POMONA, Calif. — It’s his fourth full season in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series and Terry McMillen, driver and team owner of the Amalie Oil / UNOH Top Fuel dragster is as excited about this season as his first.
“It might be hard to believe, but our team is more prepared and more ready than we ever have been,” McMillen said as his team arrived in Pomona after a short and cold testing session in Las Vegas. “We’re a long way from being the veterans of the sport like some of these other teams, but we’re as excited as our first season – just more aware of what it really takes to compete with the best of the best in NHRA.”
Along with high expectations for the new season on the performance side of the sport, McMillen’s Elkhart, Ind. based team was able to extend his Amalie support and add several associate sponsors in the off-season. “The out-pouring of support has been great this past off-season,” McMillen added. “The continued support from our marketing partners like UNOH, Flatout Gaskets, Carillo Rods, Wolverine Boots and Apparel, Clean Seal, Genius Tools, Allstar Performance and Ross Racing Pistons along with additional support from companies like Aeroquip Eaton, SWECO, Rivet Eyelet and Penray have given us the added support we hope will make the difference in our racing program.”
“Plus with Amalie stepping up their support and sponsoring the Amalie Oil Gatornationls in Gainesville it’s added a lot of excitement around our Amalie camp. If there’s only one race I could pick to win – that would be it,” McMIllen said.
McMillen made several changes to his team he hopes will be the difference in his 2013 quest to make the NHRA Countdown. “We’ve made some changes that should help,”McMillen said, “We added a few new crew members, moved our clutch guy Ray Murphy to assistant crew-chief and we’re keeping the car at Richard Hartman’s (crew-chief) shop in South Carolina. We think this will give us the extra attention needed to get our hot rod more consistent over the 24 race season.”
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series kicks off today at the Auto Club Raceway with four rounds of qualifying through Saturday and eliminations on Sunday.
