Despite that performance edge on the rest of the field, they could have easily been taken out in the semi's by Todd Paton, but in an old fashioned, tire smoking, pedal-fest Millican drove like a champion and got to the stripe first with a 5.79 to Paton's 5.97.

That race turned out to be the final round as Bruce Litton had a tire failure while racing Grant Flowers in the other semi and experienced a harrowing 300-mph crash. Fortunately Litton was unhurt but was taken to the hospital for observation. That gave Millican a final round bye run for the title. The Lehman team returned and made a single for the money, recording a fine 4.596/311.49.

Top Fuel notes

Humble, Texas racer Mark Kinsella made one of his rare Top Fuel appearances at the San Antonio race. Kinsella had tuning help from NHRA Funny car wrench Rob Flynn and qualified second with a 4.669. The only other races currently on Kinsella's schedule are the NHRA events at Houston and Dallas.

The Stevens family fueler is based out of Oblong, Ill. The team showed at San Antonio with a new driver, golfer Rick Cooper from Boise, ID. Cooper got his license at San Antonio and then qualified into the eight-car field with a respectable 5.027 on his last pass, bumping out Bobby Lagana.

Bruce Litton's Brad Hadman chassis had only eight laps on it when it crashed. Litton was extremely lucky as he drove without any sort of head/neck restraint device other than the "donut" that fits under the helmet. Supposedly Litton is having Hadman put together a new chassis for him to drive at Houston in a couple of weeks.

PRO MOD

Pro Modified was perhaps the most entertaining of the professional classes at the Texas Nationals. This year saw nearly twice as many entries at this event than attended last year. Upsets were the order of the day.

In the first round most of those who qualified in the top half of the field, including number one qualifier Zach Barklage, lost. After the second round the only driver left who qualified in the top eight was Harold Martin behind the wheel of his nitrous oxide/EFI Pontiac Grand Am. Martin was the only driver from the top half of the field to get out of the second round.

In final round action Glen Kerunsky's supercharged '57 Chevy met Martin who got to the finals after a bye run when Rick Distefano ran out of parts and couldn't answer the bell for the third round. The final was a supercharger vs. nitrous, '57 Chevy vs. 2004 Grand Am match that could have been a classic but was anti-climatic when Harold Martin's engine shut itself after about 400 feet.