Roush® Drag Racing Team Dominates Milan Dragway With Two Wins

[Shay]

From Roush Performance....

MILAN, Mich. (June 15, 2008) - At the third stop on the NMRA’s
seven-race schedule, the ROUSH® drag racing team had a stellar outing
then ended by picking up a pair of wins. After a tough day on Friday,
June 13, when bad weather forced the cancellation of the day’s
activities, the team came back strong through the weekend, qualifying
well and taking the opportunity to turn those qualifying sessions into
something meaningful - first time victories for Donnie Bowles and Dale
McClenaghan.



Donnie Bowles, after losing to ROUSH® teammate Susan Roush-McClenaghan
at the last event in Georgia, came back loaded for bear at Milan
Dragway. Qualifying ninth with a 0.038 reaction time, Donnie dove into
ROUSH Performance Modular Muscle eliminations confident he could take
his white 2005 ROUSH Stage 3™ Mustang through the rounds.

An easy first-round win over Jerry Fischer sent him up against E.L
Smith in round two. As the weather improved throughout the afternoon,
the competitors needed to find the sweet spot; Smith was unable to do
so, breaking out and sending Bowles on to the third round, where he
would face off against deadly Paul Svinicki of Paul’s High
Performance. Svinicki left the starting line 0.006-seconds early,
turning on the red light, sending Bowles directly into the finals after
a semifinal bye. Bowles used the bye run as a test to see exactly what
the car would do, and to prepare him for the final round.

The finals saw Bowles lining up against Tom Motycka, and giving away
nearly a three-second head start, Bowles gave up the advantage at the
tree. However, Bowles pushed the car hard and Motycka broke out, going
too fast at the big end of the track, while Bowles wheeled the
supercharged ’05 ROUSH to a 9.95 on a 9.90 dial, earning his
first-ever NMRA event win.

Also competing in the ROUSH Performance Modular Muscle class, Susan
Roush-McClenaghan took the runner-up spot at Bradenton Motorsports Park,
and followed up with another final round appearance at Silver Dollar
Raceway in April. After that race, she found herself with a comfortable
points lead heading into the season’s third race, in ROUSH’s
backyard racetrack in beautiful Milan, Michigan.

After a solid 0.071 reaction time qualified her in the tenth spot,
Roush-McClenaghan took the track against opponent Dan Walleigh, also
running out of the Paul’s High Performance stables. Susan got out of
the gates more quickly, using a stout 0.022 reaction time to
Walleigh’s 0.057 to firmly establish her lead. Unfortunately, with
weather conditions that had become more favorable to performance, she
broke out with a 10.84 on a 10.88 dial-in and ended her weekend
prematurely.

Not to be outdone by his ROUSH teammates, Dale McClenaghan took his
1962 Falcon powered by a ROUSH Competition Engines-built 598-cubic inch
engine, straight into the winner’s circle for his very first Open Comp
event win. A 0.016 reaction time landed him in the sixth qualified
position out of 25 cars, and showed the hard work that the team has put
in this car.

“Big Thunder,” the nickname given to the engine, ran strong all
day, taking out Gino Cimarolli in the first round before coming up
against class stalwart Larry Geddes in the second round. Just as in
Modular Muscle, the weather got better and McClenaghan took advantage of
it at his competition’s expense, as Geddes broke out, sending
McClenaghan on to the third round. A third round win over Bob LaBove,
then a fourth-round victory over Johnny Wellen sent McClenaghan into the
final round against 2007 class champ Randy Conway.

McClenaghan and the ROUSH crew had their work cut out for them in the
final, and it paid off in Milan as he left the starting line just
0.001-seconds behind Conway, then ran an 8.9658 on an 8.96 dial-in,
pushing Conway so hard at the stripe that he broke out, handing
McClenaghan his first ever NMRA win.

Don Bowles Sr. has been working with an experimental Ford engine in his
2006 ROUSH Stage 3 Mustang and has put his years of drag racing
experience to good use behind the wheel of the yellow screamer. A strong
0.012 reaction time set him in the fourth spot on the ladder in Open
Comp, and the crew set to work readying the car for eliminations.

In the first round, he faced off against a tough ROUSH Competition
Engines-powered Andy Blackmon, taking the easy win when Blackmon red lit
right out of the gates. In the second round, Bowles was bit by the
improving weather, breaking out by running 9.1599, just .0001-seconds
underneath his 9.16 dial-in, sending him back to the trailer.

The four cars carry sponsorship from ROUSH Performance, Valvoline, and
Mickey Thompson. The next event on the NMRA schedule will take place
July 17-20 at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Ill.

[Star Driver]

That Falcon is a beast!!!!!

[05 ROUSH RACER]

great to see!

[Mr DayZee]

Bowles & Roush=Awesome Combo