Clay Millican was a first-year Top Fuel driver when he made his first appearance at fabled Old
Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., but it left an indelible memory.
"I always remember it," said Millican. "We had a match race there against Shirley Muldowney. We
were very short-handed on the crew. There were just a few of us there and we were consumed with
getting the car ready. The whole time I was thinking it was Wednesday night and there weren't
going to be many people there. I got into the car as we were pushing out of the trailer area and
when we rolled out onto the race track, it was amazing. It looked like a national-event crowd.
"You can always count on big crowds at Englishtown. I've never forgotten that because it's amazing
to me that so many would come out on Wednesday night to watch a match race."
A resurgent Millican is returning to Raceway Park for the United Association SuperNationals, Friday
through Sunday, and it's likely there will be many Millican fans cheering him on. With crew chief
Lance Larsen and the crew providing a very competitive Hope4Sudan/Motorvation dragster, Millican
jumped into 10th place - his first time in the NHRA Full Throttle top 10 - with solid back-to-back
performances at Topeka (runner-up) and Joliet, Ill., (semifinals). Now, his focus is on moving up
the top 10 in the eight remaining regular-season events leading to the six-race Countdown to the
Championship.
He holds one-point edge (397-396) over Joe Harley and trails ninth-place Doug Kalitta by 78 points.
"Lance Larsen and the guys have a great handle on things," Millican continued. "Now our job is to
do well on that first qualifying run on Friday and get ready for the next one. We are in the top
10 and we want to stay there. Now we have to start tracking down Kalitta. We know there is still
another good gap between 10th and 9th, and we certainly don't have any cushion over Hartley.
"We have to stay focused on each run and somewhere along the way we'd like to get that first win. I
know I say this at every race, but Englishtown sure would be a great place to win because it is one
of the premier races we do every year. When the weather is right, it can be blisteringly fast.
Before the Joliet race, I would have been hoping for the Englishtown heat, but the way the car has
been running in the last two races I think we'll be okay whether it's hot or cool outside.
"We've been fortunate enough to rack up a lot of points in the last two events," Millican
concluded, "and now we have to get that first qualifying run out of the way and get prepared for
making another big run for points."
Pro Qualifying schedule:
Friday: 3 and 6 p.m.; Saturday: noon and 3 p.m.
Sunday: Eliminations at 11 a.m. (ET)
On TV, ESPN2 and ESPN2 HD (all times ET)
Saturday: one hour of qualifying, 7 p.m. (ET); another hour, 11:30 p.m.
Sunday, NHRA Race Day, 30-minute pre-race show, noon; three hours of eliminations, 10 p.m.
