MECHANICSVILLE, Md. – Terry McMillen headed into the President’s Cup Nationals looking for improvement for his Amalie Oil Top Fuel Dragster. While he found a marked improvement in his team’s performance, it wasn’t enough to advance them past the first round of eliminations.
The John “Bodie” Smith tuned dragster set the low elapsed time of eliminations (4.858 seconds) but McMillen couldn’t overcome Mike Strasburg’s 0.013 reaction time.
“John gave me a great car to work with on a hot track. I think we had the set up to win some rounds,” team owner and driver Terry McMillen said. “Bottom line – I’ve got to do a better job on the tree. People talk about having a reaction time like that with a fuel car and how unlikely that is, but Mike did it and I didn’t and that’s what drag racing is all about.”
The margin of loss would be about eight inches, but McMillen left Maryland optimistic. “We’re doing a lot of things right, now we just need a lucky break to get us back in the winners circle.
The next stop for the Hoosier Thunder Motorsports team, which includes both the Amalie Oil Top Fuel Dragster and the Amalie Oil InstiGator Funny Car, is the Rocky Mountian Nationals July 4-6 in Edmonton, Alberta.
