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The BME Bulletin
Bill Miller Engineering's Top Fuel blog #2: Heads Held High in Houston The BME Top Fuel team continued to climb the learning curve at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park on April 16-18. Driver Brady Kalivoda recorded a career-best elapsed time for the third consecutive event as the black-and-yellow BME dragster qualified solidly in the 16-car field. A fresh track surface and warm temperatures at Houston Raceway Park added to the degree of difficulty in harnessing 7,000+ horsepower. The BME entry qualified 11th at 4.632/311.77 mph. Facing reigning NHRA champion Larry Dixon Jr. in the first round of eliminations, Kalivoda was first off the starting line by .05 seconds. A misfiring cylinder slowed Kalivoda's progress and Dixon took the victory, 4.609/302.69 to 4.783/272.89. Brady Kalovoda: From The Driver's Seat "On the first qualifying run, the track was green and somewhat tricky. The car launched hard, but shook the tires. We came back for the Friday night session and the car laid down a great run. I give all the credit to Bill and the crew because they made some major changes in the setup and got it right. Our 4.632 e.t. in qualifying was another career best for me. Houston was our third race together, and so far I've posted career-best elapsed times at every event. "We were comfortably in the show, so we worked on our race day setup on Saturday. We ran the third qualifying session at noon under conditions that were similar to what we expected in the first round of eliminations. The incremental numbers were excellent, but the parachutes rattled out at 1,000 feet. It was a shame we didn't get a time slip, but all of the data was good. It's always better to have a parachute problem in qualifying than on race day! "In the first round of eliminations, the engine put a cylinder out early and never picked it up again. If that cylinder had stayed lit, it would have been a real drag race with Dixon. "The entire team should be holding their heads high after Houston. If we keep doing what we're doing, there will be win lights in our lane in the near future. I'm confident of that." The View from the Top: Bill Miller on Houston "I was genuinely pleased with the performance of the car, the driver and the crew in Houston. I'm getting more sympatico with the new Don Long chassis, and beginning to understand it better. "We hosted several customers from Okuma in Houston: Monty and Betty Dick from Nelson Machinery and Mike Gallagher and his family from Regal Machine Tool. They were honorary team members, and they really enjoyed hanging out in the pits and going to the starting line with the car. A day at the races really highlights the technology that Okuma brings to our team. "We used the same combination in qualifying on Friday night that ran 4.63 in Las Vegas, and it repeated to within four thousandths of a second. The engine had enough rpm to run 330 mph, but the timers showed 311 mph, so we know the tires were spinning hard at the top end. It's very difficult to drive at night at that track, and Brady did a good job to keep the car between the lines. The motor looked good, and we were satisifed with our qualifying position. "On Sunday we were determined to race the track, not the car in the other lane - even though we were facing the defending Top Fuel champion. Brady put five hundredths in the bank at the starting line, but a valve in the fuel system enriched the mixture for a millisecond too long and we lost a cylinder. It was our race to give away, and we did. "The crew is working well together, and we can see the performance of the car improving at every race. We have a new supercharger setup that we'll introduce soon. The BME Top Fuel dragster is going to surprise some people this season." The Bristol Bash: BME Goes To NASCAR Country The next stop on the BME Top Fuel odyssey is the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals in Bristol, Tenn., on April 30 - May 2. It will be a new experience for both the BME team and driver Brady Kalivoda as they compete at Bristol Dragway for the first time. "It's an awesome track, an awesome facility and an awesome crowd," said Kalivoda. "I haven't driven there, so it will be exciting for me. We're going into NASCAR country where Bill Miller Engineering has many customers and Okuma has an office. Bristol would be a great place for us to get our first round win of the season." While BME is well known in drag racing as a manufacturer of championship-winning connecting rods and pistons, BME also supplies components for the top teams in NASCAR Sprint Cup, Busch Grand National Series and Craftsman Truck Series. BME pistons have powered NASCAR champions Tony Stewart, Bobby Labonte, Jeff Gordon and the late Dale Earnhardt; Daytona 500 winners Mike Waltrip and Ward Burton; Daytona 500 pole winner Bill Elliott and many other NASCAR stars.
BME Race Results O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals, Houston, Texas Qualified: No. 11 at 4.632/311.77 mph First Round: Larry Dixon Jr. (4.609/302.69) defeated Brady Kalivoda (4.783/272.89)
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