Schumacher takes over NHRA Top Fuel points lead
U.S. Army Top Fuel drivers Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown took to historic Auto-Plus Raceway in Gainesville, Fla., over the weekend for the Tire Kingdom NHRA Gatornationals.
Schumacher, the Long Grove resident who handles the controls of the U.S. Army dragster, lost in a Monday-morning final round (the last two rounds of the race were postponed from Sunday due to rain) to pole sitter Morgan Lucas, while Brown, in his Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster, was taken out in the quarterfinals by his U.S. Army Racing teammate despite posting a better run.
A seven-time world champion, Schumacher advanced to his second straight final but ended up smoking the tires against Lucas and thus was stopped short of collecting his first victory in 26 starts. Even with the loss, Schumacher was able to wrestle away the points lead from Brown, who sat atop the standings coming into the Gatornationals.
“Like our Army Strong soldiers, we clearly possessed the mental, emotional and physical strength necessary to compete at a high level the last three days,” Schumacher said. “I really like where our team is at right now. Yes, we haven’t won as yet, but we’re showing plenty of consistency. That’s extremely important when it comes to contending for a world championship.”
Schumacher’s march to his matchup with Lucas included victories over Terry McMillen, Brown and Shawn Langdon. The win over Brown was his 14th in 33 career meetings.
“Antron’s team is just one of many who will be tough all year long,” Schumacher said. “We have to stay focused and keep going rounds. Rounds mean points and a lot of points mean you should be in the title hunt.”
Brown, who beat Schumacher in Phoenix a little over two weeks ago, departed earlier than planned as a result of what is called a “holeshot,” which is when a driver records a quicker elapsed time than his opponent but loses due to a slower reaction time at the starting line.
In the race against Schumacher, the New Jersey native laid down an impressive 3.789-second pass at 318.62 mph to the former’s 3.795-second pass at 322.65 mph, but Brown left the starting line a bit later (. 066 seconds to .049 seconds) and it proved costly.
“We went up there to do what we (normally) do and Tony and that U.S. Army team just stepped up,” Brown said. “We knew it was going to be a good race. They’re all good races, especially, when you run the Army dragster. You’re going to win races and lose races as a team and they were just better today.”
Brown is 1-1 versus Schumacher to date in 2012, which includes the victory at Firebird International Raceway outside Phoenix.
“Again, it was a great race against a great team and you can’t win every time,” Brown said. “We’ve done well against them and you just know it’s going to even out. We’ll go on from here, regroup and come back strong in (Las) Vegas. You strive to win as many rounds as you can and that’s what we want to do again starting in Vegas.”
Going into round four of the 23-race NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, the SummitRacing.com NHRA Nationals March 30-April 1 at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, following are the top-five in the Top Fuel standings:
1. Tony Schumacher (283 points)
2. Morgan Lucas (269 points)
3. Antron Brown (265 points)
4. Spencer Massey (229 points)
5. Shawn Langdon (223 points)