KNOLL PURCHASES KENNY KORETSKY’S TOP FUEL TEAM
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.
Clay Millican to drive Knoll Gas Motorsports Top Fuel dragster
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.