The BME Bulletin
Bill Miller Engineering's Top Fuel
Blog #5 RACING ON THE PACIFIC RIM Is it tempting fate to race a Top Fuel dragster on a fault line which could eventually shift Seattle to an Alaskan zip code and make San Francisco a quaint suburb of Vancouver? The volcanic, Pacific Rim, christened by geologists as the "Ring of Fire", is the perfect backdrop for an earth-shaking, nitro-burning dragster. The Bill Miller Engineering Top Fuel team was back in action when the NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series made its traditional midsummer Left Coast swing. Running back-to-back events at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington and Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, gave the team two chances to make the earth move. Unfortunately, there was more smoke than fire from the BME dragster, which failed to register on the Richter scale. Fortunately, the San Andreas Fault remained quiet through it all. The CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, held in the wooded suburbs of Seattle, was all about the clutch for the BME team. A new method of preparing the sintered-iron discs seemed like a good idea at the time. But after four troubled runs that left driver Bobby Lagana Jr. qualified 17th in a 16-car field, the old way of doing things didn't seem so bad after all. Down but not out, the BME team regrouped at Infineon Raceway, where the cool breezes from the San Francisco Bay act like steroids for internal combustion engines. Miller and Lagana put their Okuma-sponsored machine in Sunday's big show with a 4.738-second run at 294.31 mph in the Friday night, qualifying session. That performance came with a price, however. A broken oil pump fitting ran the engine dry and led to a pair of connecting rods making an unplanned exit from the engine. "An oil pump fitting failed three seconds into the run and the broken line sprayed oil over the front of the engine and into the cockpit," said Crew Chief/Car Owner Bill Miller. "A second and a half later, the engine lost oil pressure and kicked out two rods. It's late. It's cold. Everyone in the staging lanes behind us just wants to make a run and go back to the hotel and now they're hating me because we oiled down the track. I felt lousy." After a pair of tire-smokers on Saturday, Miller and friends were 15th on the qualifying sheet, giving them a perfect opportunity to upset No. 2 qualifier, Doug Kalitta, in the opening round of eliminations. Kalitta was indeed vulnerable; he smoked the tires at the first hit of the throttle. Lagana then veered slightly off the straight-and-narrow path to the finish line, losing traction as well. Kalitta prevailed in the ensuing pedaling contest, taking the victory with a 5.315-second e.t. to Lagana's game, 5.516. "I wish we could have that run back," said Lagana. "I guarantee we'd win the round the next time. The BME team definitely made some improvements in Sonoma and we had a good shot at going to the second round." "We weren't out to run the low e.t. of the world against Kalitta," Miller explained. "The Kalitta camp either makes a really stout run or they smoke the tires. I just wanted to make a good, solid run in case they chose the second option. "The clutch is my bane," he admitted. "There are so many things going on inside the bellhousing that we have to understand. The race car, the engine, the team and the driver are excellent; it"s the clutch that"s got me stumped right now." The BME team hosted a large contingent of guests of Okuma America, the U.S.-based affiliate of Okuma Corporation, a world leader in CNC (Computer Numeric Controls) and machining technology. The Okuma Hospitality Center was parked alongside the BME transporter, giving guests a firsthand view of what it takes to race a Top Fuel dragster. "We had a tremendous turnout from Okuma at Infineon Raceway, led by Larry Schwartz, the president of Okuma America," said Miller. "I did several presentations for Okuma's guests who were primarily machine shop owners and suppliers. We put the data from one of our runs on a big screen and I showed them just how complex a Top Fuel dragster is. A Top Fuel dragster essentially has three systems that work independently of each other: the fuel management system, the clutch management system, and the ignition management system. The tough part is to get all three systems working together." The next date on the BME Top Fuel team's dance card is the O'Reilly Mid-South Nationals in Memphis, Tennessee on August 19-21. Memphis may be famous for barbecue and Elvis, but in August, it's known chiefly for heat and humidity. "I need to learn how to get down a hot, slick race track," Miller confided. "What better place to practice than Memphis?" BME Race Results CARQUEST Auto Parts NHRA Nationals, Kent, Wash., July 22-24 Qualified: No. 17 at 5.506/260.66 Fram Autolite NHRA Nationals, Sonoma, Calif., July 29-31 Qualified: No. 15 at 4.738/294.31 First Round: Doug Kalitta (5.315/289.76) defeated Bobby Lagana Jr. (5.516/219.86) Next Race
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