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Then, when the next pair went down the track, recently crowned 2001
champion Clay Millican had a major blower explosion that also took out
some of the body panels of his Werner Enterprises ride just after he
beat Don Reed to advance to the semi-finals.
"It's kind of strange. That's the first one I've ever had where the
thing actually blew up, and it's an experience that I could do without,
that's for sure," Millican said. He explained that two keyways, called
Woodruff keys, hold the crank gear to the bottom of the crankshaft and
when they sheared off, "the motor kept going, but the cam didn't and
it whacked off all the intake valves and Ka-Boom!" (There's that word
again.)
By far the scariest incident happened to Jim Head, though, after he
won a tire-smoking duel with Millican in the semis. His engine let go
big time in the top end and the force of the blast hurled something
into the back of Head's helmet, shattering its hard external coating
and damaging the shell beneath.
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| Remarkably, Top Fuel driver Jim Head escaped
with no more than a headache after his helmet was badly damaged
in a semi-final engine explosion. |
The experience had the outspoken Columbus, OH-based veteran renewing
a call to put electronic car management systems on Top Fuel cars to
constantly monitor and adjust the clutch, fuel flow, fuel mixture, boost,
ignition timing, and anything else that may contribute to engine explosions.
"Any one of these [explosions] could've killed someone," Head stated.
"Either a fan or a driver, because these parts can fly hundreds of feet.
There's no good reason not to have it (electronic car management). I
could do it, but it's illegal so I won't build it, and it would cost
about $500,000 to engineer initially. A couple of years back the other
sanctioning body approached me about developing a car management system,
but when I asked if they were going to pay me, that was the end of it."
TOP FUEL NEWCOMER
Mitch King, the third-generation owner of La King's Confectionery in
Galveston, TX, made his IHRA Top Fuel debut at Shreveport in a car purchased
recently from former series regular Danny Dunn.
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| Mitch King said he hopes to run the full 2002
IHRA season. "We feel that we can be competitive over here. We're
trying to scrape up a little money right now to help us run this
deal. If we can get a little bit behind us, we feel like we could
give these guys a good run for the money." |
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