The BME Bulletin
#3 ON THE ROAD AGAIN The big, black Bill Miller Engineering 18-wheeler racked up more than 10,000 highway miles in the last two months, ferrying the BME/Okuma/Red Line Oil Top Fuel Dragster from the team's headquarters in Carson City, Nevada to NHRA National events in Tennessee, Illinois and Ohio. In that same period, the black and yellow BME Dragster logged three miles in qualifying and competition. Along the way, the BME team ran steady 4.60s, won a round in eliminations, and won dozens of friends for drag racing. "We had guests from Okuma, Sandvik Coromant, and Infinity Rebuild at the events in Bristol, Chicago, and Norwalk," said team owner Bill Miller. "It never ceases to amaze me how much our guests love standing in the pits, watching the BME crew take the car apart, put it back together and then fire it up. Most have never been to a drag race before and have no idea what goes on between runs, so it really is a lot of fun to share our world with first-timers. "Okuma even sets up the 'Bill Miller Theater' inside their hospitality trailer," he continued. "We have a projector that's hooked up to a laptop computer and I can show the guests the data from a run, complete with video, on a big screen. I explain that racing a Top Fuel dragster is like running a three-axis CNC machine without a controller and since they work with very sophisticated machines, that is an analogy they can understand. "I tell them that we have an ignition system that can advance and retard the timing, a clutch system that can engage quickly or slowly, and a fuel system that can richen or lean the mixture. All three systems have to work in perfect harmony to make a good run, but the problem is that they don't talk to each other! "The guests invariably ask really good questions and we have a lot of fun," Miller noted. "An Assistant Professor at Clemson University saw my presentation in Bristol, and he invited me to talk to his graduate students about Top Fuel dragster technology. I felt that was a very nice compliment." Bristol Bash Driver Troy Buff started off the weekend at the O'Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway in Tennessee with a 4.65-second elapsed time at 308.50 mph which put the BME machine eighth on the qualifying sheet. Miller elected to pass on the Friday night session when the temperature turned frigid and Buff was subsequently bumped out of the 12 seeded positions. He requalified on Saturday in the 15th spot. Troy went into his first-round match with Dave Grubnic in the Kalitta Motorsports dragster as the underdog, but he pulled off an upset victory, 4.666 to 4.873. Buff then faced Larry Dixon in Don Prudhomme's dragster in the second round, with Dixon taking a close decision, 4.631 to 4.681. "It was tremendous to win the first-round race with Grubnic because I have great respect for him as a driver," said Buff. "Then we had to race Dixon but he seemed to have my number. After the race, I told him that sooner or later I was going to beat him and he agreed." "All in all, the Bristol race was a very good weekend for us and I was pleased with the performance of the car," said Miller. "Considering our limited schedule and the time and money we can devote to the race car, I think the team did a darn good job." Chicago Chronicle The next stop on BME's Midwestern Tour was Route 66 Raceway near Chicago. The first qualifying pass produced a 4.67-second elapsed time, good for the No. 3 spot in the opening session. The second run in chilly conditions on Friday night resulted in tire smoke, but Saturday morning Buff stepped up to a 4.63. With thunderstorms and tornadoes in the neighborhood, Miller decided to sit out the fourth and final qualifying session. iI the opening round of eliminations at Chicago, Buff, again, faced Larry Dixon. This time, the BME machine smoked the tires 200 feet off the starting line while Dixon's engine exploded in a fireball. Dixon nevertheless held on for the victory, 4.787 to 4.877. "When they told me I had Dixon again in the first round, I said, 'Oh, great, anybody but him,'" Buff recalled. "But I'm not going to let that get in my head; I know that we can beat him. Even when I smoked the tires, I got the car settled down and recovered and I thought I was going to catch him. I was driving around him, but ran out of race track. If we'd have raced 1,400 feet, I'd have caught him." Norwalk Notes The BME rig made its third trip to America's heartland for the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals in Norwalk, Ohio. After a week of torrential rain, Friday was lost to moisture percolating through the track surface. With qualifying limited to only two runs on Saturday, the BME/Okuma/Red Line Oil dragster nailed down the No. 12 spot with a 4.831-second e.t. Buff faced Doug Herbert in the first round. The two drivers raced side-by-side for the entire quarter-mile, with Herbert finally taking the win by .037 seconds, 4.692 to 4.721. "It was a really good race with Doug until about 1,100 feet when all of the teeth tore off the supercharger belt," Buff said. "Then the car just fell on its face. I showed Herbert the belt at the other end and he said, 'I love that belt!' I replied, 'I bet you do!' Then I found out that his blower belt came off at the end of the run. "What was weird is that I never saw Herbert's car during the race. When the cars are side-by-side, there's no peripheral vision because of the titanium head shields. If you can see the other car's front wheels, you know it's ahead of you. I never saw Herbert's wheels, so when I got to the finish line, I thought I'd won. Then the win light came on in his lane, and I was bummed." The Western Swing The BME team passed on the opening round of the three-race Western Swing at mile-high Bandimere Speedway near Denver, but the Okuma machine will be back in the game in Seattle and Sonoma, Calif. "I raced in Seattle once when I was racing in Top Alcohol Dragster and I really liked the track," Buff reported. "If the air is good, the BME car will run really well. This will be our first time racing to 1,000 feet. I've learned from the guys who raced in Denver on the shortened track that you have to watch carefully for the finish line, and not shut off at the first cone that marks the start of the speed trap. It's good to have that in my head. "I think the shorter track is going to help us . . . I've won lots of 1,000 foot races!" he laughed. "I've always raced on a quarter-mile, but I understand that something had to be done. It's a tough call and I wouldn't want to have to make the decision. "I've never been to Sonoma, but I hear that it is a beautiful facility," he continued. "Gary Scelzi always brags about it because it's his home race, and my friends who have raced there love it. I've been home too long, and I can't wait to go racing again. I have a lot of confidence in the BME team, and I think we can do well." Miller is also looking forward to racing closer to home in the next two weeks. "Certainly we're feeling the squeeze of higher prices for diesel and nitromethane," he noted. "We spent approximately $10,000 on diesel going to three races, and when you add maintenance and other expenses, it costs about two dollars per mile to run the truck down the highway. The cost of nitro has been increasing steadily, so we've pared down our warm-up procedure from using 10 gallons of nitro to five gallons. The fans love it when clouds of nitro fumes fill the air, but it's expensive for the team owner! "With all of the changes in rules and equipment this season, I'm learning how to run the car with the Gibson/Miller Mark II Supercharger, bigger fuel pumps, and all the rest," said Miller. "The maximum nitro percentage changed, the minimum weight changed, and the chassis specifications changed, so essentially we've started over. I've been doing this for 20 years, and every season we learn new things about running a Top Fuel dragster." BME RACE RESULTS
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