The BME Bulletin
Bill Miller Engineering's Top Fuel
Blog #3 THE TOPEKA REPORT: SMOKE 'EM IF YOU GOT 'EM BME at Topeka makes you think of Neil Young. The '70s/'80s rock icon had a chart-busting, live album called "Rust Never Sleeps". Indeed, with the BME Top Fuel Dragster, rust didn't sleep. After a three-month layoff from the routine of national event competition, the Bill Miller Engineering Top Fuel team had to remove some rust before it could function again as a well oiled machine. The good news from the O'Reilly NHRA Summer Nationals, held in Topeka, Kansas on Memorial Day weekend, is that the BME Okuma/Red Line Oil dragster went back into its trailer intact. After two crashes this season, that was a positive step. The bad news is that the car failed to qualify after three tire-smoking runs. New driver Bobby Lagana Jr. turned a best elapsed time of 5.059 seconds and a top speed of 206.57 mph--not good enough to make the 16-car cut. "After you've been away from racing for a few months, it takes time to get everyone back in sync," said team owner Bill Miller, "and that includes me. We had to get accustomed to a new driver and some new procedures. By Saturday afternoon, everything was working smoothly. "Our No. 1 goal was to get Bobby feeling comfortable in the car, and we accomplished that," Miller continued. "The first qualifying session on Friday was delayed by rain, so the track was colder than I anticipated. We planned to make a half-pass on that first run but when the car started to rattle the tires, Bobby shut off. That was the right decision. "Our second run came at nearly 11 o'clock that night, and the track temperature was down to 66 degrees. The engine dropped a cylinder at 1.3 seconds into the run, which overboosted the remaining cylinders. Number seven detonated hard enough to torch the back of the block. Despite all the problems, the car still ran 257 mph at the 1/8th mile on seven cylinders. "Saturday dawned sunny and clear, and by 1 p.m. the track temperature was 120 degrees," Miller recalled. "When the car left the starting line, it dragged the wheelie bar for 25 feet and unloaded the tires--another run up in smoke. On our final qualifying pass, the tires spun .7 seconds after leaving the starting line. "Racing is often about learning what not to do, so Topeka was a valuable lesson for us. "The engine had a little too much supercharger boost, a little too much compression, and a little too much spark timing. We'll know better the next time. "By the time the car went back in the trailer on Saturday night, the entire BME team was back in the groove," Miller reported. "Of course we would have liked to race on Sunday in Topeka, but we'll be better at our next race in Chicago. We'll host 60 guests of Okuma, so there's extra incentive for us to do well at Route 66 Raceway."
BME Race Results NEXT RACE
TV Schedule:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||
