Army Team Comes Up Just Short in Gatornationals

Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher was so close to becoming the only NHRA Mello Yello Series Top Fuel driver to have five Gatronationals wins that he could almost taste victory when he staged the U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) in Sunday’s final of the 46th annual Amalie Motor Oil NHRA Gatornationals at Auto-Plus Raceway in Gainesville, Florida. Unfortunately, Schumacher’s DSR teammate Spencer Massey was just a tick faster off the starting line and earned the holeshot victory.

“The Sarge” posted a .065 reaction time and run of 3.873 seconds at 313.29 mph in the 133rd final appearance of his career. Massey’s .020 light coupled with his pass of 3.882 seconds at 320.74 mph secured him the victory. Despite coming up short in his bid to score a second consecutive triumph, the eight-time Top Fuel world champion praised his nine-man U.S. Army team for their incredible effort to start the season and relished the fact that they are part of America’s first team, the U.S. Army, who, for nearly 240 years, has protected and served the nation.

“It was a good race,” Schumacher said. “You hate to lose any time, but when you have an opportunity to make history you want to take advantage of it. The U.S. Army guys busted their tales all weekend and we have a great combination going right now. I told (crew chief) Mike (Green) and (assistant crew chief) Neal (Strausbaugh) that we’ve won seven consecutive rounds and the other guy has left on me each time. And, I don’t want to take any chances now. Spencer had a faster car in qualifying and his car was running good all weekend. When he puts up a .020 light, that’s pretty close to a red light. They have a great team and they beat us in the battle today. That was a great race for the final round of the Gatornationals. The fans got to see an excellent race. It’s just unfortunate that my own teammate kept me from being the winningest Top Fuel driver in Gatornationals history on a holeshot. That’s what I have to live with.”

Schumacher began the day from the fourth slot on the ladder and defeated Terry McMillen in the first round with a run of 3.775 seconds at 325.45 mph. He made it six consecutive rounds wins by defeating Clay Millican with a pass of 3.887 seconds at 320.13 mph to reach the semifinals. Shawn Langdon, the event’s number one qualifier, had lane choice in the semis, but Schumacher powered to victory with a run of 3.838 seconds at 320.58 mph and advanced to his second final in three 2015 starts. In the final, Schumacher was hoping to not only become the only five-time Gatornationals winner, but also earn a Wally for his father, Don, who was in attendance after missing the first two races of 2015 following radiation treatment for cancer. Even though the U.S. Army Dragster didn’t come out on top, DSR still doubled up with Massey taking the Top Fuel win and Ron Capps earning the Funny Car victory.

For the third consecutive event, Brown raced the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR to a pair of round wins to open eliminations, advancing to the semifinals for the third consecutive event to begin 2015. The 2012 Top Fuel world champion had a single pass in the opening round when Larry Dixon wasn’t able to make the call. Brown overpowered the track in that run and coasted to the finish with a lap of 8.690 second at 76.90 mph. The 2013 Gatornationals winner rebounded in round two with a pass of 3.851 seconds at 314.90 mph and defeated J.R. Todd to set up his race versus Massey in the semis, but Brown lost traction and posted a run of 5.182 seconds in the match-up of DSR teammates.

“Anytime you go to the semifinals, it’s not a bad weekend at all,” Brown said. “It was the typical Gainesville with a very tricky track. We’ve been at two killer tracks, Pomona and Phoenix, and they were both phenomenal. The thing is, this is how summer is going to be and we’re building on our program and making it better and learning. This is the first time we’ve faced hot conditions with our clutch program. Hats off to both my DSR teammates (Spencer Massey and Tony Schumacher) and their teams for great weekends. I’ve said racing against those DSR teams makes us so much better. Hopefully, we’ll continue to battle them for wins all season, starting with Charlotte in a couple of weeks in the Four Wide Nationals.”