2004 AHRA Reunion At MOKAN

I want to give a huge thanks to Jim Marlett for the photos in this gallery... he's a great guy and a fantastic photographer. Go visit him at www.flatheadrag.com.

Well, the plan was to run a little match race at the reunion  with 'Lurch' (Dale Wilkens) and Scott Gaulter's Nitro Madness piloted by 'Rapid' Randy Baker. But things kinda got off to a rough start in the first session. The car left on a killer pass... it was really settin' me back in the seat. The car likes to carry the wheels just a little... so I wasn't too surprised when it hiked the wheels up a little way. But it was a bit of a surprise when the hot rod snapped the wheelie-bar about 60 feet and the front end shot about 6 feet in the air!! Man what a ride! I have always heard that things like this happen really fast... and trust me... it happens very fast. So fast in fact that it took me a split second to realize it had snapped the front tires off the car upon touching back down to earth!! We started out in the right lane and ended up sliding into the left lane... with no steering... no brakes... and the motor STILL PULLING THE CAR DOWN THE TRACK!! I kicked the car out of gear, killed the motor, and pumped the brakes to get as much help as I could from the little fluid I had left and we stopped just about a foot short of the wall. We were so lucky... we stayed out of the wall... just missed the other car... and NO FIRE!!