Words by Dave Densmore Photos by Jeff Burk 4/26/05 Clay Millican extended his remarkable winning streak at Rockingham Dragway Sunday, getting a free pass to his eighth straight Top Fuel victory at the Carolina track when Tim Cooper was unable to answer the final round call in the 35th annual IHRA Spring Nationals.

Although he was unopposed in the final for the second straight year, the veteran from Drummonds, Tenn., recorded his quickest run of the weekend – 4.667 seconds at 307.02

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miles per hour – on his final trip down the quarter-mile course.

Other Sunday winners included track record-holder Al Billes of Barrie, Ontario, Canada, who upset No. 1 qualifier Quain Stott of Columbus, S.C., in Pro Modified; Steve Spiess of Manhattan, Ill., who won an all-Chevrolet final in Pro Stock; and Mark Thomas, who earned his third consecutive Spring Nationals title in Funny Car, this one at the expense of Melinda Green-King of Norfolk, Va.

Gugliotta’s Track Record Highlights Spring Nationals Qualifying Frank Gugliotta upstaged reigning series champion John Nobile and defending event champion John Montecalvo Saturday by driving his 2004 Ford Escort to a Rockingham Dragway track record in qualifying for Sunday’s 35th annual IHRA Spring Nationals. Read More (Click Here)

The Top Fuel victory was Millican’s 39th in the IHRA series and his second of the current season, but it was anything but routine.

“I love this place,” Millican said of the track on which he now has won 24 consecutive rounds of racing.  “We had a good day, points-wise, [but] this was a Mike day (a reference to crew chief Mike Kloeber).  I literally got to just go down the track.

“We were on some rocket ship rides, but the IHRA is very serious about their oildown penalties so we were very serious about not oiling down the racetrack.

 “Steve [Rockingham owner Steve Earwood] may own the deed to this place, but Mike and I have paid a lot of light bills and mortgages. This place is like unbelievable.”

And now for the rest of the story By now everyone who cares knows that the team of team owner/tuner Jim Oddy and driver Al Billes got their first win for their sponsor Summit Racing Equipment at the just completed IHRA Spring Nationals at Rockingham. But there is much more to this story than the team's rather impressive win. Read More (Click Here)

Until the semifinals, however, it looked like Cooper’s racing teammate, Doug Foley of Sewell, N.J., might end Millican’s domination.  Foley, who won three times last season, twice beating Millican in the final, qualified No. 1 at 4.657 seconds and, in the first round, virtually duplicated that performance with a time of 4.658.

Nevertheless, his day ended against Cooper when the 7,000 horsepower engine in his hybrid gave up halfway down the racetrack.  Cooper didn’t get even that far in the final.  His car didn’t even leave the starting line, duplicating last year’s result when local favorite Danny Dunn of Mooresville, N.C., was left sitting at the line.