TOP FUEL TENSION
There was no more tense moment at the IHRA Spring Nationals than when
Bruce Litton waited patiently in his Wix Filters-backed ride, while
Clay Millican’s stealthsponsor.com
team thrashed to make it to the staging lanes on time for the final.
IHRA President Bill Bader Sr. said he gave his watch to the track announcer
and told him, “When it reaches 22 minutes, that’s it, he’s
done (Millican).” With less than half a minute remaining, Millican’s
crew, under the direction of veteran tuner Mike Kloeber, pushed their
long, black missile into place behind Litton’s bright yellow machine
and the stage was set.
“I really wanted to run somebody. It makes a good show to race
somebody and I don’t want anyone to say, ‘Well he didn’t
show up,’” Litton said later. “These races are supposed
to be decided on the track and I was really glad when he did show up.”
Showing up was about all Millican could manage, as he had a hard time
getting his Keith Black hemi to fire and after an abbreviated burnout,
he staged, but didnt take the green. Litton, meanwhile, hammered out
a 4.777 seconds pass, his quickest of the day, to secure the win and
take over the points lead from fellow Hoosier Paul Romine, who won the
final in Darlington over Litton.
Despite knowing Millican was having mechanical troubles, Litton insisted
he wasn’t taking the win for granted.
“Clay had just set the national record the run before and he could
have done it again,” Litton said. “I knew I just needed to
be on time and run somewhere in the mid-70’s and then hope we would
be ahead.”
Millican’s 4.725 qualifying pass stood up as the new IHRA Top
Fuel ET record after a 4.739 against Romine in the semis backed it up.
“I know Bruce was stalling to let us get up there and I appreciate
that more than you can know,” Millican said. “But even when
it got up on the starting line, it didn’t really want to start.
I was just thinking, ‘Please,  man,
just start so we can do a burnout and stage.’” While backing
up to stage, Millican said he remembers Kloeber coming over the radio
and telling him, “Do not step on it.”
“I turned on my radio and asked him to say it again. And I asked
him one more time just to be sure,” the Drummonds, Tenn. racer
recalled afterwards. “I mean, I knew it was hurtin’ back there,
but who knows? Maybe Bruce would’ve smoked the tires. I don’t
know what I would’ve done if I saw him smoke ‘em.”
Millican’s semi-final win apparently cost a blackened crank and
a couple of broken pushrods. “Nothing serious,” Millican pointed
out, “but we just came up an engine short.” He thanked Romine
and crew chief Clayton Harris for donating a few parts and expertise
to the cause, and praised Litton’s team for offering parts and
support, too. Still, Millican said he would’ve loved to beat them
in the final.
“I wanted to get on it so bad, but if it blew up, that would have
just made it a lot worse for the guys that had to go behind us,”
he realized. “Plus, we would have lost our points and the run wouldn’t
count anyhow, so that wasn’t really an option.”
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