[Jared Jordan]

Friday, November 5, 2004. Las Vegas Motor Speedway. I was driving Grandpa's 1965 Plymouth Belvedere in SS/BA. Earlier in the year, we had put the car in the 8's at Mission Raceway Park, but the record was (and had been...) held by John Armstrong in his Camaro (Brian Oakes' ride now...) and we weren't quick enough to outrun it.

But...fast forward to November and the record had reset to the SS/BA minimum. I ended up setting it at an 8.92 @ 146 on my first qualifying pass. It was a single because Gallina's Regal broke. I was .009 on the tree, too.

The backup run was what made the story cool. To that point in my driving career, I'd never run next to Grandpa. He had set the SS/AH record that same morning. Our backup runs ended up being side-by-side and I've got the photo of us leaving together framed with my record certificate. He had an identical frame with his record certificate.

Because he knew I was .009 on my first pass, he must have decided he was going to try and leave on me. I'll never forget seeing the timeslip. I looked at his side first and saw .006 and thought I'd had another good light, until I realized I was looking at the wrong lane. Looked over and I was .000. Old guy thought he was gonna steal one from me. It was bad enough I had to look at the back of the Barracuda driving away from me for 9 seconds!

Can't forget E1 from that race either. I Forrest Gump'd my way to another .000 and ran .018 over. Only to lose to Robert Burgin by .0002. He was .005 and .013 over.

I had the record for about 3 weeks. Wasn't long after that Armstrong went to Montgomery (I think...) and put the record down to an 8.83.