Clay Millican Milan final summaryy

Millican Sets Milan Dragway Top Fuel Records; Suffers First Round Los  s
at IHRA Motor City National                                            s

Milan, Mich. - July 18, 2004 Three-time IHRA Top Fuel Champion Clay Millican of Team Werner/Lehman Racing, the number one qualifier at the IHRA Motor City Nationals, lost in the first round of Sunday's eliminations to John Sipple, marking Millican's first loss in IHRA competition this season.

"We just didn't get the job done today," said Millican. "The car ran really well throughout the qualifying rounds, so hopefully we will figure out what went wrong today and come back strong in our next race."

[clay_millican.jpg] Millican set new Milan Dragway track records in both elapsed time and speed during qualifications, with an E.T. of 4.856 at 313.07 mph, shattering the old records set by Paul Romine (4.70 seconds) and Shirley Muldowney (306 mph).

In the first round of eliminations, Millican faced number eight qualifier John Sipple. Millican smoked the tires around the 300 feet mark, while Sipple lost a blower belt at 1,000 feet, but was able to hang on for the win, ending Team Werner's bid for a perfect season. Sipple crossed the finish line with an E.T. of 5.463 at 196.99 mph to Millican's 6.508 at 174.91 mph. Despite his first round loss, Millican remains in the lead of the IHRA Top Fuel points standings.

[Wernercar1.jpg] Millican, the winningest professional driver in IHRA history with 34 Top Fuel victories, has only lost four times since his 2002 season. Sipple was the only driver to defeat him in IHRA competition that year, when Millican won 11 of 12 races and clinched his second IHRA Top Fuel Championship. In 2003, Millican lost twice in the finals to Bruce Litton. He has a career round winning percentage of 89.6% in IHRA competition, with 121 round wins and just 14 total losses since he began Top Fuel racing in 2000.

In his last race, the IHRA Rocky Mountain Nationals in Edmonton, Alberta, Millican was the number one qualifier and defeated Bruce Litton, Chris Karamesines, and Terry Capp en route to his 34th career IHRA victory.

The team's next race will be the IHRA ACDelco Canadian Nationals in Cayuga, Ontario, on July 30- August 1, where they will attempt to win their sixth IHRA Top Fuel victory this season.

-plr-