wow, if i were you i would ask him if he is afraid of embarrassing himself in front of the big crowd of a national event. hehe
if he keeps back peddling from showing at the nats then it is time to twist the screws about going to a neutral location on a neutral date.
since he apparently spends all his free time making sock babies i am thinking you won't get a race out of him. so now would be a good time to drop this into the FTV6 drag racing or lounge forums and see if he is willing to step up when called out publicly.
i hope he brings a crew, cause there are a few of us that will happily roll down with to watch/video tape you showin him the tail lights.
some cars will react differently to deleting the maf screen. craigs car didn't seem to mind too much. it does take a few minutes for the computer to learn it's way around the new air signal it is seeing and any other adjustments needed can easily be handled with tuning.
if your car doesn't seem happy with it you can jsut throw the screen back in and it will all be like new again.