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The Rocky Mountain Nationals are presented on speedzone by .....................
June 28 , 2005
The Top Fuel Story Top Fuel gallery is here The other pro classes have their own pages Pro Mod is here, Pro Stock is here, Funny Car is here Photos courtesy Bill Jeffer and Dean Murdoch (Numbers courtesy DRC) The smallest Top Fuel field in the three year history of this event did not take away from the excitement of what the race produced. Every fans comes into this event wanting to see how quick and fast Clay Millican can go. This year they not only got what they wanted to see in Clay, but two different Canadians put on a show, one in qualifying and one in elimination's that will last until the 2006 race here at Bud Park. The win by Clay millican comes as no surprise, but with the rain on Saturday and very cool temperatures Sunday for first round. The air temperature was only 63 degrees (17 Celsius) and the track temperature was 67 degrees. Not what most Top Fuel teams like to run on. Usually an 80 - 110 track is the range they like. Well, don't tell that to the Mike Kloeber tuned Top Fueler. But we'll get to elimination's later in the story Top Fuel Qualifying
Keith Falconer (driving an A/Fuel car) was not able to get his license on the one chance he had and to put it bluntly the car was not even close. It was Keith's first time in a A/Fuel Dragster in a couple decades, and after firing up the car for the burnout, it had a sound that was hard to describe. It did not sound like it had a full nitro load, maybe 50%, but it had a very high idle, and the zoomies which are around 18 inches longer than any I have ever, probably affected the sound as well. The burnout though, was actually was not too bad, but while backing up the car's idle was very high and did not sound anything like a conventional A?Fuel car. It staged and launched and if four holes were lit I would be surprised. It laboured down track for the entire 1320 and how it did not hydraulic and put engine parts all over the race track, I'll never know, bit it didn't and it tripped the lights at a non licensing 8.50 (or something close to that). That was the end of their weekend. Scott Murray also failed to get in the field, as the Doucette owned A/Fueler could not get the car back into forward gear after backing up from its burnout. Saturday Qualifying--- Was non existent due to a swirling storm that circled the track from 1:45 through until they finally ended the misery at 7:00 pm with nary a pro car hitting the track. The only Top Fuel car to suffer the consequences of the lone Friday session was Scott Murray, who could not get the car into forward gear after his burnout Friday night. Ed Verenka on the other hand, became the "1ST EVER A/FUELER TO QUALIFY IN IHRA TOP FUEL" Final qualifying and first round pairings
The Top Fuel parings are: #1 Doug Foley vs #8 Ed Verenka, #2 Todd Paton Vs #7 Rick Cooper, #3 Louie Allison Vs #6 Clay Millican, and finally #4 Bruce Litton Vs #5 Jack Ostrander.
Sunday Elimination's--- Back to the the track
temperatures not concerning Mike Kloeber and the Werner team. The
first round one Pro Mod produced a few upsets, as hitters like Al
Billes Shannon Jenkins and Harold Martin all got beat due to loose
conditions or overpowering the track. And the surface had only warmed
up by a couple degrees since then.
1. Clay Millican 637 |
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Friday----
In qualifying Clay Millican went for a wild ride in the Werner car,
as it hiked the wheels a couple times and was very loose on its
lone qualifier. He turned in a 5.08 time slip that had its eyes
on a low 4.60 or 4.50 based on early increments, but with the front
end wanting to lift on a couple times down track Clay wisely lifted
and pulled the chutes by 1000 feet. The track was 86 degree and
had teeth was basically the gist from every top fuel driver who
made a lap. Ed Verenka in the injected nitro car was the only one
who had trouble on the starting line, he launched and got 10 feet
before he smoked em, his run was a 15 second run that was still
going to make history (read on). Most teams found the top end a
little loose though as by looking at the top speeds of most, the
cars were clicked off by 1100-1250 feet. Did I say most, Todd Paton
was the exception to the above. The Paton Top Fueler has not made
it to the finish line this year under power, but the team threw
a 'Hail Mary' out (for Todd and the team their hail Mary is a conservative
4.90 to 5.0 based on the problems they have been having), for Friday's
session. The car launched hard, and stayed lit for the entire 1320
and ran a 4.703 / 314 mph. And the fans went wild.
Bruce
Litton and Jack Ostrander were the first pairing and Litton made
it stick for the 1/4 mile with his best lap of the weekend, a 4.823/292.
Ostrander had a troubled lap that ended with a 7 second time slip.
Clay and Louie Allison were up next, and this one could of been
close if Allison ran the same as he did in qualifying. Allison got
a slight jump on Clay, but that evaporated before they hit the 'tree'.
Millican's run was flawless, and you could tell a big number was
going to come up. It hiked the wheels just before half track when
the clutch locked up, but they stayed down enough, unlike Friday
night's qualifier, for Clay to run it out the back door. The scoreboards
lit up to an astonishing 4.540 / 325.69 that had the 15,000 spectators
go wild! No one expected that number to come up. Rick Cooper and
Todd Paton were up next, and this one too, had the potential to
be close. They left side by side and Paton started to pull ahead
early and was almost .15 ahead at the 330. That was where his advantage
ended. The car dropped a cylinder and then spit off the blower belt,
allowing Cooper to blow past the Ontario driver for an easy 5.12
to 7.18 victory. The final pairing was Doug Foley and the "1ST
EVER A/FUELER TO QUALIFY IN IHRA TOP FUEL"
(did I mention that earlier), Ed Verenka. Ed has
not made too many laps in the car, possibly 10 with three or four
of those at 98 %. He has gone 5.40's in testing right here at Edmonton,
but
nothing official. His quickest official run in the NHRA is a 5.8
something, and in the IHRA, he made a 6.92 run at last year's event.
The reaction times were not anything to write home about, but Ed
did have .05 advantage at the tree. They both left hard and had
identical .893 60 foot times. By the 330 Foley had pulled ahead
by just over half a tenth. At half track the race was well in hand,
even though et's were not that far apart. But Ed was going 215 at
half track and Doug had reached roughly 260 mph. The final numbers
were not close, but Ed Verenka ran his career best in competition
by almost half a second. Semi final pairings are: Doug Foley Vs
Bruce Litton (lane choice to Foley), Clay Millican Vs Rick Cooper
(lane choice to Millican).
In
the semis, the Doug Foley vs Bruce Litton was a great battle.
They left within .003 of each other and Litton took the early lead.
At 330 he held down a scant .002 edge that had turned into a .026
advantage for Foley by half track. Foley kept that advantage through
the end of the 1/4 mile for a 4.787 - 4.809. In the other pairing,
Millican had a back up run on a potential new record, but was likely
to not push it in a semi that was not against a 4.70 car or better.
Both cars left simultaneously, But by 330 ft. Clay was well out
in front and ran a 4.695 to Rick Coopers early shut off 5.151 215.
The
finals were just what they were supposed to be, the #1 guy in
the IHRA Vs the #2 guy. Millican Vs Foley! Their standings lived
up to the billing and the end result mirrored their placing in the
standings. Millican was looking for his 5th win of the season, Foley
was looking to pick up the some points on Clay in the standings.
Clay left with a .028 advantage and he he kept it right through
the 1/4 mile for a 4.712 to 4.719 victory and a "fifth in a
row".