|
MILAN MEETS WITH
MIXED SUCCESS
Words by Ian Tocher
7/1703
he IHRA visited Milan (MI) Dragway with a national
event for the first time in 14 years July 11-13,
and while the spectator and car counts were excellent
for the inaugural Hooters
Drag Racing Series Motor City Nationals, the racing
surface fell short of national-event standards.
The track set its single-day attendance record
during Saturday's qualifying sessions and 666
entries rolled through the pit gates, but an inadequately
prepped track forced the cancellation of the second
pro qualifying session on Friday night.
The Pro Mod, Pro Stock, and Funny Car teams
in particular had a difficult time putting power
to the pavement, since apparently, the track
should have been ground and polished before
they arrived. IHRA President Bill Bader admitted
to being "disappointed" when he saw the condition
of the track on his arrival, then decided it
was "unsafe" without emergency attention, so
IHRA track crews worked through the night with
a polisher on the launch pad to improve starting
line traction.
Their efforts paid off with better, more consistent
times throughout the rest of the weekend and
on raceday Clay Millican scored his fourth Top
Fuel win of the season, Mike Janis won his first
Pro Mod race this year, Jason Collins picked
up win number two in Pro Stock, and John Vouros
broke through with his career-first Funny Car
title.
TOP FUEL
Perhaps the greatest tribute to Millican and
his Mike Kloeber-led team is that it's news
when they don't qualify number one. That honor
at Milan went to Tim Cullinan, with a 4.856-second
pass at 292.96 mph, with Todd Paton rounding
out the eight-car field with a 5.175/247.75
combination.
Tim Cullinan took his
career first number-one IHRA Top Fuel qualifying
position at the inaugural Motor City Nationals.
(DRO file photo by Ian Tocher)
On Sunday, it looked like almost every other
IHRA T/F final from the last couple of years
as Millican faced off against Bruce Litton.
At the previous race, in Edmonton, Litton beat
Millican with a holeshot in the final and he
again took a slight advantage off the Milan
starting line, but Millican had the edge by
the 60-foot marker. Then, despite slowing the
top end to a 5.003 at just 252.76 mph, it was
enough for Millican to win by nearly a car length
over Litton's 5.062 at 284.69 mph.
Millican said his Werner Enterprises car was
detuned in order to get it down the marginal
Milan track. "It wasn't really a horsepower
win," he explained. "We took a 4.50 (second)
car and made it run 5.0s, which isn't easy.
And luckily, we did it all without really hurting
any parts. I pretty well knew that every run
I had to be ready to pedal or grab the brake."
|
