NHRA’s Schumacher revved up for return

Looking back on the 2010 NHRA Top Fuel season, all Tony Schumacher can do is shake his head at what might have been.

“We won six races last year and had an ‘off’ season,” said the seven-time world champion, who grew up in Park Ridge and now calls Long Grove and Chicago home. “Larry Dixon and that Al Anabi car won 12 races and had an amazing year and they beat us.

“This is definitely a sport of right timing, right place. We go out and run an amazing second round, and the guy next to us would run the quickest run of his career and beat us. You just can’t have that.”

The 41-year-old Schumacher is done looking back, though, and he likes what he sees when he looks ahead to the 2011 NHRA season season, which returns next weekend with the Winter Nationals in Pomona, Calif.

“We’ve tested some great stuff,” he said. “All the DSR (Don Schumacher Racing) cars, every one of them has new parts and pieces on the car that are fantastic. We’re ready for the season to start. We’ve got three great drivers (2009 rookie of the year Spencer Massey and Antron Brown). In testing, all three of the cars would go out, three Top Fuel dragsters, we’d all stage the car the same and we’d run within .002 of a second. Three different cars down a racetrack … it’s just unheard of.

“So we’re getting better. The problem we probably have is I’m building my own adversaries. They’re great drivers. Between Antron and Spencer, they’re going to be the hardest cars to beat. Dixon’s a great guy and they’re going to be an incredibly tough team, but I fear my guys more than I fear those guys.”