Championship Drag Racing

ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals
Las Vegas, NV
(October 20-23)

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Driver Profile

Clay Millican Parts Plus dragster

Chicago, prerace: Mike Kloeber grew up around drag racing working on race cars. He began at the bottom of the crew list and gradually worked his way up through the ranks, gleaning knowledge wherever and whenever he could.

He was Jim Epler’s crew chief when Epler became the first Funny Car driver to surpass 300 mph with a run of 300.40 mph at Topeka, Kan., in 1993. Epler was the 13th driver exceed 300 mph. Epler finished 1993 with seven of the fastest 16 runs in the category’s history.

Among Kloeber’s eight NHRA national-event victories as crew chief is one by Cristen Powell, who was 18 when she won at Englishtown, N.J., in 1997, making her the youngest female Top Fuel winner.

For the last five seasons, Kloeber has been Clay Millican’s crew chief, the man calling the tuning shots while Millican has driven the Werner Enterprises/Kenny Koretsky Motorsports Top Fuel dragster to five consecutive IHRA Hooters Drag Racing Series championships and 45 race wins.

Now, Kloeber is focusing on another goal, one that has eluded him for too long: Getting Millican’s first NHRA Top Fuel win.

The chance comes this weekend in the Ameriquest Mortgages Nationals at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill., near Chicago. This is where Millican made his Top Fuel debut in 1998, driving the Chicago White Sox dragster.

“I always look forward to going there,” he said. “It’s a beautiful facility and we’ll be ready to go.”

“The race gives us an opportunity to run with NHRA cars to see if we can win one of their events. It’s still a big goal of ours to win one,” said Kloeber. “The race track is famously good and the race comes at the right time because the weather’s going to be cool and we’re ready.”

Kloeber has been fine-tuning a new combination for 2006.

“We’ve got our car running better and the new combination is becoming more manageable,” he said. “We made three test runs a Maple Grove that validated what the car is capable of doing. We are trying to build on that going to Chicago.”

“Mike definitely has his hands around that new tune-up,” said Millican, “and that’s always exciting for us.”

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