Rockingham, NC – Terry McMillen and his Hoosier Thunder Motorsports team end the 2005 season at Rockingham Dragway with high expectations and hopes. “Unless you win the championship, you always think that the season could have been better,” said McMillen. “The same is true for us. But, I don’t think I’ve ever ended a season this excited about our future.”
McMillen pulled double duty during the weekend, piloting both the Amalie Oil InstiGator, powered by TORCO Racing Fuels and the newly unveiled Lukoil Top Fuel Dragster.
Eighteen Funny Cars made the trip to fight for one of the eight spots available. The team made 3 valiant attempts to qualify the car starting on a cool and brisk Friday night in the sand hills of eastern North Carolina. The weather proved to be more trick than treat, although the round ended with McMillen in the #7 position. Temperatures were again expected to be below normal for Saturday’s qualifying and the IHRA responded positively by moving up each round 2 hours in the schedule. The InstiGator made a hard charge in the afternoon attempt, but a blown fuel line near the top end slowed the car to a respectable 5.892 ET, but in the #9 position, just .001 seconds from the field.
Due to the adjusted cold weather schedule, the Saturday turn around between qualifying attempts sent the Hoosier Thunder team into the pits thrashing. “When the fuel line broke, it leaned out the motor and left us with some damage that would require both heads to be serviced,” explained Tad “TV” Heflick, co-crew chief. The team was able to get the car back for the evening session, but McMillen wasn’t able to improve his position. “I hate ending a season like this,” added Brent “Skinny” Lidgard, co-crew chief. “The car is better and we’re better than that.”
The Amalie Oil InstiGator Funny Car finished the season 6th in points with 2 final, 2 semi and 3 quarter final round appearances. McMillen also set new personal best ET (5.825) and MPH (241.97) during the 2005 campaign.
Rob Atchison (2003-2005 World Champion) won 9 out of 12 events in dominating fashion, facing McMillen 6 times during the season. Atchison was only stopped 3 times from winning an event – twice at the hands of the InstiGator. “Rob and his team deserve a lot of credit,” said McMillen. “They’ve been the team to beat for 3 years running.” Jokingly McMillen added, “Heck, we’re responsible for 66% of his loses – I suppose he’ll be gunning for us next season!”
The Amalie Oil InstiGator was supported this season by its partners: Amalie Oil, eRaceFuels, Flatout Gaskets, NGK Spark Plugs, MSD, Performance Graphics, Powershield Coatings, Crane Cams, LGI Digital and Eastern Race Fuels. McMillen will be changing rides next season but the InstiGator will live on. “At this point, I’ve talked to everyone of our partners and they are excited about moving forward with the InstiGator Funny Car,” said McMillen. “It’s a very recognizable car.” A driver search has already begun and an announcement is expected sometime early this winter.
In Top Fuel action, the much anticipated driving debut of McMillen brought many to the starting line to see how the “Gator” could swim in the nitormethane pool of dragsters. With Mark Oswald consulting and under the watchful eye of Evan Knoll, the Lukoil sponsored machine made a nice 1st pass at 5.332ET / 206.20MPH after shutting down at the 1000ft mark. “We were mixing up a few cylinders on the top end – and I didn’t want to tear anything up on the first hit, so I just clicked it off,” explained McMillen. He was qualified 6th after the first round.
In what will surely be the first of many personal best for McMillen’s top fuel career, his Saturday pass helped him to join the 300MPH club with a rousing 4.774ET at 311.05MPH. The pass helped keep him in the fast field, on the bump spot, with room for improvement. “We knew after that pass we had a pretty good car,” explained McMillen. “The blower belt was shredding and we lost a couple of cylinders on the top end – we knew there was at least another tenth in that car.”
The final round of qualifying had McMillen paired with Bobby Lagana Jr. for a shot to improve his position in what would become the fastest top fuel field in IHRA history. McMillen left first and pulled away, enjoying a .006 lead to Lagana, before he lost the blower belt and burst panel. Based on Lagana’s incremental times- the Lukoil dragster was on a .60’s pass. “We were 259MPH at the eighth,” said McMillen. “I think one of the crew guys dropped a few XLR8 Chews in the tank – we were certainly on a very good pass. While I was disappointed to miss this field with all of the sponsors that we had here, it was pretty exciting to see what our future looks like – and it’s fast!”
McMillen is planning a short winter with lots of testing and announcements. The team expects to announce the addition of a crew chief, the location of their new race shop, testing and racing schedules during the next several weeks.
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