DSR heads to Epping with Momentum
Infinite Hero Dodge, Beckman appreciate quick turnaround trip to New England Nationals after upset loss at Englishtown
EPPING, NH – Consecutive races on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing circuit are grueling for race crews, but 
drivers never seem to complain.
This weekend’s NHRA New England Nationals at Epping, N.H., is the second in a three-week stretch that began last weekend in New Jersey and will head south for Bristol, Tenn., after leaving New England Raceway.
Drivers who won on Sunday want to keep the momentum going, and those not pleased with the results don’t have too long to contemplate how to get back on track.
“The nice thing about this time of year is you only have to wait five days until you’re right back in the car doing it again,” Jack Beckman said of the busy summer’s first multiple-race span.
Jack and Don Schumacher Racing’s Infinite Hero 2015 Dodge Charger R/T team led by crew chief Jimmy Prock suffered a first-round upset Sunday to eventual Summernationals runner-up Alexis DeJoria after qualifying seventh. The week before at Topeka, Kan., the Infinite Hero team had a record-breaking weekend when its Dodge posted five runs in the 3-second range, including four straight, on the way to winning its second NHRA event title of the year and jumped to third in points.
“The last two races we definitely experienced the highs and lows of drag racing,” said the 2012 Funny Car world champion who owns 17 NHRA Funny Car event trophies.
“We left Topeka with maybe the most convincing win of my career. We came into Englishtown with high expectations and wound up stumbling in the first round and lost ground in the points chase and dropped one spot in the standings to fourth.
“This weekend is a golden opportunity to show everybody what we’re made of going to a track that doesn’t have a lengthy history on the NHRA Mello Yello tour but goes back to the heyday of drag racing in the sixties when it was a destination stop for a lot of Funny Car match races. I’d love to add that to my list of tracks where I won a Wally (trophy).”
Jack, who has won at 10 of the 21 tracks on the Mello Yello circuit, continues to have a stalwart season after his virtually new team didn’t qualify for the season-opener in February. But over the past eight races, the team has earned the second most points in the category.
Massey anxious for third annual NHRA New England Nationals to get momentum going with Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel dragster
– Consecutive races on the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series tour keep Spencer Massey a happy and busy man. As the NHRA tour makes its third annual stop at the NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, N.H., this weekend the driver of the Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel Powered by Schumacher dragster is ready to go.
Spencer drives his motorhome to races on the NHRA tour and traveling to consecutive races and having the opportunity to spend time with his Sandvik team and in the seat of his 10,000-horsepower Top Fuel dragster is about as good as it gets for the Texas native.
The 18-time NHRA Top Fuel winner is anxious to get back to the Northeast this weekend where he won the inaugural NHRA event at New England Dragway in 2013.
“I’m definitely excited to get back to Epping,” Spencer said. “This is definitely one of my favorite parts of the season. On the road all week, racing nearly every weekend. I wouldn’t change it at all. It’s the best. The fans up in Epping are some of the greatest. The pits are always packed and it’s cool to see everyone so excited about us being there.”
The Sandvik Coromant/Red Fuel team with crew chiefs Todd Okuhara and Phil Shuler continue to work on their consistency and joined their Don Schumacher Racing teammates Antron Brown and Tony Schumacher in the top three of Top Fuel points standings after last weekend’s NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown, N.J.
“We’re still working on our tune-up,” Spencer said. “It’s getting to the point in the season where it’s going to get pretty hot and we need a good hot-weather tune-up for this summer stretch of races.
“With three races in three weeks we’re hoping to get a lot of good data and some momentum going to get us ready for races like Norwalk and Chicago where you know it’s going to be pretty hot and steamy. We have a great group of crew members that are working hard right now. We just have to stay focused and work on getting some more round wins on Sunday.”
Momentum from third win of the season carriers points leaders Hagan and the Rocky Boots/Mopar team into NHRA New England Nationals
– The Rocky Boots/Mopar team will be carrying momentum along with the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Funny Car points lead into this weekend’s third annual NHRA New England Nationals in Epping, N.H., following their win last weekend at Englishtown, N.J.
New England Dragway is the second stop of three consecutive weeks of NHRA competition and reigning Funny Car champion Matt Hagan is ready to continue the recent success and go for his first win at the facility.
After opening up the 2015 season with back-to-back wins Matt and the Rocky Boots/Mopar team led by crew chief Dickie Venables went into learning mode with the six-disc clutch.
A quick look at Matt’s 2015 statistics shows it didn’t take long for Venables to figure it all out. The team has improved each week and showed their consistency at last weekend’s NHRA Summernationals at Englishtown. On race day, the team opened eliminations with an impressive 4.03-second lap before posting two 4.12-second efforts and a 4.13 to take the win in the final round.
“I truly cannot say enough about Dickie Venables, (assistant crew chief) Michael Knudsen and this team,” Matt said. “We’re focused right now on learning this new clutch combination and the guys are doing an outstanding job right now. That win was a big confidence booster for us going into this busy stretch of the season.”
Matt holds a 39-point lead, less than two rounds of racing, over Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps in second and a stellar 18-6 win-loss record through nine events this season.
“We just need to keep things moving,” Matt said. “This summer is going to be tough and there’s a lot of racing left to do over these next couple of months. It’s going to get hectic. It’s a really difficult part of our schedule and our goal is to stay consistent and hopefully turn on some more win lights.”
Brown, Matco Tools team already focused on New England after monumentally successful visit to New Jersey by No. 1 team
EPPING, NH – Antron Brown is known as one of the most focused drivers in motorsports, and it’s a good thing.
The popular driver of Don Schumacher Racing’s Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster and New Jersey native is coming off one of his biggest and most emotional weekends since becoming a professional in 1998 and won his first NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series trophy in 1999 while aboard a Pro Stock Motorcycle.
On Sunday he reached an incredible milestone and became only the 10th pro racer in NHRA to win for a 50th time. And he did it at Englishtown, N.J., where he watched his first drag race as a youngster only 30 miles from his home in Chesterfield.
Antron became the first Top Fuel driver this year to win for the third time after earning his third No. 1 qualifying position in nine events which ties for the most poles he’s won in an entire season.
Although he won twice on a motorcycle (2002 and 2005) in the Toyota Summernationals at Old Bridge Township Raceway Park, Sunday was the first time he did it in a Top Fuel dragster.
“It’s a real dream come true for this Chesterfield kid,” Brown said after beating Brittany Force in the championship round for a third time. “We knew what was at stake when we came in here. I put everything of what this race means to the side. And that’s what the crew did.
“I came to this racetrack back in 1986. I remember it like it was yesterday,” he said. “We all came out here for the Summernationals. I spent a lot of hours at the track.
“I never thought I would be out here, being a professional racer. I always wanted to, but you never know if you’ll get the opportunity. I give all the glory to God.”
Antron, the 2012 Top Fuel world champion who holds a 118-point lead over DSR teammate Tony Schumacher, doesn’t have anywhere near the history at New England Dragway where the third annual New England Nationals opens Friday.
The 39-year-old driver living in Pittsboro, Ind., started last year’s event at New England by winning the pole but lost in the quarterfinals to Schumacher, who went on to win the title. Despite posting the final day’s third best time the combination of Schumacher’s near perfect reaction time (0.006 seconds) and quickest run of the day enabled him to advance and win the event title.
“Our Matco team was able to enjoy our big win at Englishtown but we put that race in the books before we even got to Epping,” Antron said.
Capps not worried about getting NAPA Dodge back up to No. 1
– Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team would have liked to arrive at Epping, N.H., this weekend as the top-ranked team for the NHRA New England Nationals.
Ron lost the points lead when Don Schumacher Racing teammate Matt Hagan sidelined him in the semifinals Sunday in New Jersey that dropped him to second in the standings
But Ron is a veteran racer and the driver of the NAPA Dodge knows that championships aren’t determined in June so he is still smiling as the second half of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series’ regular season begins on Friday at New England Dragway for the series third visit to the track.
The first 18 events on the 24-race circuit will determine the top-10 drivers who will compete over the last six races of the year in the Countdown to the Championship for a $500,000 bonus, diamond ring and prestigious trophy.
Through nine races, Ron and the NAPA team led by crew Rahn Tobler, who owns 49 NHRA Wally trophies, and assistant Eric Lane have advanced to championship rounds four times and left with the NHRA Wally trophy twice to push his career total to 45 event titles.
“If we can’t win it all then we want one of our teammates to get Don Schumacher the trophy,” Ron said of Hagan and Top Fuel driver Antron Brown pushing the Don Schumacher Racing total to 252 trophies at the Englishtown event.
“We got a big break in the second round and that not only earned us 20 more points but it gave Rahn a chance to run the car again to determine what happened when we smoked the tires.”
Against pole winner Cruz Pedregon, Ron’s Dodge lost traction and slowed to a nine-second run at 86 mph. Fortunately for the NAPA team, Pedregon left the starting too soon and was eliminated by a red-light start.
Although Ron lost to Hagan in the next round, Tobler fixed the malady and the team completed its run in 4.191 seconds on a hot track and warm day.
“Getting into the semifinals will pay off this summer and maybe even this weekend because we got one more run on a hot track and it could be like that this weekend,” said Ron, who has won 12 times with Tobler.
The NAPA team liked being atop the standings for three races in the month of May, and are ready to return.
