On raceday, the first round of Pro Mod, Pro Stock, and Funny Car eliminations went off without a hitch, but just as the fuelers were about to make their first passes to lead off the second round, a light but persistent rain started that delayed proceedings for about three hours. Eliminations eventually were held under overcast skies, but by the time the final pro rounds were being held a thin mist hovered over the track. However, since track temperature remained about 80 degrees, the mist didn't affect the racing surface.

"I was concerned about the fog late in the day, but the track was excellent for the final," Pro Mod winner Mitch Stott said. "I told [IHRA Director of Field Operations] Jim Weinert they did a great job here this weekend. Over the years, I've really come to respect IHRA and their track preparations."

KLOEBER KEEPS 'EM COMING

Clay Millican and his Mike Kloeber-led Werner Enterprises team continued their IHRA domination with the only four-second and 300-mph pass (4.748/301.07) in Top Fuel qualifying, then continued their unbeaten streak this year to take their third straight event title.

Unlike many of his previous IHRA victories, however, Millican faced tough competition in each of his three elimination rounds at VMP. In the opener against Danny Dunn, he went 4.71 to Dunn's 4.92, then 4.69 to beat the 4.88 by Rhonda Hartman-Smith before reaching the final round against Hartman- Smith's husband John "Bodie" Smith, where Millican led wire-to-wire with a 4.668-secs pass at 311.85 mph compared to the 5.181/252.66 posted by a tire-smoking Smith in his Prestone-backed dragster.

Millican credited Kloeber for making all the right calls to make him quicker with each pass down the Virginia quarter mile, but the crew chief joked, "I was just making sure I didn't screw up."

"It was most challenging to tune for the final because we were so close to the dew point," Kloeber explained. "I couldn't decide whether to back off or zoom it up a bit, but we went a little quicker. It actually reminded me of the old days back at Orange County when the fog would roll in late at night. It could be treacherous, but it was there if you knew what to do."

Smith said his car lost traction mid-track in the final, just as it had in his semi-final win over Todd Paton. "The racetrack was really good, so I think I just got a little out of the groove. It didn't really matter, though, because we would have needed a little more power to beat Clay."

HARTMAN-SMITH VISITS HOSPITAL

After qualifying fourth the day before, Rhonda Hartman-Smith, driver of the Fram Top Fuel dragster, said she woke up Saturday morning at Virginia Motorsports Park with numbness in her right arm and slurring her speech. Her symptoms were alarming enough to warrant a visit to a local hospital, where the 28-year-old underwent a CAT scan.

"It was negative on all the tests and I was cleared to race by the hospital doctors," she said. "The track's medical people were in touch with the hospital too, and I was feeling fine by the time I left there."

Hartman-Smith ran low E.T. of the first round (4.674) while beating Bruce Litton, but fell in the semis to eventual race winner Clay Millican. She said her team hadn't planned on racing at Richmond, but car problems discovered a week earlier at the NHRA race in Chicago prompted them to use the IHRA event as a test opportunity. It marked the fourth straight week that she and her husband John Smith were racing and they will make it five in a row next week at the NHRA race in Columbus, OH, before they and their crews get a well-deserved weekend off.