They knew it wasn't going to be easy racing in the thin air at Denver, but Clay Millican and the
LifeLockracing.com Top Fuel team did not let mechanical woes caused by the 5,800-foot altitude
prevent them from earning the 11th starting position for Sunday's Mopar Mile-High Nationals at
Bandimere Speedway.
Millican's quickest run of the weekend -- in only his second high-altitude event -- came on his
final qualifying lap Saturday evening, 4.082 seconds at 304.05 mph. That earned him a first-round
match-up against Doug Kalitta, the driver he's pursuing in Full Throttle Racing Series action.
Kalitta was sixth, 3.975 at 300.80.
This is the third consecutive event in which Millican and Kalitta have raced each other in the
opening round -- and Millican won the first two. He trails Kalitta by 38 points in the contest for
ninth place.
"We put ourselves in a position to control our own destiny in the last three races," Millican said,
"and we'd sure like to win another one. Obviously, we haven' figured out what the car wants at
this altitude. The engine dropped a cylinder on each run."
Millican opened with a 4.125-second time "that just didn't run quick," he said, and the second run
resulted in parts damage. The car did a wheel-stand when the front end came down hard, surrounded
by sparks. The crew had to replace the A-arms and fix a few other things before Saturday's opening
run of 4.103 seconds. But the motor expired in a ball of flames when it dropped a cylinder.
"If we can stay on eight cylinders, the car will run well," added Millican. "And it will be a
different situation Sunday because we made all our qualifying runs in the afternoon and at night,
and Sunday's first round begins at noon. Lance (Larsen, team crew chief) will have different
conditions than what he's seen in qualifying. But we will be ready for another big first-round
race against Kalitta."
