Team Werner Going for Fourth Consecutive Championship
March 17, 2004 Chicago
Three-time IHRA Top Fuel Champion Clay Millican of Team Werner/Lehman Racing will begin his run for a fourth consecutive title at the IHRA Texas Nationals on March 26-28 at the San Antonio Raceway. "I can't wait to get out on the racetrack and try to defend our title," said Millican.
"I'm really excited to be back with Werner Enterprises, who has been with us since our first Championship year in 2001." In the inaugural Texas Nationals in 2003, Millican broke his own IHRA Top Fuel record for elapsed time with a 4.591-second pass, becoming the first IHRA driver to ever go down the quarter mile drag strip in the 4.5-second range.
This marked the first of his 10 wins in 2003. Later in the season, Millican broke his e.t. record again in the final race of the season, the World Finals in Rockingham, N.C., with an elapsed time of 4.566. "The San Antonio track was really good to us last year, and I hope the Werner team can go out there and set another World Record and give all of the fans a great show this year as well," said Millican. Aside from his record-setting passes in 2003, Millican also became the winningest Top Fuel driver in IHRA history, eclipsing "Big Daddy" Don Garlits' mark of 25 wins, which stood for 24 years. Millican finished the season with 30 career Top Fuel victories.
He needs just two more wins to surpass Rickie Smith as the winningest IHRA driver in any professional class. Smith has a combined 32 wins in Pro Stock and Pro Mod. Team Werner will compete in all 12 IHRA national events this season, while also competing a limited NHRA schedule of at least eight races with Team 104+ Performance Additives. Millican is a former forklift driver from Drummonds, Tenn., and has loved drag racing his entire life.
He got his first racecar at the age of 16, and still goes bracket racing at his hometown track when he has the chance. He is married and has two sons, with whom he enjoys skateboarding and BMX biking.
