CONCORD, N.C. — Terry McMillen and his Amalie Oil Top Fuel team headed into the NHRA 4 Wide Nationals full of hope and optimism on the heels of a career best performance just two weeks earlier at the Gator Nationals in Gainesville. While zMax Dragway provided his first round win last season, this trip to Charlotte wouldn’t be as kind.

“I was excited about four wide racing before I got here,” McMillen explained. “I just struggled all weekend trying to get comfortable staging the car. I just never felt comfortable in my own car.” For the first time in McMillen’s racing career he was timed out at the tree for not staging the car quickly enough, losing his third qualifying attempt. He also had uncharacteristic slow reaction times.

While a few teams adjusted well to the new conditions, most struggled along with McMillen to find the right staging procedures. Red light starts, timed out attempts and smoking tires seemed more than normal.

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GAINESVILLE, Fla.  – For the third time in as many races Terry McMillen and his Amalie Oil Top Fuel Dragster faced the event winner or runner-up in the first round of competition. McMillen would lower his career best elapsed time to 3.865 seconds in a losing effort to Tony Schumacher’s 3.818 seconds at 320.81 mph. Schumacher would go on to win the event and reset the national speed record for 1000ft racing in Top Fuel.

“We struggled in qualifying,” McMillen said. “But, when it counted Richard [Hartman] and my guys came up with an aggressive tune up that kept everyone honest. We’re continually improving. Now we just have to have a better qualifying effort earlier so we have some better race day data to work from.”

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POMONA, Calif. – If the Chinese Proverb that says ‘A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step’ is correct, then Terry McMillen and his Amalie Oil Top Fuel dragster took two giant steps forward at the 50th running of the NHRA Winternationals this weekend.

“We didn’t get a chance to test over the winter,” McMillen explained. “So, just getting our car in the show was a big first step.” McMillen qualified his ride in the 13th spot, keeping his perfect qualifying record as team owner/driver intact.

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EDMONTON, Alberta – The River Cree Resort and Casino IHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals provided several bright spots for Terry McMillen, driver of the Amalie Oil / Wolverine Boots and Apparel Top Fuel Dragster, including the top spot in qualifying and a semi-final finish.

McMillen captured the top spot in qualifying during the rain shortened second session. McMillen’s 4.834 second pass provided plenty of excitement and fireworks for the Canadian fans in attendance. The aggressive tune-up the team chose for the run would push the head gasket and torch the engine block and head, providing the Canadians with an American style nitro 4th of July fireworks show.

“We wanted to put up a big number for Jet Label and Northern Provincial Pipelines”, McMillen said. “Darrell and Rob from Jet Label and Dwight from Northern Provincial give us so much support here in Alberta we wanted to do well for them.”

While McMillen’s number one qualifying effort won’t go down in the record books, the incremental numbers would prove to be a stronger performance than recorded.

“We dropped a hole early in that run and then pushed out the head gasket around the 660 foot mark,” McMillen explained. “We thought if we could run on seven cylinders and run the last 300 feet with one of the head gaskets out, we would have something to work with in the last session.”

In preparation of the final qualifying run, the Indiana based Hoosier Thunder team put in a new motor during a brief rain storm. With a cooler track and temperature, McMillen’s team tuned-up the Nitro “InstiGator” for another run. “We just couldn’t figure out how much horsepower that track wanted,” McMillen said about his final attempt. The 4.834 second elapsed time from earlier in the day would be enough to hold off Bruce Litton’s 4.848 second pass.

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McMillen inches closer to first round win at Englishtown

Elkhart, Ind. – If close counted for anything in drag racing, Terry McMillen would have already won his first round in NHRA competition. While McMillen plays a high speed version of Horseshoes and Hand Grenades, the element of surprise may no longer be a secret weapon for the Amalie Oil / Wolverine Boots and Apparel Top Fuel Dragster.

McMillen captured the 11th spot in the rain shortened qualifying session at the United Association NHRA SuperNationals in Englishtown this past weekend. He would face rookie of the year candidate, Shawn Langdon, in round one of eliminations.

McMillen’s starting line advantage (0.029) would help him to lead much of the race, but Langdon would take the win in one of the closest battles of the weekend.

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ELKHART, Ind.  – Hindsight is always 20-20 and “Monday morning quarterbacks” always have the winning combination. Drag racing, like other competitive ventures, lends itself to second guessing and doubt. Terry McMillen, team owner and driver of the Amalie Oil / Wolverine Boots and Apparel Top Fuel Dragster, was beginning to form a few doubts of his own when he entered the IHRA Amalie Oil Texas Nationals recently.

In his second season as Top Fuel team owner, he had hoped to improve on his five final round appearances and two wins from the previous year. While team stats proved that he was no further behind last season’s pace, it just didn’t feel right to McMillen. Seventh in points after two IHRA events is not what he had envisioned.

“We spent a lot of sleepless nights,” he confessed. “I guess we just expected more from ourselves early in the season.” Trying to convince McMillen that his performance over the past three seasons was more than respectable wasn’t welcomed. Fact is, McMillen’s Top Fuel career has seen the final round in 8 of 24 IHRA races for a 33% average.

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ATLANTA – Terry McMillen fought off a stomach virus most of the weekend during the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway. McMillen was able to put his Amalie Oil / Wolverine Boots and Apparel Top Fuel Dragster into the 13th spot, but not without a lot of effort.

“I don’t think it’s suppose to be this hard,” McMillen said. “We certainly did it the hard way.”

Shortly after arriving in Atlanta, McMillen experienced either a stomach virus or food poisoning that kept him under the weather for most of the weekend. Saturday brought more bad news for McMillen’s team. Crew Chief Doug Kuch learned that his father passed away suddenly. “We were all sad to hear about the Kuch family loss,” McMillen said. “Our prayers were with Doug and his family. Doug decided to finish the race with us and then head home for his family.”

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BATON ROUGE, La. – The Amalie Oil / Wolverine Top Fuel Dragster’s day ended early at the Inaugural IHRA Mardi Gras Nationals. McMillen started hazing the tires as Bobby Lagana, Jr. drove around for the win. Lagana would go on to lose to Bruce
Litton in the finals.
“It didn’t turn out like we planned,” McMillen said after the race. “It wasn’t from lack of effort. Just about everything on this car is new and we’ve still got a couple of issues to work on.”
The weekend started off promising as McMillen drove his dragster on two consistent qualifying runs on Friday night (4.89 @ 301mph) and Saturday afternoon (4.86 @ 305mph) kept the team qualified in the top half of the field at #4.
“The fans were great,” McMillen said. “They packed the place and hung around all day asking questions and cheering us on. Plus the track put on a big Crawfish Boil and my guys appreciated that a lot.”
Hoosier Thunder Motorsports partners with high-quality and high-performance companies like: Amalie Oil, Jet Label & Tape, Auto Meter, Mahle Clevite, Perfect Circle, Flatout Gaskets, Impact Racing, NGK Spark Plugs, MSD, Permatex, ieGraphics, Holbrook Performance Parts, Global Power Systems, Paradise RV & Coach, Ringers Gloves and Wolverine Boots.

EPPING, NH — Terry McMillen and Paul Noakes posted another banner weekend for Hoosier Thunder Motorsports and their sponsors at the Amalie Oil North American Nationals. The team efforts brings the season total to 10 final round appearances and three wins with one race remaining.
McMillen took the new look Amalie Oil Top Fuel Dragster to its fifth final of the year, solidifying his third position in the championship point standings and keeping hope alive for a second place finish. He trails defending champion Bruce Litton by 66 points and leads Mike Strasburg by 58 points. If McMillen can maintain third it will better his fifth place standing from his rookie Top Fuel season of 2007.
“That was an awesome weekend for Amalie,” McMillen said after defeating Jones and Litton enroute to a final round appearance against first time winner Tim Boychuk. “That’s four finals in a row for us. I can’t say enough about my crew and Doug Kuch. What a turn around this team has done. I only wish we had a few more races to put some heat on Bruce and Spencer.”

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