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.

McMillen's 3.891 second elapsed time @ 308.99 mph was a career best performance in 1000 foot NHRA racing. "We wanted to go out there and make a statement today," McMillen said after the loss. "We didn't get the job done, but we came really close. It might be a little tougher for us to sneak up and surprise someone now. We made a race of it. We hated to lose, but we're pretty happy with that performance."

"We've got a handle on this car now," McMillen added. "I think Doug Kuch (crew chief) has found the set up on all of these new parts we have. Now that we have a solid base line we can really start to lean on it a little. There is a lot of power left in this car. We've got more that we can throw at it."

McMillen's next NHRA appearance will be September 17-20 at the NHRA Nationals in Concord North Carolina.

The Hoosier Thunder Motorsports team's next race will be July 3-5 at the IHRA River Cree Resort and Casino Rocky Mountain Nationals in Edmonton Alberta.

photo © Bob Szelag