Elkhart, IN – In the wild, an alligator has few predators. The ferocious reptile rules the swamp without fear. Man is probably the natural enemy of the alligator.
The Amalie Oil InstiGator, powered by TORCO Racing Fuels, experienced a natural predator at the 14th Annual TORCO Racing Fuels President’s Cup Nationals in the form of a “gremlin” living in the clutch of the InstiGator Funny Car. “We’ve changed every part on this car that could be changed,” explained McMillen. “For nearly 7 races now we’ve scratched our head and wondered why our incremental times up until about half track were as good or better than most. Yet, our ET and MPH just wasn’t there at the top end. Well, we found the culprit in the clutch system. If there’s any team out there that thought we were going to just go through the motions in Rockingham, they better think again. We’re going to be there to be a spoiler for someone!”
The InstiGator team has spent the past 2 months tuning and retuning every aspect of the motor. Brent “Skinny” Lidgard, Co-Crew Chief added, “This car will run. Now that we’ve found the problem in the clutch I wouldn’t be surprised at all to see Terry set new personal best ET and MPH at Rockingham.”
Tad “TV” Heflick, Co-Crew Chief was also optimistic. “There’s been a lot of frustration on this team, we stayed focused and worked through this adversity. Our goal is to get Terry an Iron Man before this season is over. Now that everything about the car is right – we’ll do it.”
The Elkhart, IN based team failed to qualify for the Maryland event that saw 19 cars fight it out for the 8 available spots. “While we certainly were disappointed,” explained Jim “Ogre” Walczak, Marketing Director, “we weren’t without consolation. “Skinny” provided some of us with chocolate. I certainly hope the IHRA reconsiders the 8 car field for Funny Car. Terry has done a lot of work talking to youth about drag racing. The more teams that we can include in the field the better opportunity for younger teams to get experience.”
The entire InstiGator team would like to thank the best partners in drag racing: Amalie Oil, eRaceFuels, Flatout Gaskets, NGK Spark Plugs, MSD, Performance Graphics, Powershield Coatings and Crane Cams.
The Amalie Oil InstiGator will head into Rockingham, NC for the IHRA World Finals October 7-9.