Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals
Pomona, Calif.
(Nov. 6-9)
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Clay Millican 104+ Octane Boost Top Fueler |
Reports: Sunday Pre-race |
Pomona, Sunday: Clay Millican of Team 104+ Octane Boost/Lehman Racing ended his 2003 season at the NHRA Auto Club of Southern California Finals in the first round, where he lost to Kenny Bernstein.
Going into the elimination rounds, Millican held the number 10 qualifying spot with an elapsed time of 4.600 at 312.42 mph. In the first round, he faced Bernstein, the number seven qualifier.
Millican got off to a quick start with a reaction time of .033 compared to Bernstein's .091, but then smoked the tires and the motor broke. Millican finished the pass with an elapsed time of 5.344 at 188.94 mph, while Bernstein clocked a 4.572 at 323.74 mph.
"We were ahead of him from the start, but unfortunately we smoked the tires and the motor broke, so we got beat," said Millican.
Millican, who recently won his third consecutive IHRA Top Fuel Championship, competed in 12 of the 23 NHRA races this season. He qualified for eliminations at every race in which he competed, and was the number two qualifier in three of those races. He finished the season with a 20-22 career NHRA won/loss record out of 42 rounds of competition.
"This season was a lot of fun," said Millican. "We beat a lot of the big names throughout the season, and I'm looking forward to coming back out in February and hopefully beating a whole bunch of them in one day."
Pomona, pre-race: Top Fuel driver Clay Millican of Team 104+ Octane Boost/Lehman Racing will compete in his 12th and final NHRA race of the season at the Auto Club of Southern California Finals at Pomona Raceway. This marks the third straight year that Millican has competed in the race. His best showing was in 2001 when he held the No. 5 qualifying spot, and defeated Scott Weis and Doug Herbert before losing to eventual winner Kenny Bernstein in the semifinals.
Millican hopes for a successful finish to the end of his NHRA season. He is currently in 15th place in the NHRA Top Fuel points standings, an impressive feat considering that he has raced in only 11 of the 22 events that have taken place this season.
"Pomona has been really good for our team the years we've been there, and it has been very good for crew chief Mike Kloeber over his career, so I think it is a race that we certainly can win," said Millican. "It would be awesome for my last pass of the season to be a winning one."
In his last race, the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals, Millican made one of the most exciting passes of his career in the first round when he beat 2003 NHRA POWERade Top Fuel points champion Larry Dixon for the first time. This was Dixon's only first-round loss of the 2003 season. Millican lost to Scott Kalitta in the quarterfinals after smoking the tires of the Team 104+ Octane Boost/Lehman Racing Top Fuel dragster at half-track.
Prior to the race in Las Vegas, Millican made an emotional showing at the O'Reilly Fall Nationals in Dallas, Texas. Two days before the race, his mother Martha Millican was shot in the head at the family's country store in his hometown of Drummonds, Tenn. His mother, who is now out of the hospital and is expected to make a full recovery, urged him to compete in the Fall Nationals. He qualified in fifth place, and lost in the first round of eliminations to Jim Head. This was only the second time of the season that Millican lost in the first round.
Millican has qualified for eliminations in all of the NHRA races in which he has competed this year, and was the No. 2 qualifier in three of those races. He is viewed as an up-and-coming star in the league.
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