U.S. Army NHRA Racing – 27th Annual NHRA Northwest Nationals Final Qualifying Report
Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher held onto the No. 1 spot through the final two rounds of qualifying Saturday for this weekend’s 27th 
annual NHRA Northwest Nationals at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington. But the driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) certainly didn’t merely sit on what turned out to be his fastest run of the weekend Friday night. He clocked the second-fastest and fastest runs of the final two qualifying sessions, respectively, a reflection that every time he and his U.S. Army teammates are on the track, they demonstrate the same attributes the Army looks for in its Soldiers – putting the mission first, a never-quit attitude and a refusal to accept defeat.
Schumacher closed with the fastest run of the day in the fourth and final qualifying session of the weekend. He got down the track in 3.814 seconds at 320.20 mph to earn his eighth, ninth and 10th bonus points over the four qualifying sessions. He was first or second in each session the past two days, including the second-fastest run in today’s earlier session with a run of 3.835 seconds at 315.64 mph. Only Top Fuel points leader Doug Kalitta’s run of 3.817 seconds at 317.57 mph was better in that third round of qualifying.
The seven-time Top Fuel champion meets No. 16 qualifier Jenna Haddock in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations as he attempts to win the event title here for the fifth time in his illustrious career. Tomorrow’s first-round matchup is a rematch from two weekends ago, when top-qualifier Schumacher was upset by No. 16 qualifier Haddock to start Sunday eliminations at the NHRA Mile-High Nationals at Bandimere Speedway in Morrison, Colorado. Sunday’s opening-round run will be the 1,000th Top Fuel round of Schumacher’s career. Today’s No. 1 qualifying effort was the 74th of his career.
“I must say that the level of engineering and teamwork on display at the racetrack by this U.S. Army team is reflective of the Army’s leading-edge technology and the powerful, realistic training of its Soldiers,” said Schumacher, whose previous event titles at Pacific Raceways came in 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2008. “This is a great racetrack for us, and I think the fact we went down both lanes, that just goes to show that Mike (Green, crew chief) and Neal (Strausbaugh, assistant crew chief) have found what we’ve been looking a long, long time for. We didn’t just go down the track, we were top-two every time, just calm and cool. They’re making great calls. They’ve got the car leaving hard, and everyone knows that if you can get a car moving, you can apply the clutch quicker. They’re doing exactly what they need to do. This track, I’ve got to give them a lot of credit because they’ve gone out and spent money where they had to spend money to make the two lanes better so we can have racing and so these fans who pay good money can see an even drag race. We’ve got a great car. I wouldn’t want to race me tomorrow. And we’ve got a great car at the right time of the season.”
Meanwhile, Antron Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR remained in the No. 12 position based on their run of 3.884 seconds at 309.34 mph in Friday’s second qualifying session. Brown, who won this event in 2009 to cap a sweep of that year’s three-event Western Swing, smoked the tires in both qualifying runs today in his effort to move up in the final order.
“We just have to go out and get it right for race day,” said Brown, who will meet No. 5 qualifier Bob Vandergriff in Sunday’s opening round of eliminations. “That’s what we’re focused on right now. We just have to learn from the runs that we’ve had out here this weekend. This Seattle track has been tricky, but the good part is our teammate Tony made some good runs and we’ll go out there tomorrow and put our best foot forward and throw our best shot out there. Our main focus is to get past that first round and gain points to move closer to that number-one spot. We just have to get ourselves poised and ready for the Countdown, so we’ll go out there on race day and get ourselves dialed back in and get ready for that Countdown.”
ESPN2’s two-hour qualifying show is set for 10 EDT tonight. Elimination rounds begin at 2 p.m. Sunday with three hours of delayed television coverage on ESPN2 beginning at 7 p.m.
