Brown Takes Toyota To Semis At NHRA Sonoma Nationals; Earns 500th Top Fuel Round Win
SONOMA, CA –Antron Brown advanced to the semifinals and in the process became just the sixth driver in NHRA 
history to record 500 Top Fuel round wins in leading Toyota at theNHRA Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma Raceway, Sunday.
After qualifying fourth, Brown opened the day up with Cameron Ferre in the first round. Brown had the lead by the time they went by the Christmas tree and never trailed for the win, despite dropping a cylinder around half track. That would set up a second-round match-up with fellow Toyota driver Doug Kalitta, who had defeated Scott Palmer in the first round with a strong 3.796-second pass. Brown had a slight starting line advantage and led all the way after Kalitta was up in smoke early. Kalitta would attempt to pedal it, but the car never hooked up and Brown drove to the victory despite losing traction at 600 feet.
Brown took on Clay Millican in the semifinals and had a big advantage at the tree, but appeared to have a hole out at 300 feet. He held the lead through 600 feet, but Millican eventually drove past him for the win.
“We had some good rounds that went our way today,” said Brown. “Our Matco Tools Toyota has good power. We just need to be able to manipulate the car to do what we want to do. We need to get the clutch in the right place. Once we make that happen, we’re going to be able to go out and race with anybody. That last round against Clay, we had him where we wanted him at, but we just dropped a hole out and it slowed down enough for him to beat us. We lost by four-hundredths, but had we just gone out there and run a .87 we would have won. We just need to keep working hard and getting after it. Seattle’s up next and it’s always a good race for us. We just need to start off on the right foot and get this clutch worked out. We’ll just keep trying to make it better.”
Although he’s won three world championships, Brown was humbled in joining an elite fraternity of racers who have won 500 rounds in Top Fuel competition.
“It’s pretty cool to have your name in the company of the drivers that have accomplished that – with Tony Schumacher, Larry Dixon, Joe Amato, Doug Kalitta and Cory Mac,” relayed Brown. “It doesn’t get any better than that. Just to be up there with all the people that I’ve looked up to and raced against. It feels good to be a part of that crew. But my career’s not over by a long shot. I still have a lot of fight in me.”
Richie Crampton also advanced to the second round in Top Fuel. The DHL Toyota driver faced Terry McMillen in a first-round match that featured playoff implications. Crampton would gain the advantage at the tree and lead wire-to-wire with 3.798-second pass for the win, which also gave him lane choice against point leader Steve Torrence in the second round. Crampton had a slight starting line advantage, but started to haze the tires around 300 feet and clicked it off, giving Torrence the win.
Shawn Langdon was the top Toyota Funny Car driver on Sunday in advancing to the second round. In round one, he had a decisive lead at the tree and went on to an easy win over Terry Haddock with a 3.952-second run. In a round two match-up against John Force, Langdon led early, but was unable to make a clean pass and went down to defeat.
Langdon’s teammate, J.R. Todd, fell in the opening round to Matt Hagan.
The Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will complete its Western Swing next weekend with the Magic Dry Organic Absorbent NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Seattle, Aug. 2-4.
