SAME DAY COVERAGE
IHRA Spring Nationals presented by Advance Auto Parts
Rockingham, NC
By Susan Wade & Bobby Bennett
Photos by Chris Simmons, David Anderson and Bryan Epps

Rockingham Photo Gallery

SUNDAY - Millican wins #39; Billes, Thomas and Spiess score victories in Rockingham

(4-24-2005) - In a scene reminiscent of last year’s IHRA Spring Nationals final round, four-time Top Fuel champion Clay Millican soloed for yet another national- event victory. Opponent Rick Cooper broke on the burnout.

Millican saved his best run of eliminations as he thundered to a 4.667 E.T. at 307.02 miles per hour.

Joining Millican in the parade of professional winners were past national winners Al Billes (Torco Race Fuels Pro Modified), Mark Thomas (Funny Car) and Steve Spiess (Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock).

Millican’s victory marked the 39th visit to the drag racing Promised Land.

“It was quoted once in a magazine that Steve Earwood may own the title to Rockingham Dragway, but I own the place,” said Millican. “I wouldn’t go that far, but I will say that we’ve paid a lot of mortgage payments and light bills from what we’ve won here.

“This is a win that I have to attribute to (crew chief) Mike Kloeber,” Millican continued. “We were very cautious today because of oiling the track in San Antonio. The IHRA is serious about their oildown policy and we’re making sure we don’t oil down the track.”

Millican won the first round over an engine-exploding Paul Athey. He advanced to the final round by repelling a determined Bobby Lagana, Jr.

Cooper’s march to the final round began with an easy roll down the strip when Roger Dean couldn’t make the call. He then took out the low qualifier and teammate Doug Foley with a 4.791, 297.55.

Billes, of Barrie, Ontario, saved his best run of the weekend for last as he stopped an emotionally driven Quain Stott in the final round. Stott snagged the holeshot and led until the eighth-mile when Billes drove by for a 6.162, 230.80. Stott lost with a respectable 6.206, 229.31.

The win ended up changing the mood of a weekend that started with rain on Friday and a visit to a local hospital on Saturday morning. For Billes and partner Jim Oddy it came together at the most opportune time.

“It came together when we really needed it to,” Billes said. “We did some testing a few days prior to the event and it really helped us out a lot. We changed some things around from that trip to Mooresville Dragway. Knowing we only had one shot to get in the show, we made it soft and adjusted from there.”

Billes made the program on one shot Saturday evening and used that momentum to carry the classic Corvette to a victory over point leader Ed Hoover. He then stepped up the pace in the quarter-finals as he got the best of Charles Carpenter.

Stott opened eliminations with a solid six-teen effort in dismissing Keith Baker in the first round. His first round 6.147 was enough to secure lane choice over Jim Halsey in the quarter-finals. The LeeBoy-sponsored driver scored a win in that match as Jim Halsey fouled. One round removed from the final round, Stott beat revered Rockingham legend Rickie Smith on both ends of the track.

Thomas, of Louisville, Ohio, found his way back to the winner’s circle after a dry spell that dated back to the 2004 Mopar Canadian Nationals in Grand Bend, Ontario. The multi-time champion faced little competition from final round foe Melinda Green-King as she encountered problems and aborted the run early.

Thomas won with a 5.859 at 240.38 miles per hour. The interesting thing is that it mirrored last year’s event greatly as Rob Atchison lost in the first round for the second season in a row.

Thomas said he wouldn’t mind this trend continuing.

“I don’t know how it all works out, but it would be great for our team if happens more often,” Thomas said with a smile. “We let the championship get away from us here last year. Our success came in being able to work with what the track gave us. We have plenty of power and had to back it down some. It all worked out.”

Thomas opened with a win over Terry Munroe and continued his success and did so at the expense of Chris Foster in the semis.

Green-King entered eliminations as the 5th-seeded entry and took out Jim Sickles and Tony Bogolo for her final-round berth.

Spiess, of Manhattan, Ill., outreacted and outran Jerry Haas in the final round to secure his second career IHRA national-event crown. En route to the trip to winners circle, Spiess backed up a previous established record (6.426) with a 6.432, 214.83. He backed it up a third time in the final round.

Haas shook the tires and aborted the run early.

The victory ended a long dry spell for Spiess, whose last win came in Darlington during the 2000 IHRA Winter Nationals. Ironically, the next race that season was in Rockingham and resulted in a crash that left him nursing a broken tailbone.

“This track has never really been kind to me,” admitted Spiess. “I have to say that Steve Earwood (Rockingham Dragway owner) has done a lot of work to this track and it has resulted in this becoming one of the best facilities on the tour.”

Spiess gambled on race day and returned to his old combination, which yielded positive results.

“It worked just great,” Spiess added. “I didn’t even know where we were going to go with the clutch.”

Spiess’ momentous day began from the 10th spot and he got off on a good foot by grabbing a share of the low E.T. and record by taking out defending champion John Nobile. He then established the record with a convincing victory over Tony Gillig. The final round berth was earned by a win over Elijah Morton.

For his part, Haas entered the show as 8th qualifier and defeated a lineup of Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock drivers such as John Montecalvo, low qualifier Frank Gugliotta and Robert Patrick.

The next stop on the 12-race IHRA Hooters Drag Racing tour is in Petersburg, Va., May 26 – 28, for the 5th annual ACDelco Nationals.

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SUNDAY NOTES - Long term clean-up, Champions exit early and the story of the underdog

‘A Mike Day’ -- Clay Millican explained his eighth consecutive victory at Rockingham Dragway in the Werner Enterprises Dragster by declaring, “It was a Mike day.”

And the Drummonds, Tenn., native took his own personal souvenir by bending down and picking up a small rock from the top end of the historic quarter-mile that seems almost as much of a home track to him as Memphis Motorsports Park. “I got me a piece of The Rock,” he said.

He said during the last few years he has “paid a lot of light bills and mortgage payments” with his earnings here. Referring to two-time NHRA Top Fuel champion Larry Dixon, Millican said, “I still don’t make Larry Dixon kind of money, but I do have a nice, new house. And a lot of that’s because of this place.”

He can add $20,500 to his bank account after this record-extending 39th IHRA victory.

Millican shut off on both qualifying and elimination-round runs during this weekend. But his solo pass in the final, which came because Rick Cooper’s dragster broke after his burnout, was the least cautious of all his passes. He ran a 4.667-second elapsed time at 307.02 mph.

“We had the cautious mode on,” Millican said. “IHRA is serious about its oil down penalties and we were trying not to oil down the track. Any time you get to look at the track and step on the gas, you take it. I’m not going to learn much by squinting my eyes and making a run down there, but Mike is going to a lot from it.”

Someone asked Millican if he might run out of room at his home for the Ironman trophies. Crew chief Mike Kloeber provided the answer. “His best friend is a cabinet-maker,” Kloeber said. “Clay will never run out of room. Trust me. If he runs out, he’ll build Clay another cabinet.”

I'm cured! -- Al Billes skipped the first Torco Pro Mod qualifying session with Jim Oddy’s blown ’53 Corvette because he was feeling ill. He made a trip to the hospital Saturday night after qualifying 11th. He referred to it as “an unscheduled stop” and downplayed it, saying, “Everything’s 100 percent. It was no big deal.”

Whatever the medical staff gave the Canadian driver, it cured his disappointment about starting in the bottom half of the 16-car field. It just made the other Pro Mod drivers feel a little queasy, knowing the new alliance between him and team owner Jim Oddy spells trouble for all of them already.

He eliminated Ed Hoover, who won at San Antonio for the points lead, then knocked off Charles Carpenter and Dennis Radford before facing Stott and his blown ’63 Corvette.

“We made wholesale changes and did all the right things,” Billes said after earning the $10,000 winner‘s share of the purse. “We were just tuning for air. When you leave home with all your toys, from then on it’s all about consistency. We’re still working on that. We seem to have good fortune at this track.”

He said the final round was his most difficult. “Quain was so consistent,” he said.

Stott was the No. 1 qualifier with a 6.161-second elapsed time that was a mere 59-thousandths of a second short of the track and IHRA class record. He was racing to honor his dad, Bob, who passed away a few months ago

Scratching for victories -- Melinda Green-King, the Norfolk, Va., driver who reached the Funny Car final in her ’02 Dodge Avenger, told opponent Mark Thomas before the run, “I really want to win this race for my mom. She pased away a year ago.”

Thomas said, “Her mom was a nice lady, and I respect her for that. I didn’t want to take anything away from her, but I wanted to win, too.”

Thomas, a farmer from Louisville, Ohio, said he and his ’04 Avenger have to be on top of their game at all times this season.

“I’ll predict that whether it’s myself or (class headliner) Rob Atchison, the top guys at some point won’t qualify for a race.” He said no one has any margin for error: “You might shake your tires or one of those goofy things. But it’ll happen. It makes for excellent racing.”

He said he could hardly contain himself after winning his 23rd career victory and the $10,000 that goes along with it. “I’m like a kid in a candy store. I’m ready to wet my pants,” Thomas said.

He said his wife, Christine, was happy for him when he phoned home -- happy but not feeling sorry for him because of the windy, 50-degree weather and his tough opponents in the elite eight-car field, including Terry Munroe and Chris Foster. “She was feeding forty cows with individual bottles in 30 degrees in the snow. “You’re not going to get any sympathy from me,” she told him.

$10,000 payback -- Rockingham Dragway owed Steve Spiess. It was pretty unforgiving in the second race in 2000, when he came in on roll from winning at Darlington, S.C. He was at the top end of the right lane, when his parachutes came out, went under the wheelie bar, and triggered a wreck that left him with a cracked tailbone and a wiped-out race car.

“I thought that was it,” Spiess said, recalling that his car rolled several times, turned hard into the wall and he saw the engine come out and go through the wall.”

He put his ’04 Cavalier in the same lane in the final round Sunday, and pocketed the $10,000 payoff, nicking Jerry Haas and his new Cavalier by 88-hundredths of a second. It was Spiess’ secondary victory.

Spiess, from Manhattan, Ill., is one of the owners of Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.,

Sweet consolation -- Steve Spiess kept Jerry Haas from earning his first IHRA victory, but Haas wasn’t complaining. His weekend got better and better. Haas, of Fenton, Mo., had his ’05 Cavalier dead-last in 23rd place, seven spots below the bump, going into Saturday night’s final qualifying session. He vaulted to eighth place. The chassis builder took out John Montecalvo, top qualifier and track E.T. record-holder Frank Gugliotta, and Robert Patrick (who had just seen his IHRA record ET disappear by one-thousandth of a second).

Quit exit -- The last time Rob Atchison dropped out of contention in the first round of IHRA competition was at the Spring Nationals at Rockingham one year ago. That time, he could blame his stumble on a case of food poisoning that led him to the hospital. This time the points leader and No. 1 qualifier, from London, Ontario, struck the tires almost at the first hit of the throttle. Tony Bogolo, of Hamilton, Ohio, won the round with a 5.874-second pass but damaged his motor and couldn’t answer the call for his semifinal pairing with Melinda Green-King.

Making a mess -- Shannon Jenkins’ nitrous-injected ’68 Camaro suffered a rear-end explosion about 600 feet into his Pro Modified semifinal match-up against Dennis Radford, forcing a track clean-up that lasted one hour, four minutes. A broken ring gear spewed synthetic oil and fluid on the right lane, and maintenance crews had an unusually difficult time in mopping it up.

David Poole of the Charlotte Observer quipped that it would’ve been quicker to pave a new lane than clean up the existing one.

He won with what?! -- Logic would dictate that no one records a 25.370-second elapsed time and wins a drag race. Rick Cooper proved logic wrong in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations. That was the Boise, Idaho, driver’s winning E.T., as Roger Dean drew his second black flag of the weekend. Dean, of Webster Springs, W. Va., was towed from the starting line with a mechanical problem, and Cooper made a solo -- and sllloooowww -- run.

Underdog perseveres -- Bobby Lagana got a gift in the first round of Top Fuel eliminations, as Bruce Litton was disqualified for his red-light start. The mistake wasted Litton’s 4.845-second, 290.13-mph run. Lagana clocked a 5.502/177.23 and earned the right to face class points leader and perennial dominator Clay Millican.

Lagana’s team had to thrash in the pits, though, because the engine -- the only one they have -- was throwing out smoke at the end of his run. But the hard-luck underdog gamely came back but was up in smoke immediately against Millican, whom track public-address announcer Brian Olson was advancing to “his 800-millionth final round.”

Lagana’s effort underscored top qualifier Doug Foley’s remark Saturday night that “if you’re a die-hard racer and you don’t like Bobby Lagana, there’s something wrong with you. He races from the heart.”

Happy anniversary -- Rickie Smith celebrated his 25th anniversary -- of his first seven-second run in IHRA Pro Stock history. He clocked a 7.99-second elapsed time in his 1978 Mustang II in 1980. Smith, the North Carolina native who drove his ’63 Corvette Pro Modified car this weekend and runs regularly in the NHRA Pro Stock class, qualified fifth and defeated Montana’s Pat Stoken and former GM engineer and “EFI Wizard” Harold Martin before losing by .070 seconds to Quain Stott in the semifinals.

Luck o’ the Irish? -- Robert Patrick has had trouble parlaying his impressive performances into victories in this year’s two races. He was the talk of preseason testing with his passes in the 6.30-second range at Bradenton Motorsports Park. The Fredericksburg, Va., resident was No. 1 qualifier at San Antonio with an IHRA-record 6.427-second elapsed time. He advanced courtesy of Ed Machacek’s red light but lost in Round 2 to eventual winner Dan Seamon by about 18 inches (.0046 seconds). Patrick and his Purvis Mustang led the field at Rockingham heading into the final session with a 6.464 E.T. that was .029 seconds shy of the track record. He started a respectable fourth as Frank Gugliotta was quickest qualifier with a track-mark 6.412 and Tony Gillig and Pete Berner leapfrogged him, as well. Patrick left on Jerry Haas in the semifinals but Haas ran him down to reach the final round. That denied Patrick the chance to go for his 10th career victory.

SUNDAY - Hey Dude...You're Missing Something

(4-24-2005) - During the first round of eliminations, Frank Gugliotta lost a hood scoop.

SUNDAY - Hey Dude...You're Missing Something, Pt 2

(4-24-2005) - Eddie Ware loses a blower belt during Sunday's eliminations.

SATURDAY – Foley gets more than he bargained for; Stott, Atchison and Gugliotta low qualifiers

(4-23-2005) - Top Fuel racer Doug Foley, admitted that he just wanted to keep pace with Clay Millican during the final qualifying session at the IHRA Spring Nationals. Instead of merely keeping up, he stole the spotlight. The veteran drag racing school instructor dethroned low qualifier Clay Millican with a 4.657, 307.79.

Joining Foley atop their respective divisions was Quain Stott (Torco Race Fuels Pro Modified), Rob Atchison (Funny Car) and Frank Gugliotta (Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock)

Foley, part of a four-car team effort by Torco Race Fuels, laid down the lap alongside Millican under conditions that he felt provided the best opportunity of the weekend.

“I told Clay before the run that we needed to put on a show for the fans because they deserved it,” Foley said. “Tonight was the best opportunity we had to get after it. I thought Clay would run away with it and I just wanted to keep pace with him. When I started to pull away, I knew this was going to be a good one.”

Millican’s earlier 4.701 E.T. established the defending World Champion as the second seed ahead of a resurgent Bobby Lagana, who ended up third with a 4.754.

Chris Karamesines was the 8th qualifier with a 5.572, 171.73.

Stott, of Inman, SC., was the second quickest qualifier in Torco Race Fuels Pro Modified at the last event in San Antonio. He one-upped that performance as he thundered to a 6.161, 229.98 to snag the lion’s share of points for the Torco Race Fuels Shootout to be contested in August.

Stott was more than enthused with the performance.

“At 20-percent overdrive and 2,700 pounds, this was quite a run to lay down,” Stott, a former winner in Rockingham said. “The track just kept getting better and better for us. We just hit it at the right time.

“This year we never intended to go for number one all the time, we just wanted to be consistent,” Stott continued. “As it turned out we have been consistently quick. I could have probably gone quicker but I just wasn’t in a gambling mood.”

The only other Torco Race Fuels Pro Modified entry in the six-teens was Shannon Jenkins. Jenkins, driving a nitrous-injected 1968 Camaro, turned in a 6.196, 225.07. A determined John Russo briefly held the top spot with a 6.205, 226.15, which edged out Harold Martin’s 6.220, 224.06.

Atchison, of London, Ontario, demoralized the competition in the Funny Car class, by establishing a new track record with a 5.751, 240.94. He led all three sessions of qualifying.

Atchison did nothing more than achieve his objective from the onset of the event.

“This is why we came here,” Atchison said as he was performing post-qualifying bottom-end maintenance on his car. “This is the end result of a lot of hard work back at the shop. I’ll admit it, it’s nights like this that make drag racing real enjoyable.”

The second quickest runner was Mark Thomas as he concluded qualifications with a distant 5.825, 240.68. Thomas Carter was third with a 5.844, 238.34.

Rounding out the show was Tony Bogolo with a 5.886, 230.10.

Gugliotta, of Mt. Airy, Md., stormed to a new E.T. world record in the Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock division as he drove the Steve Thodos-owned Ford Escort to a pace-setting 6.412 at 214.59. The former Torco Race Fuels Showdown champion vaulted from the fifth spot during the final session.

Gugliotta’s run was the culmination of an effort that was of the progressive nature.

“We had been stepping up our combination in small steps all weekend,” Gugliotta admitted. “We got real aggressive on the last the shot and we hit it right. This run was the most aggressive we had been all weekend. I told my guys that we were going to be really good or look really bad.”

The field marked the fifth quickest in Rockingham Dragway history as Tony Gillig (6.433) slipped into second just ahead of Pete Berner’s 6.462.

Robert Patrick, who led two of three sessions, saw his stock drop to fourth as he shook the tires on the final session and stood on Friday’s 6.464, 213.16.

Mopar runner Larry O’Brien was on the bubble with a 6.547, 212.16.

Final eliminations for the IHRA Spring Nationals begin at 11 AM on Sunday.

First-round pairings for professional eliminations Sunday for the 35th
annual IHRA Spring Nationals presented by Advance Auto Parts and Castrol at Rockingham Dragway, the second of 12 events in the 2005 Hooters IHRA Drag Racing Series. Pairings based on results in qualifying, which ended Saturday.


Top Fuel -- 1. Doug Foley, 4.657 seconds, 307.79 mph vs. 8. Chris Karamesines, 5.572, 171.73; 2. Clay Millican, 4.701, 304.12 vs. 7. Paul Athey, 5.398, 248.48; 3. Bobby Lagana Jr., 4.754, 306.12 vs. 6. Bruce Litton, 5.184, 219.51; 4. Rick Cooper, 4.761, 284.56 vs. 5. Roger Dean, 5.069, 269.51.


Pro Modified -- 1. Quain Stott, Chevy Corvette, 6.161, 229.98 vs. 16. Keith Baker, Corvette, 6.336, 218.69; 2. Shannon Jenkins, Chevy Camaro, 6.196, 225.07 vs. 15. Dan Parker, Corvette, 6.333, 221.60; 3. John Russo, Camaro, 6.205, 226.54 vs. 14. Charles Carpenter, Chevy Bel Air, 6.332, 220.62; 4. Harold Martin, Pontiac Grand Am, 6.220, 224.06 vs. 13. Steve Vick, Camaro, 6.323, 221.71; 5. Rickie Smith, Corvette, 6.226, 221.20 vs. 12. Pat Stoken, Camaro, 6.321, 218.19; 6. Ed Hoover, Corvette, 6.245, 226.16 vs. 11. Al Billes, Corvette, 6.312, 226.09; 7. Dennis Radford, Corvette, 6.245, 222.33 vs. 10. Mike Castellana, Chevy Cavalier, 6.300, 222.14; 8. Eddie Ware, Willys, 6.245, 221.96 vs. 9. Jim Halsey, Camaro, 6.262, 223.28.


Funny Car -- 1. Rob Atchison, Pontiac Firebird, 5.751, 240.94 vs. 8. Tony Bogolo, Ford Mustang, 5.886, 233.64; 2. Mark Thomas, Dodge Avenger, 5.825, 240.68 vs. 7. Terry Munroe, Firebird, 5.877, 238.93; 3. Thomas Carter, Chevy Camaro, 5.844, 238.34 vs. 6. Chris Foster, Avenger, 5.858, 239.19; 4. Jim Sickles, Avenger, 5.844, 238.30 vs. 5. Melinda Green-King, Avenger, 5.853, 236.59.


Pro Stock -- 1. Frank Gugliotta, Ford Escort, 6.412, 214.59 vs. 16. Larry O'Brien, Dodge Stratus, 6.547, 212.16; 2. Tony Gillig, Ford Mustang, 6.433, 214.69 vs. 15. Chuck DeMory, Escort, 6.539, 210.47; 3. Pete Berner, Mustang, 6.462, 213.84 vs. 14. Frank Snellings, Mercury Cougar, 6.536, 211.96; 4. Robert Patrick, Mustang, 6.464, 213.16 vs. 13. Tommy Franklin, Chevy Cavalier, 6.531, 212.59; 5. Rick Jones, Chevy Cobalt, 6.468, 214.25 vs. 12. Brian Gahm, Mustang, 6.526, 213.16; 6. Daniel Seamon, Escort, 6.473, 215.86 vs. 11. Elijah Morton, Mustang, 6.508, 212.06; 7. John Nobile, Ford ZX2, 6.480, 213.77 vs. 10. Steve Spiess, Cavalier, 6.492, 213.84; 8. Jerry Haas, Cavalier, 6.485, 213.60 vs. 9. John Montecalvo, Cobalt, 6.490, 212.46.

SATURDAY - That's a spicy meatball, Tribute to "Ole Blue" and Holy Moly Mr. Foley...

(4-23-2005) - Frankly fast -- Frank Gugliotta has a chance Sunday to claim the IHRA’s elapsed-time record for the Pro Stock class with his 6.412-second pass Friday night. The time is a track record, but the Mt. Airy, Md., driver must run a 6.482-second or quicker E.T. Sunday to rewrite the record.

Gugliotta, the 46-year-old top qualifier whose nickname is “The Flying Meatball,” said a 6.42 or 6.43 “was what we were shooting for. The track was good.”

No one has broken onto the 6.30-second range to become a member of the Lenco 6.30s Pro Stock Challenge. However, Gugliotta said, “Tomorrow they’re talking about it being colder.

If the track is good, 30’s there. There’s a lot of cars that can do it.” Although he knows his is one of them, he said he’s going to stick to the task at hand. “We’re going to try to go down the track and go rounds. If a 30 comes, it comes,” he said.

“We’re been slowly stepping it up and when it mattered the most we hit it dead-on,” Gugliotta said. “This is the most aggressive that we had been all weekend. I told my guys we were going to look real good or real bad.”

Tony Gillig, Pete Berner, Rick Jones, Dan Seamon, and Jerry Haas saved their best efforts for last. Gillig’s No. 2 position represents a 20-place improvement. Berner moved up two spots to third, Jones three positions to fifth, and Seamon four places to No. 6. Haas vaulted into the top half of the field, from last at 23rd to eighth.

Making the Most - After high winds and rain washed out Friday’s first qualifying session, Harold Martin knew he would need to make the most of his two remaining chances to guarantee making the Pro Mod field.

Martin posted the quickest pass of the session on his first attempt Saturday, a 6.220-second E.T. at 224.06 mph in his ACDelco Pontiac.

In his Saturday evening run, Martin battled tire shake and had to settle for the No. 4 starting position.

“We’re pleased with both runs,” said Martin. “The 6.22 was a nice, conservative run that we thought had three or four hundredths left in it. Then tonight, we wanted to get some data on this ACDelco Pontiac in the colder temperatures, and we learned some things.

“It shook the tires, and wasn’t violent enough that I couldn’t have driven through it, but knowing that we were solidly in, the risk factor wasn’t worth it. Still, we were one of the quickest cars to sixty feet. Since we suspect the ambient temperatures tomorrow will be similar, tonight’s data will prove useful. From that aspect, all is not lost. Even though we knew we had something special and the pole was in sight, we’ll take this new information and look to build on it tomorrow.”

Atchison repeats -- Rob Atchison and Terry McMillen entered the Spring Nationals ranked first and second in the Funny Car standings. However, the fortunes of the two San Antonio finalists went in decidedly different directions at Rockingham.

While Atchison repeated as No. 1 qualifier of this event set the track elapsed-time record at 5.751 seconds, erasing Jim Lape’s 5.766, McMillen ended up last among 17 drivers with a disappointing 7.959-second effort.

Atchison, a Canadian from London, Ontario, said demoralizing every other Funny Car driver “is why we came here. This is what has transpired from hard work back at home. This is good Nights like this make racing good for all of us.”

He was the only driver in the class to turn in a sub-5.8-second run.

“The track’s nice and smooth,” the points leader said. “We weren’t out trying to set the world on its end. It meant a lot to go out there and make a nice, safe run. That was our race-day setup. I think it’s going to take that. Some guys got it right and some guys didn’t. . . .
That’s what drag racing is all about: problem-solving.”

He said the Rockingham track has a reputation for facilitating fast and quick runs. “Slow guys run fast here, and the fast guys got to be sure they don’t blow the tires off,” Atchison said. “It’s a shame to see half the field go home, and some of those guys ran personal bests.”

Atchison said he enjoys leading the standings -- “I think I wear it well” -- but knows the class is too competitive for him not to aim high. “I set my goals high,” he said, “and I think the class is forcing us to do that.”

He said his competitors consistently ask him before a session what he’s going to run. “They’re all worried I’m going to drop the bomb on them,” he said with a satisfied smile.

Speed record -- Dan Seamon, Torco Pro Stock’s San Antonio winner and No. 6 Rockingham qualifier, showed his ’05 Ford Escort remains strong. He set the track speed mark at 215.86 mph, topping Tom Lee’s 213.94.

Honor thy father -- Pro Modified driver Quain Stott had a lot on his mind during the off-season. Most important was absorbing the loss of his father, Bob, who had orchestrated his and brother Mitch’s racing careers. Bob Stott passed away after suffering a head injury at an IHRA race at Norwalk last fall.

As for preparing his Hemi-powered ’63 Corvette, Quain Stott said he wasn’t chasing horsepower but rather consistency. That, he said, is what paid off Saturday night as he grabbed the No. 1 qualifying position with a 6.161-second blast at 229.98 mph in his Lee Boy Paving Equipment entry.

“I went out there for a good baseline consistent run. I think we’ve got it. These things are so temperamental, you never know. But mission accomplished this winter. We may get outrun, but we’ll be the most consistent car.”

He was second to Harold Martin after Saturday morning’s qualifying session and said he wasn‘t thinking of overtaking Martin in the final one. “With our particular combination, this is quite a run. The track just kept getting better and better. We hit it right at the right time. We didn’t intend to be No. 1. We just wanted consistency. We’ve been consistently quick. I could’ve gone quicker. I just wasn’t in a gambling mood -- and I shifted late.

He said he felt as though his father were watching his class-best run. “One of my buddies said, ‘I wish your daddy was here.’ One of my crew guys said, ‘He’s here. We just don’t see him. He loved it [racing]. I could see him jumping up and down on that starting line if he was here.”

He said he dedicates his efforts to his dad’s memory. “It’s tough, but we do it in his memory. We’re definitely going to carry on just for that reason. Mama’s coming tomorrow, so it’ll be neat to have her here. Hopefully we can run good and make it a special tribute to him.”

He has incorporated a tribute to Bob Stott under the hood. “We named that motor Bob, after my daddy. I should’ve named it Old Blue,” Quain Stott said. “Daddy died three or four months ago, and we were in the process of building an engine at the time.”

Stott said he had the car set up to run a 6.18-second E.T. “The track was just super. It was perfect.”

He said what wasn’t perfect was himself and his quickness at the starting line. “I’ve got to make that adjustment to myself and not the car. I’m suffering bad on my reaction rounds. [Firstround opponent] Keith [Baker] is a killer [on the starting line]. He knocks the tree down.” He said he should improve as the day goes on.

He said he’ll try “just to run my race. I’ll try to let them beat themselves and try not to beat myself.”

Folier than thou -- Before his Top Fuel run that captured the No. 1 qualifying position with a 4.657-second E.T., Doug Foley said he told class dominator Clay Millican they should give the fans their money’s worth after they waited out back-to-back oildowns 27 and 34 minutes.

“It was the first time we felt we could get after it,” Foley said. “I felt Clay would be ahead, and I wanted to keep pace with him. I’ve never had success with him. We felt like we built a car to run with Clay.”

He said his top spot and teammate Rick Cooper’s No. 4 showing is “the exact reason you have a two-car team. This is the first time it came into play. We didn’t think it’d come into play this early in the season.”

Foley said, “We want to give the IHRA fans a choice in who they can root for.”

He blowed up real good -- NHRA Funny Car driver Dale Creasy Jr., was trying to earn his Top Fuel license Saturday after the program. But he blew up the engine on Evan Knoll’s Torco Fuels Dragster at the hit of the throttle. Knoll, last in the order, passed up his last opportunity to qualify Saturday because he wasn’t feeling well. He might be feeling sicker now.

Off his Gahm -- Brian Gahm’s ’03 Mustang looked a little tameless right at the start of his final qualifying run Saturday night. That dropped him from seventh to 12th in the Torco Pro Stock order.

He had said after the first qualifying session that he and his crew were “going to go back to Square One” for the night session.” He’s going to go back to Square One again.

“I’d like to do as well as we did in San Antonio. Runner-up’s not bad,” he said. “I believe it’s a little better, but we just haven’t found the sweet spot on it yet.”

Gahm said he hasn‘t changed much in his car: “We have a basic tune-up for it.”

The Lucasville, Ohio, businessman is proficient monitoring weather, and he has been keeping an eye on it at Rockingham. “It’s windy here, but you get down there at the other end it’s not like it was at Texas. There’s a row of trees [to protect from the gusts]. It’s not bad at all,” he said. “This weather’s crazy. I don’t know if it’s going to cool off tomorrow or if it’s going to rain. I really don’t know what its going to do. It feels like it‘s cooling off.”

He just wants to make sure he isn’t.

Janis 0-for-2 -- Mike Janis, the defending series and Spring Nationals Pro Modified champion, is struggling still with his ’05 Stratus. He failed to qualify at the season-opener San Antonio, missing the 16-car field by .071 seconds, and couldn’t solve the riddle of his new Hemi-powered Dodge at Rockingham. After Saturday’s first qualifying session, the two-time IHRA champ from Lancaster, N.Y., was 23rd among the 29 entrants.

“I’ve got to find out what this things wants,” Janis said as he prepared for the final qualifying session. With a nod to the ’63 Corvette in which he won the title last year, he said, “It doesn’t want the same gear ratios or tune-up that the other car wanted. We ran at Mooresville the other night, and we thought we had it. It ran good. We thought we were all set.”

He said the new car, which has undergone extensive wind-tunnel testing, performed relatively well at Atco Raceway in New Jersey. “We got it to run halfway decent there,” he said.

Janis said getting in the groove this year is “just a matter of tune-up, different weight percentages and gear ratios. The other [car], I had it so long I knew what it was going to do at every track. This one here’s got a little attitude.”

He said this trip to Rockingham Dragway, with cool temperatures and a 12-15-mph headwind, is uncharacteristic. “We figured it’d be sunny and 75 degrees and we wouldn’t worry about rain. The wind didn’t bother us at all. It was a dead-on headwind. I’m sure it slowed us down, but it didn’t move it around, not for me, anyway.” He said the wind in the pits was “nasty.”

The time lost to rain Friday evening did make a difference, Janis said. “What it all boils down to is you’re up against the wall with two qualifying runs. You got to almost put it on kill to get in.”

Struggles continue -- Rob Mansfield surprised the Torco Pro Stock class midway through last year, after three DNQs at the beginning of the 12-race schedule. In his official debut at Norwalk, he recorded the first of three consecutive top-qualifying positions. The Winter Park, Fla., driver set both ends of the track record in both his second and third events, at Boston and Budds Creek, Md. And he was runner-up at Boston.

But this year hasn’t been quite as spectacular as the second half of 2004 for Mansfield. He couldn’t get his ’03 Pontiac Grand Am in the field of 16, breaking his motor on a 6.640-second elapsed time that fell short by four-thousands of a second. He and his Wilson Manifolds team packed the Grand Am into the trailer Saturday night and took it home to tear it down and prepare it for the next race, the May 26-28 ACDelco Nationals at Richmond, Va.

Mansfield drew John Montecalvo as his first-round opponent at San Antonio and went to the line in eliminations, knowing he couldn’t compete heads-up but hoping Montecalvo might foul or break and allow him a few extra points. That didn’t happen. “You never know. You’ve got to roll the dice and see what happens,” he said.

He said he’ll try again at Virginia but hopes to test first, perhaps at Bradenton, Fla., but more likely Valdosta, Ga. He tested for two days on the Mooresville eighth-mile track, and that caused him and his team to arrive in Rockingham at 2 a.m. Friday.

“We were confident we had a pretty good package,” Mansfield said, lamenting at the poor timing of the mechanical glitches.

“It’s two different problems. It’s not a pattern of anything,” he said of the car’s misbehavior. “This car has 100,000 parts and pieces, and any one of them can fail.

“We’ve stumbled the last two races, but we’ll go back and regroup,” Mansfield said. “We have all the elements to run at the top. It’s going to be fast.”

Blazing runs -- Roger Dean and Todd Paton literally blazed to the early head of the Top Fuel list in spectacular fashion Saturday afternoon. As the fourth and fifth pairing down the track in the class’ first session of the weekend, they were on fire side by side. Their elapsed times didn’t rule for long, as Clay Millican -- who’s going for an eighth consecutive victory at Rockingham Dragway -- ran a 4.701-second pass at 304.12 mph to take his first No. 1 qualifier position of 2005.

SATURDAY - DOUBLE WHAMMY

(4-22-2005) - Roger Dean (left) and Todd Paton get a head-start on the Saturday's Night of Fire action. Both drivers were assessed a black flag penalty on the run.

FRIDAY - Patrick paces Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock as rain shortens Friday evening action

(4-22-2005) – Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock racer Robert Patrick was the only low qualifier credited during the first session of the IHRA Spring Nationals at Rockingham, NC. Rains halted the rest of Friday’s action halfway through Funny Car eliminator. Pro Modified and Top Fuel never gained the opportunity to run.

Patrick, also the low qualifier in San Antonio, was on his game as he blasted out a 6.464 at 213.16 miles per hour.

“This is a great start for us this weekend,” said Patrick, the Purvis Ford-sponsored driver from Fredericksburg, Va. “We had some pretty good conditions and we made the best of what we had to work with.”

The newly christened record holder edged out John Nobile, who was the second quickest with a 6.480, 213.77. John Montecalvo was the quickest of the Chevrolet runners with a 6.490, 212.46.

Larry O’Brien sat on the bubble with an off-pace 7.880.

Rob Atchison, of London, Ontario, was ahead of the pace in Funny Car when the rains began to fall. His laps of 5.837 seconds, 238.98 put him ahead of Jim Sickles’ 5.8641. Mark Thomas was third with a 5.872.

Funny Car qualifying will resume at 9 AM.

The second pro qualifying session is scheduled for 1 PM.

FRIDAY NOTES -- The Doc is in the house and so is the Blue Max...

(4-22-2005) - Finally Finished - Several inches of rain and 12-hours later, the Friday's rain-delayed Funny Car qualifying session was completed. Rob Atchison retained the top spot with a 5.837. Jeff Burnett anchored the field with a 6.010.

Closet Funny Car fans -- The Top Fuel dragster Rick Cooper drives for team owner Tim Lewis will carry a Blue Max tribute sticker this year in honor of Raymond Beadle. “When I was a kid, if you had asked me what I wanted to be, I would’ve said a Funny Car driver,” said the Boise, Idaho, resident, who grew up in Spokane, Wash., and enjoyed seeing Beadle and other drag-racing greats swing through on match-race barnstorming tours.

The Rolling Stones - Two of the Torco Race Fuels Pro Stock drivers found themselves off of the qualifying list for the first session. Dan Seamon, Jr., winner of the last event in San Antonio, was a victim along with Elijah Morton, a driver that calls Rockingham Dragway his home track.

Heart is at Rockingham -- Top Fuel driver Doc Sipple is back at Rockingham Dragway for the first time since suffering congestive heart failure last October. Following his qualifying run for the season finale, the chiropractor from Berea, Ky., stepped out of his car and clutched his chest. “I thought I was dying, because I could not breathe,” Sipple, 67, said. I thought I had finally succumbed. My blood sugar got out of hand. I noticed I was tired but didn’t think about it. I had retained a tremendous amount of water, and my heart took the beating.”

He isn’t racing this weekend, although he has medical clearance. “I feel great. I feel extra good. Everything is in place, the car and the team, but I want to make sure the heart is OK,” he said. “So I’m just a spectator right now.“ He said his plan is to race at Grand Bend, Ontario; Milan Dragway in Detroit; Toronto Motorsports Park in Cayuga, Ontario; and Maryland International Raceway at Budds Creek.

Sipple said his cardiologist suggested he stop drag racing and “take up a safer sport.” However, he said, “What would that be? Golf, maybe? I’d probably get hit in the head with a golf ball. I love mechanics. What kind of mechanical sport is there like Top Fuel drag racing?”

Hard-luck Knoll -- Evan Knoll said preparing for his Top Fuel debut has “been more of a fight than I ever imagined.” The president of Torco Racing Fuels said, “All I wanted to do was get behind the wheel of this car.” The president of Torco Racing Fuels almost didn’t make it. He earned his Top Fuel license last August at Martin, Mich., near his hometown of Decatur. First, he suffered a separated shoulder in a dirt bike accident. After physical therapy put him weeks ahead of his recuperation schedule, he suffered a concussion in a single-car accident in his new 1,100-horsepower Dodge Viper that ended his hopes of competing in 2004. But a snowmobile in hidden curb couldn’t keep him from making this race in a dragster he bought from Bruce Litton. Crew chief Brian Pfiefer has some seasoned help this weekend. NHRA Funny Car driver Dale Creasy, Jr. and his nitro-class crew will join veteran fuel tuner Larry Meyer in the Knoll Gas/Torco Dragster. Knoll plans to take delivery of one of the new Brad Hadman capsule cars in about three weeks.

SUNDAY, April 24, 2005
Gates Open 8:00am
God Speed Church Service & Special Awards 8:30am
Sportsman Elimination’s (To complete Rd 2 if necessary) 9:00am
PRO Eliminations (Rd 1) 11:00am
Run Order: PS, PM, TD, TS, Sportsman Continue
Sportsman Elimination’s (Rd 3): After Pro Round
Run Order: HR, ST, SR, SS, TD, TS, QR
PRO Eliminations (Rd 2): TF, PS, FC, PM 1:00pm
PRO Semi-Finals:PS, FC, PM, TF 3:00pm
Finals: Sportsman, PS, FC, PM, TF, Cool Bus, Jet Truck 4:30pm

Pro Sessions will start at the times listed above.
Schedule is Subject to Change at any time.   

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