Consistency Continues for Army Teammates
Schumacher Reaches Semifinals, Brown Advances to Final at Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals
U.S. Army teammates Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown were looking to have a celebration on Sunday in the Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Nationals at Summit Motorsports Park in Norwalk, Ohio. One of them was leaving the NHRA Mello Yello Series Top Fuel standings leader halfway through the 2015 campaign. Both Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) drivers were aiming to hoist a Wally at the end of the day and put an exclamation point on the Independence Day weekend.
Despite each team showing incredible versatility and adaptability to warmer conditions than they experienced all weekend, neither driver was able to bring home the victory. Brown advanced further knocking out Schumacher in the semifinals before losing to Doug Kalitta in the final.
Schumacher, driver of the U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, posted four solid qualifying runs and narrowly missed earning his 80th career number one qualifying honor during the opening two days of the event. He entered eliminations Sunday looking to turn four win lights on and leave Ohio with his 80th career Top Fuel victory. The eight-time and reigning world champion was stout in the first round taking out former mentor Cory McClenathan with his pass of 3.798 seconds at 326 mph. He followed that victory by defeating Shawn Langdon with a lap of 3.829 seconds at 321.65 mph. Entering his semifinal rematch with Brown from last year at Norwalk, the teammates were tied with 905 points prior to their fourth matchup of 2015. Unfortunately for Schumacher, the result was the same as it was in 2014 with Brown coming away with the win after “The Sarge” lost traction late in the race and put up a run of 4.044 seconds at 265.22 mph.
“We had a good weekend, but it was just a disappointing finish,” said Schumacher, who was chasing his first win at Summit Motorsports Park since 2007. “The U.S. Army team led by (crew chief) Mike (Green) and (assistant crew chief) Neal (Strausbaugh) gave me a great machine all weekend. Those guys make a difference. We were honored to carry the U.S. Army colors this holiday weekend. With so much focus on the celebration of Independence Day, we really wanted to be the last one’s standing today. Even though that didn’t work out, there were plenty of positives that we are taking away from the weekend. In that race with Antron, we were trying to duplicate the run we made in the second round and weren’t able to. We had an opportunity to take the point lead, but we’ll pick up that battle in Chicago next weekend.”
For the Brown, the weekend continued the team’s motto of growth and building toward another championship run. The 2012 Top Fuel champion raced the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR to victory over Terry McMillen in the opening round with a run of 3.976 seconds at 324.67 mph and then took out Brittany Force in the second round with a lap of 3.971 seconds at 277.49 mph. His victory over Schumacher in the semifinals improved his career record to 28-24 versus his DSR teammate and pitted him against top qualifier Doug Kalitta in the final. Brown was extremely strong on the starting line Sunday leaving first all four rounds including the final, but he lost a cylinder during the run and Kalitta drove around him to capture the victory. With the runner-up finish, Brown leaves Norwalk with a 20-advantage over Schumacher.
“All of our Matco Tools/U.S. Army guys did such a great job this weekend and especially today with the fast turnarounds for live TV (on ESPN),” said Brown said after his 92nd career final round. “Lord knows that’s how it goes sometimes. We went out there and were running good and it just dropped a hole. The car had a great 60-foot time and it didn’t make it to 330 feet before it dropped that cylinder. Those Kalitta boys with Doug and Jim O (Oberhofer) ran great and got the win today. They ran some phenomenal numbers this weekend and our hats are off to them. This Matco Tools, U.S. Army, Toyota dragster team is going to keep on pushing. We’ll keep on plugging and go to Chicago and build on the leaps and bounds we made this weekend at Norwalk. The car was responding the way (co-crew chiefs) Brian (Corradi) and Mark (Oswald) wanted it to, which is great. We’ll work on this and be better.”
