Beckman, Brown give DSR its 50th double-up NHRA day at Sonoma on remarkable record-breaking weekend at Sonoma
SONOMA, CA – Dominating, satisfying, rewarding.
Those three words begin with D, S and R that also are the initials for Don Schumacher Racing. A fitting coincidence.
It was perhaps the most memorable week in DSR’s history that began in 1997.
The memorable weekend at Sonoma Raceway near San Francisco included the 50th time since 2003 that DSR has left an NHRA Mello Yello event with at least two trophies after Antron Brown won for the fourth time this season with the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster team and Jack Beckman won for the fifth time with the Infinite Hero Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team.
It is the third time in four races when Beckman left with the Wally trophy and only the second time in his career that he’s won back-to-back races, the other was on the Western Swing (Seattle and Denver) in 2007.
The total NHRA event wins for DSR has reached 260 and that includes 20 this year through only 15 of 24 events in the season. DSR’s new 2015 Dodge Charger R/T body has won 12 of 15 times and DSR’s Top Fuel dragsters have won eight of 15.
It is the sixth time this season DSR swept the nitro classes.
Brown and Beckman also earned No. 1 qualifying positions.
It truly was a weekend for the DSR history book.
“I think the world of Jimmy to say the least. I’m thrilled he’s come on board,” said DSR owner Don Schumacher. “I’m hoping that he’s having a great, great time. That’s really the special part about it.
“Antron and Brian and Mark have won a lot for DSR but to me this is a real special weekend and a real special win for Jimmy Prock. Jack got to ride that horse but Jimmy is the one who built the horse.”
The successful weekend also includes the quickest ever run in a Funny Car by Beckman with Prock and assistants John Medlen and Chris Cunningham that set the national elapsed time record at 3.921 seconds to earn the Infinite Hero team a 20-point bonus and pull it within 77 points of teammate and points leader Matt Hagan (Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots).
And Hagan with crew chief Dickie Venables and assistant Michael Knudsen recorded the fastest run ever by a Funny Car on a 1,000-foot course when his Dodge reached 325.77 mph and he recorded his career best time at 3.967 seconds on Friday night.
And Tommy Johnson Jr. (Make-A-Wish) advanced to his third championship round of the year and moved up to fourth in points with teammate Ron Capps (NAPA AUTO PARTS) comprising four of the top-five in the standings.
And Brown tightened the Top Fuel points race when he beat teammate and points leader Tony Schumacher (U.S. Army) in the semifinals and cut Schumacher’s lead to 37 points.
Despite all of those DSR highlights in Sonoma wine country, it will be hard for anyone to match what the Infinite Hero team accomplished. In addition to what has been noted, the team earned 147 out of a possible 150 points during the event and only Hagan in 2011 has done that before in NHRA.
“Everything about this win makes it extra special, but I haven’t had a bad win this year,” said Beckman, who earned his second pole of the year and 12th of his career before ending the day with his 20th win. “If you look at the five wins (this year) they’ve been very, very different and all special. I don’t know that this will sink in until I’m on an airplane flying to Seattle.
“Since we got the trophy and qualified first and set the national record it’s icing on top of icing on top of the cake. It couldn’t have been any better.”
Of Beckman’s eight runs down the Sonoma track, the Infinite Hero Dodge ran in the 3-second range on five runs.
“We race a lot, we live it and you don’t have many weekends like this,” Prock said. “We had an opportunity and we got off to an excellent start. That was an advantage right out the gate, we already had a 3-second run on the board so we had an opportunity to go after (the record) Friday night.”
The Sonoma Nationals was the second of three races in three weeks that comprise the Western Swing that will include a Mello Yello race next weekend at Seattle.
