It was a roller coaster ride for Terry McMillen and his Amalie Oil InstiGator Funny Car powered by Torco Race Fuels. In back to back national events, McMillen and his team once again made a strong qualifying effort holding the number two provisional position for most of the weekend and having low ET for round two. McMillen would complete qualifying in the number four position. The strong effort would once again pair McMillen with current points leader and 5-time World Champion, Mark Thomas.
Milan, Mich. – It was a roller coaster ride for Terry McMillen and his Amalie Oil InstiGator Funny Car powered by Torco Race Fuels. In back to back national events, McMillen and his team once again made a strong qualifying effort holding the number two provisional position for most of the weekend and having low ET for round two. McMillen would complete qualifying in the number four position. The strong effort would once again pair McMillen with current points leader and 5-time World Champion, Mark Thomas.
For the second time in as many races, Thomas would fall to McMillen, sending McMillen to an apparent semi-final match-up with Fred Tigges. McMillen and his team would fail to make the call for the semi-finals. The showdown with Thomas would prove to be fatal for the InstiGator engine, not allowing the team enough time to replace it between rounds. The team would also experience its first oil down penalty in three years. The catastrophic engine failure grabbed immediate attention from the SPEED TV crew who rushed to interview McMillen. “I know the TV time is good for our partners, but I would rather do that interview next time from the winners circle,” McMillen added.
“On one hand we’re really encouraged,” explained McMillen. “Our tune-up is back, the car is running strong, we’re able to compete and go rounds in eliminations. This will obviously be a bit of set back, but we’ll come back strong. We’ve been down before.”
The strong effort will move the InstiGator ahead to the number 4 position in the eMax Drag racing series point standings and leave them within striking distance of the top three contenders.
“If we can ever figure out how to win one of these events, I really feel like we’ll knock out a string of them,’ McMillen said. McMillen and the Amalie Oil InstiGator will prepare for the sixth stop on the eMax Drag Racing Series, the IHRA Canadian Nationals in Cayuga, Ontario just outside of Toronto, July 21-23.
“We are so proud of our partners,” McMillen added. “We just want this Iron Man for them. They’ve stood behind for so long, they deserve it.” The InstiGator team partners with high quality and high performance companies like; Amalie Oil, eRaceFuels, Flatout Gaskets, NGK Spark Plugs, MSD, Fatheadz.com, Powershield Coatings, Crane Cams, eMax and No Limit Custom Coach.
