McMillen resets track speed record en route to win
GRAND BEND, Ont. – Terry McMillen, Hoosier Thunder Motorsports team owner and driver of the Amalie Oil Top Fuel Dragster, couldn’t have imagined the outcome of the Mopar Canadian Nationals in his wildest dreams. The Elkhart, Indiana based team to both McMillen’s Top Fuel Dragster and the Amalie Oil InstiGator Funny Car driven by Paul Noakes, raced their way to the winner’s circle this past weekend.
“When we started this two-car team I hoped that we could do something like this,” McMillen said. “But I know how hard it is to win one of these things, much less how difficult it would be to get two pro cars to win on the same Sunday. These two teams worked their butts off this weekend to make this dream come true. We’re still pretty ecstatic about the whole thing.”
McMillen qualified his dragster in the second position and then reset Clay Millican’s 2-year-old track speed record in his first elimination round. The 322.42 MPH pass was also a career best. The 4.665 elapsed time was just 0.019 seconds from resetting the track elapsed time record.
“That was one heck of a ride,” McMillen remembered after the race. The final round would be a rematch of the San Antonio final where McMillen lost to current points leader Spencer Massey.
“This was a tough win racing Spencer Massey,” McMillen told Competitionplus.com. “He has a great team behind him with Paul Smith tuning. “We didn’t get to race him heads-up in San Antonio. We broke the throttle cable and only got a chance to stage that race.”
The win, the third in the past two seasons, put McMillen into 6th place, less than 100 points from 3rd and 148 points from defending champion and current leader Bruce Litton. “We’re going to try and get in here and mix it up a little,” McMillen said. “That chubby girl isn’t singing just yet.”
The next stop for McMillen’s Hoosier Thunder teams is the Torco Race Fuels Northern Nationals in Martin Michigan, August 1-3.
