U.S. Army NHRA Racing NHRA Sonoma Nationals Friday Qualifying Report
The U.S. Army driver trio of Leah Pritchett, Antron Brown and Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher are second, third and 
fourth on the provisional ladder, respectively, after the opening two rounds of qualifying Friday for this weekend’s 31st annual NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series Sonoma Nationals at Sonoma (Calif.) Raceway.
Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team for Don Schumacher Racing (DSR), who won this event in 2007 and 2008 – the latter year as part of his sweep of the three-event Western Swing – struggled to get down the track on his opening run of the day, crossing the finish line in 4.892 seconds at 144.21 mph after smoking his tires at halftrack. He closed with a vengeance, however, vaulting from the No. 11 spot to the top-four with a solid run of 3.747 seconds at 327.98 mph to open the night qualifying session.
“We’ve been working on our first 60 feet for a long time and we did an .833 that got us off to a really strong start and it set the tone for a really solid run to the finish line,” said the eight-time Top Fuel world champion, who also is a four-time Sonoma Nationals runner-up and two-time No. 1 qualifier. “We lost a real close one last weekend – one 10,000th of a second. And we knew it was going to be in the early numbers if we’re going to keep that sort of thing from happening. Great job by Mike Neff (crew chief) and Phil (Shuler, assistant crew chief) and the Army team. That was a great run. That was exactly what Mike wanted to run. The conditions were fantastic. This big crowd got a great show. We love coming here to Sonoma.”
Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, the four-time Sonoma Nationals winner and most recent runner-up, made two solid runs down the track. He opened with a run of 3.855 seconds at 323.19 mph that was second-best in the afternoon session, then closed with a run of 3.744 seconds at 327.43 mph that was third-best in the night session.
“We are where we want to be at – we’re getting better and better,” said Brown, who first won this event in 2009 en route to a sweep of that year’s three-event Western Swing. “It was a really good day and we’re getting to where we want to be at, we just need more runs, and Denver turned out to not be the place to do that – fuel distribution problems and all that. Coming out here with a good run first round, we wanted to run a good lap – 81, 82 (3.81, 3.82) – and then they backed it off because they saw cars not make it down the track. So we ran an 85. And this last lap, we were shooting for a 72 but we’re still getting through our clutch out a little bit. We still made a good run, so we can build on that. We qualified in the top-three and that was focus and our goal. Now we’ll just keep on pushing and tomorrow we’ll get ready for race day and get ready to go out there in attack mode.”
Pritchett and her Mopar/U.S. Army Dragster for DSR, who won her second title of the season at last weekend’s NHRA Mile-High Nationals on the outskirts of Denver, had the fifth-best run of today’s afternoon session despite losing a cylinder shortly after leaving the start line. She crossed the finish line in 3.966 seconds at 301.67 mph, then closed the evening with a head-turning run of 3.727 seconds at 328.38 mph that was surpassed only by provisional No. 1 qualifier Clay Millican.
“This is a championship team and Todd (Okuhara, crew chief) and Joe (Barlam, crew chief) just continue to impress me,” said Pritchett, last year’s No. 1 qualifier here with a track-record elapsed time of 3.669 seconds. “Right off the line, I was like, I know this thing doesn’t have turbos but it was feeling like it did and it was just hunting for it and it was just going. I got on the radio right away down there asking what I ran because I knew it was a wicked-fast run, holding on and everything. It’s an honor to drive for this team. It’s also awesome having Jeb (Allen, whose company is sponsoring Pritchett’s car this weekend) here and especially the vendors he’s got here with him. He’s a three-time champion and I want to send our prayers out to the people affected by the fire out in Redding, a lot of people whose homes he’s built or is building for them.”
The final two qualifying sessions are set for 5 and 8 p.m. EDT Saturday. FS1 will broadcast two hours of live qualifying coverage at 8 p.m. Saturday. Elimination rounds begin at 2 p.m. Sunday with three hours of live coverage on FOX set for 4 p.m.
