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3rd Carquest Autumn Nationals
Rockingham, NC (Sep. 21-23rd)

Notes| Results | Photos

NATIONALS NOTEBOOK:
Clay Millican etches his name in the history books by winning his 6th straight IHRA national event of the season. That eclipses the 5 straight events wins by legendary “Big Daddy” Don Garlits back in 1975. Millican also clinches the 2001 IHRA Top Fuel points championship for car owner Peter Lehman when he wins round one. Millican’s outstanding event weekend includes a pole qualifying 4.601 secs -- the quickest ET in IHRA racing history. The Werner Enterprises dragster driver also sets top speed of the event at 317.05 mph. Millican wins the final despite breaking his blower belt at halftrack and coasting to the finish line because opponent Louie Allison smoked his tires almost immediately. Allison’s final round appearance was his second in a row.

Gene Wilson continues his unreal streak in Pro Stock racing recording his 7th win in 9 events so far in 2001. Like Millican in Top Fuel, Wilson’s path to victory lane is performance laden including both low ET (6.580 secs) and top speed (209.30 mph). Wilson also clinches the World Championship title at the event for team owner Charlie Hunt.

Rockingham event includes a couple of nasty incidents. Carl Baker writes off his Summit Racing Equipment Mercury Cougar just milliseconds after winning his quarter-final round over Steve Spiess. Baker’s parachutes do not deploy properly and he barrel rolls the car past the finish line. Incredibly, Baker escapes with only minor bumps and bruises. Pro Mod class newcomer Danny Perry has an auspicious debut during the opening round of qualifying. Perry flips his brand new ‘63 Corvette entry after getting loose and taping the guardwall. The throttle sticks wide open on his machine and he also barrel rolls to half track before stopping up-side-down. Perry’s injuries are also minor considering the violence of the incident.

Fred Hahn and Jim Oddy power their way past the Pro Mod field to win their second event of the season. Hahn out peddles fellow New York-state racer Mike Janis in a slippery final round, which had been delayed by rain. Hahn who had qualified the Summit Racing Equipment Corvette on the pole at 6.242 secs, ran top speed and low ET of the eliminator during round one at 6.225 secs 226.62 mph. Janis’s runner-up finish marked his third straight final round appearance and that all but clinched the 2001 IHRA World title for the popular driver. Pro Modified racing at the “Rock” produced yet another all sub 6.4 secs field with a bump spot dipping to 6.359 secs.

The Saturday night Quick 8 Shootout winners were Canadian Jeff Chatterson in Lenco Top Dragster and Tim Decoff in Lizzard Top Sportsman. Chatterson wheeled his unique supercharged-Ford powered car past Rick Schneider in the final hitting a winning 6.68 secs at 183.05 mph. Decoff’s nitrous-injected ‘67 Nova ran 6.79 secs at 200.33 mph to topple Joe Buckley’s Chevy Beretta.

IHRA presented it’s Top Stock program for the fourth time in 2001. Matt Morgan, in a repeat match of the World Nationals at Norwalk in August, prevailed again driving his 428 Cobra Jet Ford Mustang over Paul Mercure. Morgan ran a great 10.02 secs (low ET) at 129.93 mph in the final to beat Mercure’s 427 CID ‘67 Camaro that ran a losing 10.19 secs at 129.85 mph. Morgan had paced 15 other qualified cars with a 10.073 secs.

Points leaders Doug Vancil and Mark Thomas both enhanced their 2001 IHRA World championship aspirations by winning in Nitro Harley and in Pro Funny Car. New Mexico’s Vancil wins his third Nitro Harley title of the season and his second event in a row. Vancil saves his best effort of the weekend for the final round going 6.447 secs (low ET) at 206.64 mph on the Vance & Hines machine to beat Mike Romine. Thomas’s win in Funny Car was also his third of the year. The Ohio-racer handled upset-minded Ronnie Midyette who was making his first career IHRA final round appearance. Earlier Thomas earned an important victory over his closest points rival Jimmy Rector. In a crucial second round head-to-head battle Thomas took a 5.967 secs to 6.003 decision. Thomas now leads Rector by 88 points with 2 events remaining on the 2001 season calendar.