TOP FUEL
Ten Top Fuelers were on hand for this race and with absolutely stellar track and atmospheric conditions record speeds and ET’s were a possibility, perhaps even another sub-4.50 lap from the Klober-Millican combination.
However, the expected stellar performances never came; instead, three teams did manage to run in the 4.60 range led by T.J. Zizzo in his family-owned, Dave Settles-tuned fueler, who scored a 4.615/325 to sit on the pole. He was followed by the rapidly improving Rick Cooper and Clay Millican.
IHRA regular Jack Ostrander was back with a new driver as Louis Allison has left the team and veteran Jim Cavalieri was between the pipes for this race.
Millican and Cooper marched through the field while dodging rain and an eventual one-day rain delay. Millican motored by Zizzo in the semis when he spun the tires hard at mid-track and Cooper just edged out Lagana, overcoming a .002 Lagana holeshot with a 4.792 to Lagana’s 4.838.
The final on Monday was anti-climactic as Millican got a walk-over win when Cooper bulbed giving Millican the win and his sixth IHRA Championship.
