Competition Update
September/02/2008 01:44
During the recent Bonneville Speedweek, the Poteet & Main Speed Demon set a new record in the BFS class at 343.494 MPH. The Streamliner went as fast as 352 MPH, but records are an average of two passes on the salt. This new record breaks the previous record that George Poteet held in the BFS class when he piloted the Ron Main's Ecofire streamliner. While the Speed Demon did not break the target of 400 mph, the mark is not so far off as to be unattainable with a little more horsepower in the state of art streamliner.
The video above is a couple of years old now, but it shows the crew at Rad Rides by Troy preparing the 'Blowfish' Cuda for it's first taste of the salt while it was still powered by the turbo four. It takes about 5 minutes to get heavy with Bonneville activity, but is a well done piece that gives some insight into the world of land speed record attempts.
The 'Blowfish' was equipped with a new age Hemi V8 this year and managed a best of 284 MPH. This exceeded the previous record by 22 MPH, but no new record as high winds prevented a back up run. They'll be back in October for more.
Meanwhile, the sport of sprint has provided some interesting moments for Clay Millican as of late. Clay has had a tumultuous drag racing season in 2008 when his top fuel effort became one of the many TORCO sponsored teams that saw their funding evaporate virtually overnight. After spending a majority of 2008 looking for a way to rejoin the race circuit, Clay has secured new sponsorship with Memphis based Motorvation. Plans are to pursue the remainder of the 2008 NHRA race schedule, and in fact, the team got started a bit earlier than the Indy Nationals target date when Kenny Koretsky stepped up with additional sponsorship dollars to bring the team to the NHRA race in Reading Pennsylvania. The early start went well as Millican made it to the semi-final round in Reading after having been out the seat since March.
Labor day just wrapped up, so the NHRA Nationals are now in the record books. It looks like Clay went out in the first round after qualifying mid pack in the very competitive top fuel field. However, the team seems prepared to make themselves a threat at any race they enter. Congratulations to Clay, Mark Pickens, Lance Larson, and the entire crew for stepping right back into the fray and making the dragster competitive after the unscheduled layoff.
You can listen to Clay's views regarding the team's immediate future with these audio interviews presented here in two consecutive parts.