Clay Millican, left, and Doug Herbert have buried the hatchet on their old feud to work together to promote safe teen driving.

The infamous 2002 Top Fuel burndown between Doug Herbert and Clay Millican at Maple Grove Raceway sparked a rivalry that earned Herbert his “Dougzilla” nickname, and although the Top Fuel veterans had each put the incident behind them, an opportunity to create new public-service announcements for Herbert’s charity B.R.A.K.E.S. (Be Responsible and Keep Everyone Safe) brought them together to bury the hatchet for a good cause.

The venture resulted in a 30-second and 60-second public-service announcement for the nonprofit foundation as well as a seven-minute webisode that features both drivers discussing the notorious staging battle. The videos, which can be seen on the B.R.A.K.E.S. Web site, were several months in the making and were an inspiring project for all involved. (Watch video)

There’s always two sides to a story
Ray Iddings, producer and head of motorsports programming for High Five Entertainment, based in Nashville, Tenn., met Millican through PINKS All Out host Rich Christensen and later asked the six-time Top Fuel champion to host season two of Drag Race High, which he produces. While filming the show in San Diego, Iddings and Millican took the competing high school students to Pomona for the Kragen O'Reilly NHRA Winternationals.

“I asked to interview Doug because I knew it would be a perfect fit to talk about B.R.A.K.E.S. on Drag Race High, but secretly I knew it was my chance to finally ask about the Clay-Doug rivalry and the birth of 'Dougzilla,' ” Iddings said with a laugh. “I’m a drag racing fan first and a producer second, and as a fan, who doesn’t want to know what really happened that day? Why do two rational people decide in an instant, ‘This is where I make my stand; HE can stage first.’ ”

Everything was normal that morning as Herbert and Millican pulled up to the line to face each other in the first round until both turned on the pre-stage bulb.

“After they pre-staged, they just sat there,” said NHRA Chief Starter Rick Stewart. “I waved them both in, and they still wouldn’t move. It was a safety issue. Downtrack, they would have run out of fuel and blown the motors up, so I got out in front of them, backed them up, and shut them off. Of course, then Doug, Clay, and the crews had a little blowup of their own.”

NHRA announcer Bob Frey remembers the incident well.

“It was a thing of beauty. Well, at least from my perspective it was,” explained Frey. “Not since [Don] Garlits and [Steve] Carbone went at it in Indy in 1971 was there such a battle between a pair of Top Fuel cars. The burndown created one of the better rivalries in the sport. We don’t have many drivers anymore who really don’t like the other guy, but for Doug and Clay, it was real.”

Neither driver spoke much about the burndown in the years following the confrontation, so Iddings couldn’t wait to bring it up in his interview with Herbert, and he wasn’t the only one who was curious to know what Herbert thought.

“When Ray told me he was going to interview Doug about the staging battle, my first thoughts were, ‘I can’t wait to hear what Doug has to say,’ " said Millican.

Although Iddings had captured both sides of the story, he couldn’t fit the footage into Drag Race High, and the interviews went unused for a long time. At High Five Entertainment, Iddings and fellow employees jokingly referred to the footage as The Greatest Story Never Told.

Putting it all together
At the 2008 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, Herbert, who had lost his sons only seven months before, was paired with Millican for the first round of eliminations and went to Millican’s tow vehicle to wish his fellow competitor good luck.

“As Doug opened the door and shook my hand, he noticed my son sitting there, and they started talking about motocross and racing. For a moment, I put myself in Doug’s shoes and thought about what it would be like if I didn’t get to have those conversations with my sons anymore,” said Millican. "It made me realize that as important as these races are to us, being mad over staging was silly, and from that point on, I couldn’t imagine staying mad.”

Millican wanted to get involved with B.R.A.K.E.S. but wasn’t sure how until an employee of the organization approached him at the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in May and asked if he would be interested in doing a PSA with Herbert.
 
“When the opportunity came up, I was all over it; I was all in,” Millican said. “I told them about Ray and the interviews he had done. I knew Ray would be the perfect guy to get involved.”

Herbert, Ray Iddings, and Millican

After Iddings agreed to produce the PSAs, he and Millican donated time and resources to make a two-day trip in August to Charlotte where the additional footage for the videos was shot at zMax Dragway.

“I didn’t know Jon and James personally, but I remember being 17 and how youth makes you take risks,” said Iddings. “I was honored to be involved, but I felt a big obligation to get it right, and what I needed more than anything to make it complete was footage from the NHRA of the actual burndown. They came through, and I was able to put together the complete piece.”

A few weeks later, at the 2009 Mac Tools U.S. Nationals presented by Lucas Oil, Iddings found out that Herbert and Millican were both at O’Reilly Raceway Park at Indianapolis and pulled everyone together to show them the finished product.

“We’re at Indy, my home track, the place where I saw my first drag race, and we’re standing in Clay’s trailer with his wife, Donna, Doug and his wife, Ginger, and I show them the PSAs for the first time,” recalled Iddings. “I wasn’t ready for the emotion it brought out in all of us; it was incredibly touching.”

Millican described his feelings that day in Indianapolis as he watched the clips.

“At that point, for me, it had been a yearlong process,” Millican explained. “At Indy last year, I decided to put it all behind me, and then I got the opportunity to help. When I showed up at zMax that day to film and I saw Doug, it was like none of that stuff had ever happened. Then here I was, back at Indy, about to see the videos for the first time. It was pretty emotional to sit there and watch all of that with Doug. That day at Indy, it all came full circle.”

Do your part
Herbert and Millican, who hope to return to the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series in 2010, are pleased with the videos and the message they convey. At the second annual B.R.A.K.E.S. benefit dinner in September, the drivers took to the stage to debut the PSAs with Frey.

“A lot of good things come from adversity, and from one of the great Top Fuel burndowns of all time, Doug and Clay have become friends,” noted Frey. “As a drag race fan and a parent, I appreciate what Doug is doing, and for Clay to take time to offer his help is special, too. After all, that’s what drag racing is all about, helping each other.”

Herbert, who plans to work with NHRA to show the clips at 2010 NHRA races and hopes to feature them on ESPN2 during race broadcasts, is grateful for the support.

“The NHRA and many fellow drag racers have really embraced B.R.A.K.E.S.,” he said. “When others help me with what I’m trying to accomplish through this charity, it means a lot.”

Millican thinks that race fans will enjoy the videos and hopes that they are effective in delivering their safe-driving message.

“I think people will get a kick out of them,” said Millican. “I certainly hope that when teenagers see them, it will make them think harder about being safe in a car. This was something I was glad to do for Doug and B.R.A.K.E.S. It was just the right thing to do.”

Iddings, whose show Pass Time will return to the air in February 2010, explained that helping Herbert and B.R.A.K.E.S. was simply his way of making a contribution to a good cause.

“My mother always said, ‘Do your part, whatever that is’,” he said. “I’m lucky enough that I have talented folks around me and access to cameras, so this is my part. B.R.A.K.E.S. is Jon and James’ part; it exists because of them, and everyone would benefit from more students having access to this program. Imagine if every drag racing fan skipped lunch one day this week and donated that eight or nine dollars to B.R.A.K.E.S. Jon and James did their part, and Doug is doing his. Are you?”