Headed to Topeka with confidence
COMMERCE, Ga, (May 18, 2015) – Terry McMillen, drove his AMALIE® Motor Oil INSTIGATOR Top Fuel Dragster to his first semi-final appearance since Chicago 2013. All that stood between him and his first potential final round appearance was a fifty cent pin that holds the throttle cable.
“It was a great weekend for our team and our marketing partners,” a smiling McMillen said. “I’m so proud of this team. They’ve been working hard and they’re starting to gel and work together. Rob (Wendland – crew chief) and I kept telling them if we could get the same motor consistently, we could go rounds. They proved that this weekend. I’ve never been more confident of our chances to go rounds on Sunday.”
McMillen would qualify 10th for the Southern Nationals here in Atlanta and post the third quickest elapsed time of the third qualifying session. It earned the team a bonus point – the second of the season. McMillen’s, Rob Wendland tuned dragster would defeat Dave Connolly and Clay Millican in route to a semi-final showdown with Antron Brown, the eventual event winner.
“We weren’t running any big numbers our there,” McMillen said. “We were taking what the track would give us. It was a little tricky in both lanes. The left lane had a bump early and the right lane had a bump late. But we were able to get down both lanes. Rob and Johnny (Johnny West) were making the right calls – just run a consistent number and not beat ourselves out there.” The plan worked – until the semi-finals.
In the semi-final match-up with Brown, McMillen felt confident, “It was getting pretty warm out there. We had been running low 3.90s all weekend and it looked like that would be all we needed to win the round. Rob tuned it for a 3.89 – maybe a 3.88. It was our best 60ft time of the weekend and, well, who knows what could have happened? Antron ran a 3.91 and we just idled down the track after the throttle cable broke.”
“They crew handled the pressure well,” Crew Chief, Rob Wendland said. “It was the first time some of these guys had to turn the car in eliminations and they stepped up to the challenge.”
McMillen and his team head to Topeka, Kansas with renewed confidence for this weekends NHRA Kansas Nationals. Tickets are available at NHRA.com
photo ©CompetitionPlus.com and Roger Richards
