Carl Bullock's '41 Willys is at the line as the sun sets.

he Millican Machine just kept on rolling Sept. 5-7, at the 8th annual Amalie Oil North American Nationals at New England Dragway, as Clay Millican set a new track record in qualifying number one in Top Fuel, then went on to win his 27th IHRA national event. Joining him in victory lane at the Epping, N.H. speed park were Rob Atchison in Funny Car, Carl Baker in Pro Stock, and defending class champion Shannon Jenkins, who scored his first Pro Mod title of the season.

TOP FUEL

Millican's Werner Enterprises team started their weekend off right by qualifying number one with a track record 4.604-second elapsed time at 318.58 mph. He then took out Roger

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Dean and Todd Paton in the preliminaries before once again facing Bruce Litton in the final, who beat Grant Flowers and Jack Ostrander to get there.

Ostrander made a little personal history in Epping as he made his career-first 300-plus mph pass in his first-round win over Bobby Lagana Jr., going 4.843 at 308.11 mph. Unfortunately for "Pontiac Jack," engine troubles after his burnout for the next round forced him to shut it off, giving Litton a bye to the final.

In their 15th final-round meeting -- and fifth this year, after each scored two wins -- both drivers deep staged for the Epping climax. Millican gained a .026-second holeshot and never looked back as he streaked to the win in 4.752 secs and 310.02, his slowest e.t. of the weekend, while Litton hazed the tires about half-track and slowed to a 5.073 at 298.70 mph.

"Today was (crew chief) Mike Kloeber and the crew guys' day," Millican said. "I didn't have to pedal or let off or try to recover because the guys were just awesome. Every round this Werner Enterprises car was so good I never had to worry."