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| Clay Millican posted a best time of 4.724
seconds at Red River Raceway, but he and crew chief Mike Kloeber
are convinced they have the first IHRA 4.50 in sight once they get
the car dialed in correctly. |
* Pro Mod star Quain Stott said he is seriously considering building
a supercharged entry to complement his current nitrous-assisted LeeBoy
Paving Equipment '63 Corvette next year. The Inman, SC-based racer said
that depending on what rule changes are made to the class in the off-season
-- which he doesn't think will be significant -- he intends to bring
out whatever combination he thinks will do better at a given track or
time of year. "There are nitrous fans and there are blower fans," Stott
pointed out. "Well, I want to have all the fans." Both cars will be
painted identically, but Stott said the new car might sport a 1968 Camaro
body ... or maybe not.
* Stott's brother Mitch has eighth-place points man Carl Moyer to thank
for gaining a berth in the Mopar Pro Mod Shootout. When Moyer abruptly
sold his car and racing operation to Bob Reiger at the previous IHRA
event in Maryland, it opened the door to Mitch Stott in ninth-place
to fill his Shootout vacancy. Just losing in the first round (which
Stott did, to Mike Janis) still earned $2,500 so Mitch joked he'd send
Moyer a thank-you card with one percent of his winnings enclosed.
* Johnny Rocca's popular 1951 Mercury Pro Mod, driven by Paul Athey,
made its final trip down the quarter-mile in Athey's second-round loss
to Shannon Jenkins at Shreveport. The current car will be retired to
Rocca's personal collection, but a new, practically identical Alan Pittman-built
"Ironhorse" -- complete with a $9,000 Mohegan Sun Casino paint job --
is already waiting in the wings. Rocca also said he is switching from
his current Alan Johnson 481X Olds to a Brad Anderson-prepped Hemi for
motive power in 2002. "We think the Hemi is the engine of the future
in this class," the Pro Mod guru stated.
* Mark Thomas clinched his fifth IHRA Funny Car championship by qualifying
fourth and staging for his first-round match against Mark Poyser. Thomas
easily won the round with a 5.865 at 241.93 mph pass in his Ethanol
Performs '01 Avenger flopper, but was upset by Laurie Cannister in round
two despite posting top speed of the meet at 243.02 mph.
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| Mark Thomas' crewman Randy Rodgers appears
completely at ease with his team's accomplishments in 2001, which
included three event wins and the IHRA Summit Funny Car championship. |
* World Finals Funny Car winner Dale "the Rail" Brand was driving like
his 2001 Firebird was on a rail at Shreveport, as he qualified number
one with a 5.743 and fairly easily dispatched Terry McMillen and Laurie
Cannister after enjoying a bye run in Sunday's opening round. He met
Jimmy Rector in the final, but Rector left way too soon, handing Brand
his fourth win of the year. "It was a great weekend. The team was on;
the car was on; everyone did their job flawlessly," Brand gushed in
victory lane. "This is just a preview for next year, we're ready to
roll now. The challenge was just to stay focused. Everything was going
so well that we were just concerned about overlooking something."
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