Wagons of Steel North ventured out last weekend on their big racing excursion of the Summer. Destination: Pacific Raceway, near Seattle for the Goodguys hot rod race on Friday and the Mopar nationals on Sat/Sun. Knowing full well that it was a trek to be reckoned with, we left early on Thursday morning; my Polara hauling the race car and Graham's '63 as our support vehicle. We made a B-line for Vashon Island where we met up with our rival gang and long time friends at Wagons of Steel (South). They prepared a nice smoked meat and seafood dinner, served on the hood of their 1970 T&C wagon (pure class). Friday arrived and the entire entourage made a convoy to the track. We were a bit surprised to see that they were already racing when we arrived, don't they know who we are? The combined WOS posse consisted of four wagons and three coupes, so we were a serious force to be reckoned with. Various problems plagued the group including a spun bearing, busted rear end and misc. trans problems. Our big gun opted to behave for a change and ran like a champ. So needless to say, we only got one qualifying pass before eliminations. No problem, the car was running strong and our team was feeling organized and tight. A mess of good lights accompanied by some free rounds donated by the intimidated few that dared step up to the big wagon put us in the final four around 11:30PM. Alas, we succumbed to a red light leaving us with a semi-final finish.
Saturday was mostly test and tune and since we were mildly concerned with the amount of sticky material left on our slicks, we opted to take it easy and save some for Sunday, which was a good thing. Saturday night found us drinking slightly more than heavily and were finally dead locked in a North vs. South drinking competition at around 4:30 AM. Sunday races seemed to start all too quickly, getting under way at 9:00 AM sharp. Several pints of cowboy coffee and a few qualifying runs later let us know that were back in business. Again, we were excited to go rounds against some high dollar cars and made it to the Semi's again. Having a cheering section in the crowd was a new experience and was a real ego boost to our humble little team. The exciting pass of the weekend went to the match up with our machine against a flashy red nine second Duster. It was during eliminations so I left first but saw the win light in my lane so I knew he red lit. I passed the traps at 115 mph right as he flew past me sideways as a 141 mph ball of smoke. He then proceeded to cross the center line in front of me, where I had to hammer on the brakes and then nearly missed colliding with the wall. It was all pretty exciting from the driver's seat and apparently he had a little pee in his suit. All in all he handled the situation pretty good and no people or machines got hurt.
The drive home was fairly long and uneventful but we did manage to survive a 1000 mile journey with little to no incident and seven wins in competition over the whole weekend.
