admission, a freelance photographer sitting next to me offers his business card and allows that if he can have a few covers with his work on them, the photos will be free. I'll have to remember to let the publisher know about this offer.

We've been in sort of a holding pattern for most of the last half hour, but the sounds of a pair of nitro engines thundering to life announces that the semi-final rounds are ready to roll. Back to the results page to follow the story.

2:30 PM:  The semi-finals are done and all that remains is the finals in about an hour or so. Time to take my leave, beat the crowd out the gate and make tracks for home. Then it'll be time to stuff this puppy in the oven and see what develops.

6:30 PM:  Home, sweet home. Nothing much to do this evening, except sit here until midnight, trying to put the entire race report together, post all the pictures, add the results, update seven other pages on the website, then get to bed in time to crawl out again at 5:30 in the morning and head to work. Piece of cake....