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This is Mark, Chris and Doug assessing what we could do to the car to get the back end off of the ground. It had already been in one demo and was beat up pretty bad. We ended up cutting the frame and bending it up behind the axle. That's Dave's car in the background.
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Chris and Russell look at the car wondering what is going through all of their minds to even attempt to do something like this. Notice the nice disarray that the shop is in. PS This was a day the shop was looking good.
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Right before Doug took his nap on the roller creeper under the car, he welded the rear axle solid so we wouldn't have to worry about losing traction.
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The final touch on that beast was to paint it purple and green. Chris insisted it had to be purple and green because he had so much support two nights before, that he knew the crowd would go wild if they saw another purple and green Buick. He was right. By the way paint dries quite well going down the highway on a trailer.
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A good shot of the first heat showing how beat up the car actually was.
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The first major fire Chris ever had. Everyone had a feeling that he was done after that, but he climbed back in the car. It started right up, and landed him a spot in the feature.
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That's the car coming back out for the feature. The time in the pit was quite hectic. We knew right away that there was a problem with the transmission as there was no forward or reverse. It turned out that the fire was caused by tranny fluid being shot onto the exhaust manifold. With the help of Lonny's rollback, a guy to run and get more fluid, and all of the parts we carry with, the car was ready to rock for the feature.
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Those are the coveted trophies. It happens to be the first first place trophy taken by any of us, and only the second time any of us had placed. The first being Chris two nights earlier. It was quite a night.
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All the guys were around when Chris got the trophies.
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It was quite a mob scene when everyone came over cheering and congratulating everyone. The thing most often mentioned was, "Wow, how could that little Buick beat those big cars? That sucker was shot when you started." A few enemies may have been made when Chris waited out that last big car. He couldn't get going, but Chris was still hitting him. Oh what a night!
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Belgrade has held a parade for area merchants the last couple of years. Chris feels that he should run his
cars through to show the support he got from them. Or perhaps he likes to show off.
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Another shot of the Century right before parade time. Notice the chain around the back bumper? We did that
in Willmar when it was being run in a powder puff.
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It sure looked good going down the road. The crowd loved it. The trickiest part about driving it was the fact that
the fuel pump went out right before the parade. With a little bit of ingenuity and Mark acting as a fuel pump by
squeezing the primer ball, the car made it through the parade.
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Russell is handing some candy to Paul. He is a friend of ours who also runs demos. We felt he should ride
along seeing as though he had to watch Chris drive to victory in a car he gave to Lonny.
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