Clay Millican ties Rickie Smith’s all time IHRA event winning total when he scores his 32nd national event title in Top Fuel. Clay wheels the Peter Lehman-owned Werner Enterprises dragster to a fantastic 4.550 secs run to pace the field. That mark is the quickest ever seen in IHRA history but conditions prevent Millican from backing it up within the required 1% for a new national ET record. Clay turns back a rather impressive event effort by North Carolina’s own Danny Dunn who places runner-up. Dunn, with help from tuner Mike McLaughlin, runs a career quick and fast 4.610 secs at 310.84 mph to qualify second and then clobbers Rick Cooper and Bruce Litton in rounds one and two. Unfortunately Dunn’s car then break during the burnout for the final and Clay singles.

Top Fuel racing at Rockingham produces the quickest 8-car field in IHRA history with the bump dipping to a 4.875 secs, set by New York’s Bobby Lagana Jr. A total of 19 cars make qualifying attempts at the event -- 16 supercharged and 3 nitro injected.

Top Fuel qualifying includes a number of great moments. Popular independent Doc Sipple records a career best 4.895 secs but misses the program, 9th. Ageless Chris Karamesines also shows at the event and runs a 4.773 secs to qualify 5th and then beats Tim Cullinan in round one. The “Greek” is however a no-show for the semi final round against Millican.

Pro Modified eliminator saw Mike Janis score his 9th career IHRA title driving the Buffalo-based Eaton Automotive-sponsored ‘63 Corvette. Janis utilized a lane choice advantage perfectly in the final round to beat Canadian Al Billes, 6.274 secs 227.69 mph to 6.364 secs 223.88 mph. Janis who qualified 3rd, beat Mike Castellana, Glen Kerunsky and Rick Distefano in earlier action.

Pro Mod racing was paced by Fred Hahn and his car owner Jim Oddy who whipped up a stout 6.144 secs during qualifying with the Summit Racing Corvette to earn low ET. Hahn wins round one however loses out to Scotty Cannon in the second frame.

Top speed in Pro Mod was set by fast rising 19-year old class driver Zack Barklage who ran his Missouri-based supercharged Pontiac to a 229.31 mph. Barklage’s top end propensity has been apparent in recent time. At the previous two major PM events, NHRA Houston and IHRA San Antonio he also set top speed.

Three Canadian racers make Sunday’s Pro Mod “swift 16”. In addition to Billes, who qualified 5th, invading Alberta drivers Rick Distefano and Glen Kerunsky get in with runs of 6.199 secs and 6.207 secs respectively. Distefano comes very close to giving the IHRA it’s first ever all Canadian Pro Mod final round but fell just short to Janis when his powerful Corvette rather unexpectedly spun it’s tires in the semis.

Sunday’s final Pro Mod field has some surprise exceptions not the least of which is defending IHRA World Champion Mitch Stott. The 23-car DNQ list also included star racers Harold Martin, Thomas Patterson and Quain Stott.

New York’s John Montecalvo strengthens his overall points lead in Pro Stock when he records his second win of the 2004 season. Montecalvo topples his long time class rival John Nobile in the final round driving his Citgo Chevy to a 6.522 secs at 212.66 mph to beat Nobile’s Ford Escort which ran 6.552 secs at 212.23 mph.

Montecalvo and Nobile both dip into the 6.4 secs zone at the event to become the 6th and 7th members of the prestigious Quarter-Max “Six Forty Club“. Both of those runs come during round one of competition with Montecalvo’s 6.484 secs landing low ET of the meet. Runner-up Nobile earned the event’s top speed at 213.43 mph.

Pro Stock racing at the “Rock” is another rapid affair with 15 of 16 qualified cars running quicker then 6.60 secs. 31 machines attempt to make the Mountain-motor field.

New York’s John Bartunek goes for a rather wicked spill during the final PS qualifying session on Saturday night. Bartunek’s great looking Chevy Cavalier rolls some 8 times after the parachute does not deploy properly. Bartunek’s injuries are limited to bumps and bruises only but his car is a another story.

Ohio’s Mark Thomas also wins his second event of the season taking the Alcohol Funny Car title. In an all Dodge Avenger final round match-up, the 5-time IHRA World Champ easily beats Chris Foster. Thomas had qualified 2nd and beaten John Bojec, Neal Parker and Terry McMillen in earlier action.

Defending IHRA World Champion Robbie Atchison has a rather miserable weekend at Rockingham. After running low ET of the meet at 5.809 secs right out of the box on Friday night, Atchison is sidelined all of Saturday due to a serious bout with apparent food poison. Information missed from the lost qualifying runs does hurt the team because the Erickson Manufacturing Firebird overpowers the track in round one on Sunday and Robbie is eliminated by Chris Sipple.