Clay Millican to drive Knoll Gas Motorsports Top Fuel dragster
DECATUR, MI. – Clay Millican will have an opportunity to see how well he fares against NHRA Top Fuel competition on a fulltime basis in 2007, thanks to new team owner Evan Knoll.
Knoll recently finalized purchase of the team from Kenny Koretsky’s KPK Motorsports and immediately gave the popular Millican the green light to follow the 23-race NHRA POWERade Series tour. The team will fill the open dates with IHRA events.
Millican and crew chief Mike Kloeber combined to win 50 IHRA national events and six IHRA championships since the team was formed in 1999 under the guidance of Peter Lehman. Millican has appeared in 59 IHRA national event final rounds.
“I think we are going to answer one of those long asked questions,” Knoll, owner of Torco Race Fuels, said. “All we’ve heard is how people have wondered what Clay would do against the NHRA guys on a full time basis. Now we will find out. Clay [Millican] and Mike [Kloeber] are great people to be around and I am honored to have them on our team. The car is dedicated to my daughter, Betsy Knoll.
“This addition gives us another potent weapon in the team we are building with Lucas Oil.”
Koretsky purchased the team from Lehman early in the 2005 season and the team won its last two championships under his ownership.
“I think Clay and Evan are a perfect match,” said Koretsky. “Selling the team to Evan was the right thing to do. He will take them to the next level. Clay has been great to work with. I’ll be rooting for the team.”
Millican was effusive in his praise of Knoll.
“It’s really awesome to have a guy who loves drag racing as much as Evan,” said the driver from Drummonds, Tenn. “It’s pretty incredible what he does for all of drag racing. Here’s a guy who helps lots of people in the sport. I’ll be driving the Knoll-Gas Motorsports/Torco Racing Fuels Top Fuel dragster this year.
“Kenny realized that with Evan wanting to be involved, we were going to be able to move forward and run the full NHRA schedule. That was a great gesture. Kenny was looking out for our team. He wanted us to be able to raise our level of everything . . . and that was pretty cool. He’ll always be a good friend of ours.”
There is one item Millican, Kloeber and the Tennessee-based team want to eradicate as soon as possible – win an NHRA national event. He has three runner-up finishes in 60 NHRA races.
“The standard question I get at NHRA races is, ‘When are going to win one of these things?’ Millican said. “We have 50 IHRA wins and we want to hurry up and get that first NHRA win. It would be great if we could get that out of the way at the (season-opening) Winternationals (Feb. 8-11 at Pomona, Calif.).”
Millican’s path to Top Fuel carries a fairy tale style story. He was working as a forklift driver for Kroger Supermarkets while simultaneously campaigning an IHRA Modified eliminator entry when Lehman selected Millican to drive his Chicago White Sox-sponsored entry. The team later acquired sponsorship backing form trucking giant Werner Enterprises and formed one of the most well-known driver-sponsor alliances.
