Clay Millican wasted no time Friday night taking the blame for an out-of-character -- but easy to
understand -- two-step throttle start in his second qualifying session for Sunday's Carolina
Nationals at zMAX Dragway.
"It scared me when the guy next to me stepped on the throttle way to soon," explained the driver of
the Hope4Sudan/Motorvation Top Fuel dragster of his reaction to a .239-second red light start (.000
is perfect) from Terry McMillen. "There's no excuse, but when an 8,000-horsepower motor leaves
next to you when you aren't expecting it, it startles you, and I hit the throttle twice.
"That was too bad because we weren't able to get any data off the run. We needed it because we've
changed so many things. I guess the only thing we learned is that we didn't learn anything."
Millican had 1,000-foot runs of 4.005 (17th quickest) and 4.026 seconds. The good news is the team
has two more attempts Saturday to get into starting lineup.
