Championship Drag Racing

Mac Tools Gatornationals
Gainesville, Fla.
(March 15-18)

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Gainesville, Saturday: Top Fuel driver Clay Millican and the Lehman Racing team surprised everyone when they arrived for the 32nd annual NHRA Mac Tools Gatornationals with a brand new sponsor that featured a beautiful new blue and yellow paint-scheme. Millican and the Werner Enterprises-sponsored Top Fueler then proceeded to stun everyone at Gainesville Raceway by qualifying in the top half of the field in their 2001 season debut.

The Lehman Racing team went to the Gatornationals to prepare for the IHRA season-opener in Rockingham, N.C., in two weeks. Despite running the car in IHRA trim in Gainesville (a 25 percent blower overdrive restriction), Millican and the Mike Kloeber-tuned Werner dragster were quick right out of the box. The 2000 IHRA Rookie of the Year stormed to a 4.71 at 293 mph on his opening pass, and despite shutting off at the 1,000-foot mark, still finish the first qualifying session in the No. 3 spot.

Millican improved during Friday's second session with stout 4.68 at 313 mph, but dropped two spots to fifth on the Top Fuel ladder.

After smoking the tires during Saturday's first qualifying attempt, the Drummonds, Tenn., based team came back to the line for their final qualifying run trying to repeat their performance from Friday. Instead they improved on it. Millican drove the Werner Enterprises dragster to a career-best elapsed time of 4.667 at 318 mph (the third fastest run of the weekend so far) to grab the No. 8 position on the final Top Fuel ladder. Millican will enjoy lane choice over Rhonda Hartman-Smith during the first round of eliminations on Sunday.

Millican was overjoyed with the team's weekend so far. "We arrived here with no testing and had no idea what the car would do," said Millican, "but Mike Kloeber and the crew worked their magic and the car is running smooth and straight like a bracket car. I've got the cobwebs out now, I've made a few laps and I'm ready to go racing. Werner is a great new sponsor and we're excited to be back on the track"

Crew chief Mike Kloeber commented, "The big deal for us is that we changed the fuel system a little bit to modernize our set up and we're using the new Goodyear tires. We're running a combination that we're familiar with and we know there's more left in it. Everything is working well so early in the season compared to last year. I'm definitely pleased."