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Semi-Sweet Results for Schumacher, Pritchett

Brown Drops First-Round Matchup at Houston’s NHRA Spring Nationals

Tire-smoking semifinal-round runs thwarted a promising bid by Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Leah Pritchett’s to make it an all-U.S. Army final Sunday at the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway in the Houston suburb of Baytown, Texas.

It was a disappointing end to the weekend for both U.S. Army Top Fuel competitors – particularly for Pritchett, who was looking to win this event for the second year in a row and was this weekend’s No. 1 qualifier with a head-turning, track-record run late Saturday.

The shining light for Schumacher, a two-time Houston winner who was looking to reach his third final round in the season’s first five events, was leaving town with a share of the Top Fuel points lead after Pritchett disposed of Steve Torrence, the outright points leader entering the weekend, in today’s second round.

From his No. 3 spot on the elimination ladder after laying down the best four Top Fuel qualifying runs Friday and Saturday, “The Sarge” and his U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) matched his best qualifying run of 3.703 seconds at 325.85 mph in beating No. 14 qualifier Bill Litton in today’s first round in unseasonably cool conditions. He then beat a tire-smoking Clay Millican in the second round with another stout run of 3.737 seconds at 317.64 mph in slightly warmer conditions. In the semifinal round, Schumacher jumped to an early advantage over Brittany Force but then began hazing the tires and had to pedal it to the finish line, reach there in 5.074 seconds at 148.97 mph while Force had a clean run of 3.766 seconds at 299.80 mph and then went on to win the event.

“The U.S. Army car almost made it. It was just fast – aggressively fast,” Schumacher said. “It almost came down to the line we needed it to come to but we missed it by just a little bit. Had the other car smoked the tires, too, I had enough momentum to where I could have won it. But when the other car runs a 76, pack it up – we’re done. I was in ready-to-go mode, ultra-prepared for a pedalfest. In my mind, I was pedaling it before I hit the gas. Big picture, we’re tied for the points lead and that’s a good thing. Most importantly, we have a really good U.S. Army car. This morning, when the conditions were cool, I thought nobody was going to beat us here. It got quite a bit hotter than we thought and, still, we were ultra close. The good thing is we go right from here to another one. It wasn’t like we got beat in the first round. We held our own, we got good points this weekend, separated from a lot of people in the standings. It’s all good.”

The day for Pritchett and her Mopar/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR began with a commanding run of 3.697 seconds at 327.43 mph in beating No. 16 qualifier Terry Brian. While her time of 3.697 seconds was surpassed only by her qualifying run of 3.680 seconds this weekend, her speed of 327.43 mph was best of the weekend among the Top Fuel competitors. She came back to win a relatively close race against points-leader Torrence with a run of 3.740 seconds at 320.36 mph to Torrence’s 3.778 seconds at 312.64 mph. Despite her momentum going into the semifinal round against Terry McMillen, that run turned out to be over almost before it started as she smoked the tires at the hit of the gas pedal, and she was never to regain significant traction as McMillen himself had to pedal to the victory and crossed the finish line in 5.124 seconds at 213.64 mph. Pritchett helplessly coasted slowly across in 10.490 seconds at 73.72 mph.

“It was definitely a Six Flags rollercoaster adventure of a weekend,” Pritchett said. “I can say going to the semis has done a lot for our team. We qualified No. 1, which was definitely no fluke, and we found two ways to win in the first two rounds, and that’s one small leap for the Mopar/U.S. Army team. We’ll take this and we’ll not really lick our wounds too much because we found a lot of progress. Yes, we wanted to defend our race win here from last year and it stings that we didn’t but, within minutes of coming back and debriefing after the semifinals, we found the cohesiveness of this team is very strong and will carry us a long way the rest of this season. Particularly this race, we pulled a lot of strength from the crew chiefs and the entire team together, and that’s a mental strength that’s being conditioned and we feel stronger after this weekend than we have all year.”

Antron Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, meanwhile, qualified a solid fifth this weekend but hazed his tires at halftrack in his first-round run against Millican and could only pedal across the finish line in 4.771 seconds at 163.79 mph while Millican turned on the win light cleanly in 3.777 seconds at 317.79 mph.

“It was just one of those mishaps where we went out there and it dropped a hole early,” said Brown, who’s also a two-time Houston event winner and still left here third in the Top Fuel standings, 61 points behind Schumacher and Torrence. “That made the engine weak and we had tire shake. We were on a good run and would have ended with a good pass. We were pressing and weren’t taking Terry McMillen lightly – just something that happened at the wrong time. With that being said, we just need to remain poised and keep working hard. It’s still early in the season. Fortunately, championships are won in the last six races and not the first six.”

After five of 24 events on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour for 2018, the top-10 drivers in the Top Fuel class are:

1. Tony Schumacher (385 points)

Steve Torrence (385 points)

3. Antron Brown (324 points, -61)

4. Clay Millican (309 points, -76)

5. Doug Kalitta (304 points, -61)

6. Leah Pritchett (284 points, -101)

7. Richie Crampton (247 points, -138)

8. Brittany Force (270 points, -115)

9. Terry McMillen (240 points, -145)

10. Scott Palmer (214 points, -171)

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