ENGLISHTOWN, Pre Race – When the Joliet race began, it marked the beginning of a 7 race – 8 week stint in the Full Throttle Drag Racing Series. The Amalie Oil Top Fuel / Hoosier Thunder Motorsports team wanted to try something a little different for our “quad back to back,” followed by a breather, then a “triple back to back” race schedule.
Instead of a ‘traditional’ press release – we’re opting for something a little more relaxed. Call it our laid back news and notes or something ‘funner’ when a better name comes to us.
Without further ado:
Chitown Hustle – or was it the hurry up and wait? Rain made for some late nights and earlier mornings at the Joliet race. We got our second round win of the season in a match up with Bob Vandergriff and didn’t have enough for Schumacher in round two. We ran side by side with him to about the 330 foot mark – then hazed the tires. We may have been a little too aggressive at that spot of the track, or there might have been a mist of oil on the track (several fans and friends told us the next five teams smoked the tires in the exact same spot). The car is back to making some strong early numbers. Richard and Terry are working on some magic clutch dust to sprinkle in on the disc to get us through the ‘haze zone’ for Englishtown. The Joliet round win pulls us within 12 points of Grubnic and the elusive 10th spot.
“We’re really happy about getting our second, first round win,” McMillen said. “Richard has this car running very consistent and winning rounds consistently on race day is a testament to the team’s hard work. I hope this means we don’t have to get another monkey for the second round.”
Speaking of the monkey – While the team had a lot of fun getting the ‘monkey off our back’ in Topeka, the fun didn’t stop there. The Drag Racing Association of Women (D.R.A.W) held a charity auction on Saturday night. The winning bidder got the monkey and a team jersey for $400. We thank this person – he knows who he is – and he’s done a lot to help D.R.A.W. The team also adopted (at least for Topeka) a Randy Houser song called “My Kind of Country”. The opening line: “I don’t mess with the monkey, Let him roll right off my back”.
E-Town Magic and something for the stat man – McMillen reset his personal best last season (3.891 @ 308.99 – reset again in 2010) in an opening round loss to Shawn Langdon who reset his personal best in the same race. McMillen led to the 300ft mark, but came up short as Langdon pulled ahead by about eight feet at the stripe. Another interesting note about that race – McMillen treed Langdon with an .051 light to Shawn’s .080. To a casual follower that might not seem like such a big deal, but if you check the tapes you’ll see that Shawn doesn’t lose at the tree – period (OK, maybe twice since this race last year). We thought about nicknaming him “Paul Bunyan” or “The Lumberjack” for the way he takes down the tree (he does have that smart looking beard too). But, we felt it wouldn’t be appropriate since those nicknames would give the impression that Shawn wields an axe at the tree – it’s more like a Nitro-powered chainsaw. Our average qualifying position this season is 11th – one spot better than last season. The qualifying performance includes an 8th, 9th and 7th stretch (Houston, Vegas and St. Louis).
“There are a lot of things to be excited about in Englishtown,” McMillen said. “This area has some of Amalie’s oldest distributors and there will be a bunch of them here to cheer us on. I can’t think of anything better to give them except a Top 10 Amalie Oil Top Fuel dragster to talk about.”
Gloves for every hand – Regional Automotive Warehouse and Joy Automotive Products on U.S. Highway 22 in Green Brook, NJ have teemed up with Amalie Oil and Mechanix Wear Gloves. Purchase any Amalie Oil product and receive a pair of Mechanix Wear Original Gloves for free. While supplies last so don’t snooze on this deal.
Droid or iPhone? – “We ‘Droid it’ for sure,” Terry says. He led the way – now five team members sport the Motorola Droid phone. Two others are waiting for the HTC Incredible (an Android phone). We’ve got a couple of iPhone guys on the team and even a couple that just have a good old flip phone. Terry’s favorite app – speach to text. “I’m using that feature more and more. It’s amazingly accurate – at least more accurate than my fat fingered typing.”
Living life on the road – Our Car Chief, Austin ‘Coil’ Lambright, celebrated his 23rd birthday on Tuesday – on the road to Englishtown. He celebrated with a game of golf and wandering the area beaches. Rumor has it Coil has been saving hotel keys from each spot on the tour and labeling them with something memorable from that trip. Here’s hoping my name isn’t on there too much.
