) Anyway here goes if you guys are bored let me know there won't be any more........about 5-6 years ago in my second year running with the Ozark Mountain Supershifters.....we made the annual trek to Wichita International raceway in KANSAS.......if you have not been there.well it's a dirthole......and in August it is GODDAMNED HOT!!.they don't start racing til about 8 or 9 pm.and they'll pack the place!.The OMSS goes there every year we are the "show" that weekend......this was my second year there.....I took my pit crew and buddy Derek with me. Now derek likes to drink a little....okay alot....not a big deal but recall this later on......so here we are it's like an oven and we are racing in Kansas. I was running the original version of my 62.....it was a TANK weighing in at 3800 on the line it was going to be a street car and was built STOUT....it had a stack injected 468 and lenco running 9.20's or so......to put on a "show" we all try and do the big burnouts and dry hops all that stuff......in the 2nd time run I chunked some teeth off the reverse gear. it wouldn;'t back up(driver error) so we took the back off the trans and looked at what was wrong had nothing to fix it so I cleaned out the shrapnel and put it back together and figured i can limp her through just cannot back up!!. well 1st round I rolled the beam and that was it..well at WIR they run a stickshift only bracket race......and when the OMSS is there they run them last so if we want to get into the race we can. it is a $25 entry $600 to win winner take all deal. only rule is it has gotta have a stick in it......well being my second year there i didn't know an OMSS guy had won the thing for 5-6 years!!...to say the locals hated that was an understatement.... 6 OMSS guys enter the race.....at about 11PM they call us up......and no one and I mean NO ONE went to the lanes......I finally say screw it and go up. there i sit by myself for another 15 minutes or so .finally the other 5 OMSS guys roll in.then a deluge of locals.about 50 cars total!!.everything from 12.00 streeters to 8 second top sportsman cars!!.......we had two lanes. all the OMSS guys were gonna have to run eachother first round. none of us really cared but the guy runing the lanes is an OMSS NUT he looks at us and says "oh this ain't gonna go".walks back to a goregous 55 chevy and makes him move up to the empty lane next to me along with about 15 other locals........I go check out the 55 it is a dark green metallic and really neat 60's style hot rod I ask the driver how fast it is he scowls and says "fast enough to kick yer ass!" .well okay then.....I am strapping in and I see one of the guys with the 55 looking into the grille of my car......I don't run a radiator .but all I can think of is it's leaking or something and he sees it. just then Derek opens the passenger door and says "that guy noticed you don't run a radiator.I bet he's gonna burn ya down". first getting to the track is a chore with all the people standing there. i let the 55 get into the water then start the 62 up and idle in and shut it off......with heat in the motor it'll fire right up without a prime so i ain't worried......I let the 55 do his thing and when he pulls out of the water I do my short burnout as I can't backup.....he lights the top bulb I do the same..now if ya ever been to WIR they have a state of the art.......for 1965....... timing system no auto start here!!..he isn't going in so i reach up and click it off......top light lit and all........he sits there for a LONG TIME long enough that the starter thinks i am broke and tells him to go in........I decide whether he goes in or not he's gonna wait for me and I also notice he really wasn't paying too much attention to what I was doing!!....he finally goes in and dives it in deep....I casually start the car and then get ready for a quick tree put the car in the beams...... the tree comes down I launch it and the thing stands up on the bars hard.it hadn't hooked well all day.........I thought ..UH OH hope I cut a light so i can lift this things gonna break out!! we get just past the 1/8th mile he is dialed like 11.50 or something......I fly by him and he musta broke the trans or missed a gear or something.....I shut it off early as he was no where to be found .dodged one bullet......3 of the other OMSS guys won too.one being a local who ran with us.......we get the pits and my buddy says "they got buy backs I bet the whole bunch buys back in those guys are PISSED!!...he also added the crowd went nuts for the burndown!!!.......they call 2nd round about 12pm.and sure enough no one goes up there.so i go right to the front of the line again......here comes a 90's mustang street car with nitrous etc.....pretty fast for a streeter 10.90's or so.....agian the guys are less than happy with us.......the crew guy for the stang looks at me and Derek. .he says " you guys might have gotten one round but we have never lost one of these races!"......okay it is on now!!....Derek says to me "hey he's gonna do the same thing to ya why don't you do a big Chi Town burnout".I say well yeah but it won't back up!!.he says I'll get some of the guys we'll push ya back just don't go way out there!".now Derek has been drinking for half a day.as had a few of the other OMSS guys........so they are a little oiled by this time........so i go up there and do a big long smoker.......here comes Derek with Gary Klavon, Dale Klavon,& Dan Neldner.all with a beer in hand.I shove in the clutch and they start pushing me back.all setting thier beers on the hood!!.the crowd went apeshit!!!.they get me back and I do a dry hop and go in a stage.the mustang had sat there for along time while we screwed around and he is steaming!!.....he stages and off we go he was out on me and got there first .. . I thought "well there went that".he blows by me on the return road and flips me off!!.I thought "WTF he won??!!.I got to the pits and the whole OMSS crew was there and I had won he went RED!!!.about that time I am still in the car.the crew guy who bragged himeself up comes up and yells "WTF WAS THAT???.you made my guy go red!!?.... got out expecting to get hit or something and he says I asked the tower for a rerun!!.......I went nuts and yelled back "we aren't rerunning you lost I won!! deal with it.....about that time they are calling us back up already this time I waited til the last call as the car was hot.the rest of the race was uneventful til the final.....I was to run the local who ran with our group he had a trick 67 Cougar that ran 8.20's or so.......he was pitted by me he was very nice and said "whenever you wanna go let me know we'll do it.by now it is about 3or 4 in the morning!!.he was nice but his buddy was an ass.he came up and said " none of that schoolgirl sh*t is gonna work on us".....I said I won' play games if you don't!!........we had a great race no staging battle or anything........I went .006 on the tree he went .009 we ran em out and I got the win.......and the 600 bucks....also I had run my dial three times in a row and ran within 1 or 2 the rest, cept the first round, and had redialed the car every run..one of the guys asked if i had a predictor i said yeah he's right over there making a rum and coke...pointing to Derek. all night long I asked what he thought it'd run and thats what i'd dial!!....we stayed and drank beer til about 8 or so in the morning (well not all of us)......the next year i didn;t go to the race and Neldner won itin his EXP and got the same treatment .he said later."Erik I did em like you did and they LOST".........sorry if this is too long or boring but this is one of my favorite memories.......partially because it was also one of the last times Derek went with me. He works with me and I see him every day but he would rather stay home than do anything anymore and it is kinda sad.........ERIK
