The BME Bulletin
#4 HOT TIME IN LAS VEGAS, BIG CHANGES IN 2008 The Bill Miller Engineering Top Fuel team finished the 2007 season with a fireball in Las Vegas and a strong rebound in Pomona. An inferno fed by severed oil and fuel lines caused a raging fire during qualifying for the ACDelco Las Vegas NHRA Nationals. Five days later, the BME/Okuma/Red Line Oil Dragster ran a 4.58-second elapsed time at 324 mph to qualify for the season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals. "A fitting on the stainless steel line for the oil pressure transducer broke and that's the first failure of that kind I've seen in 35 years." Miller noted. "Then the blower belt cut a fuel line, adding nitromethane to the oil spray. The fuel mixture went lean, the engine backfired and then the whole thing went off. The fire melted everything behind the cockpit. Driver, Alan Bradshaw, was in the hot seat, but he emerged unscathed. "Needless to say, we didn't qualify in Las Vegas," Miller continued. "The crew spent all day Sunday cleaning and rewiring the car to get it ready for the next race in Pomona. It ran 4.58 at 324 mph out of the box, so the guys did a great job of putting the car back together. "The BME team always tries to run as quick as we can and sometimes things happen when you're playing with an 8,000-horsepower liquid bomb," he reported. "On that run, all hell broke loose. Thankfully I had a good car, good safety gear and the good Lord on my side. They told me that was a bad one, so if that's the case—then I have even more confidence in the equipment knowing that everything did its job. "We definitely went out with a bang in Las Vegas but we had a nice rebound at Pomona," Bradshaw said. "That shows you the spirit of this team. We went from a fireball to a 4.58 in less than a week, and that's a great accomplishment for any crew." By the final qualifying session at the Auto Club Finals, Bradshaw was hanging onto the 16th spot on the qualifying list. Six drivers took their shot at knocking him out of the show, but he held on to win the right to face Tony Schumacher in the first round of eliminations on Sunday. "He who qualifies in the top eight gets to control his own destiny with lane choice in the first round," Bradshaw explained. "We didn't have that luxury in Round 1. When you're going up against a champion like Schumacher, you have to give it all you've got and hope that the lane is good enough to beat him." Bradshaw was off the line first against the reigning champion with a .023-second quicker reaction time but unfortunately the left-hand lane wasn't up to the task. The BME team's season ended in a cloud of tire smoke while Schumacher went on to win his fourth consecutive NHRA Top Fuel title. "That lane is always tough to get down on Sunday morning and this race was a repeat of our Winternationals experience," Miller said. "We watched McClenathan and Kalitta smoke the tires before us, and Fuller did the same thing behind us. So that was the end of our weekend and the end of our season." There will be a new driver in the black and yellow BME/Okuma/Red Line Oil machine when the 2008 season kicks off in February. Second-generation racer, Troy Buff, will replace Bradshaw, who is moving to Dexter Tuttle's Top Fuel team. "Troy's father, Willard Buff, raced with Dale Armstrong back in the days of Pro Comp, so he's been around the sport a long time," Miller noted. "He already has experience driving a Top Fuel car, so there won't be a steep learning curve. During the off-season we'll rework the chassis to accommodate a larger front wing and then we'll head to Phoenix for a preseason test session." "It's tough to leave the BME Okuma team after two years because it's like leaving family," said Bradshaw. "I truly appreciate everything that Bill, his wife, Virgie, the crew, and all of the sponsors have done for me more than they will ever know."
BME RACE RESULTS
Automobile Club of Southern California
NHRA Finals Pomona, Calif., Nov. 1-4, 2007 NEXT RACE
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