TODD DRIVES CAMRY TO HISTORY-MAKING FUNNY CAR WIN AT TOYOTA NHRA SONOMA NATIONALS
SONOMA, CA – Camry driver J.R. Todd defeated Tim Wilkerson in the final round to win the Toyota NHRA Sonoma 
Nationals and become the first African-American driver in history to win an NHRA Funny Car event. The triumph gave Todd back-to-back victories at Sonoma Raceway after winning last year’s Top Fuel race before making the move to Funny Cars this season.
Todd drove his DHL Toyota Camry to wins over teammate Alexis DeJoria in round one and John Force in the second round to set up one of the most amazing comebacks in NHRA history in the semi-finals. After smoking the tires at the start, Todd proceeded to overcome a 1.27-second disadvantage in running down Jack Beckman in a pedal fest to advance to the finals against Wilkerson.
“I was able to win here at the Toyota Sonoma Nationals last year in Top Fuel and to be able to do it this year in a Funny Car is pretty special,” relayed Todd. “I love this track. This place is magical. I think we showed a lot of promise in Denver and it gave us a lot of hope coming back to sea level.
We knew it was only a matter of time before the team started to get a handle on things and it would start going in the right direction. We had gone five or six races since we had last run a 3.9 – and then to do it up on the mountain, it changed our mood and gave us a lot of optimism coming here. I think this DHL Toyota Camry has finally turned the corner. We still have a lot of work to do to make these things consistently competitive – especially in qualifying. Hopefully, by the time the Countdown rolls around we will be ready to get after it.”
Antron Brown fell just short of making it a Toyota nitro sweep in Sonoma, advancing to the Top Fuel finals before falling to Steve Torrence. Brown eliminated Troy Buff, Scott Palmer and Terry McMillen to reach his sixth final round in the last eight races.
“We would have liked to have won here and kept the sweep going, but getting the runner-up, we can’t hang our heads,” said Brown, who has made eight final round appearances in 15 races this season. “This week we started off a little rough on Saturday, but we still had a great qualifying (fourth). Going into race day today, our Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota boys were steady, smooth and consistent. We just did what we needed to do to win each round. In the final, we thought we had to step up there, but at the step of the throttle, we had an ignition problem where the car was literally operating not even on the full ignition system because we had no power. Then it lost a hole going down the racetrack while Steve (Torrence) and those boys did what they needed to do to win, so hats off to them. We’re looking forward to getting to Seattle.”
In addition to Todd’s victory, Del Worsham knocked off Matt Hagan to advance to the second round in Funny Car. DeJoria and Cruz Pedregon each lost in their opening runs of the day.
Shawn Langdon and Doug Kalitta won their opening round match-ups in Top Fuel, but each was eliminated in round two, while Troy Coughlin Jr. lost in the first round.
The NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series will close out the Western Swing next weekend at the NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Seattle, Aug. 4-6.
