U.S. Army NHRA Racing 30th Annual NHRA Spring Nationals Friday Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army Top Fuel duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown are seventh and second, 
respectively in the provisional order after Friday’s opening two qualifying sessions for this weekend’s 30th annual NHRA Spring Nationals at Royal Purple Raceway on the outskirts of Houston.
Schumacher’s U.S. Army Dragster for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) closed the day with a solid run of 3.814 seconds at 307.51 mph despite dropping a cylinder, and the eight-time Top Fuel world champion and two-time Houston event titlist notched his position in the top half of the ladder. The day’s opening run was over before it even started as a throttle glitch kept Schumacher from properly launching from the start line.
“We were trying to run a 70 (3.70 seconds) but it just put a hole (cylinder) out on that last run,” said Schumacher, whose two Houston event titles came in 2005 and 2009. “The first run we just didn’t removed the throttle stopper. It’s just one of those things. We’ve had a very clean season so far, maybe only a glitch or two here or there, but that turned out to be a good one. We’ll be back tomorrow. Hopefully we get to good, clean runs in and will have our usual bad-to-the-bone racecar for Sunday.”
Brown and the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR logged the second-fastest runs of both qualifying sessions today. He opened the day with a run of 3.784 seconds at 318.47 mph in hot and humid conditions, then closed the day with a run of 3.723 seconds at 322.50 mph that was better than last year’s track-record-setting elapsed time of 3.724 seconds set by Texan Steve Torrance. But Clay Millican clipped Brown for the top spot tonight with his run of 3.722 seconds at 325.69 mph.
“It was a good run, that’s for sure,” Brown said of his night effort. “We were up there pushing. The thing about it is Houston’s always a tricky racetrack where the weather’s really thick – the air is really, really thick – and it takes a lot away from what the car does on its way down the racetrack. Anytime it gets cool out there like it did tonight, the track gets tight, we were going for it. That Matco Tools/U.S. Army car just motored on down there. We missed the No. 1 spot by a thousandth of a second so we’re just going to keep pushing tomorrow. It’s going to be cooler, and even though we will be running a lot earlier than today, I think the track’s actually going to get even better.”
Qualifying concludes Saturday with sessions scheduled for 3 and 5:30 p.m. EDT with delayed FS1 television set for 2 a.m. Elimination rounds are set for noon Sunday with FS1’s delayed three-hour broadcast set for 6 p.m.
