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BRAINERD, Minn. -- Tony Schumacher claimed his third Top Fuel victory of the
season Sunday and the fourth of his career, as he roared to victory at the 19th annual Colonel's Truck Accessories NHRA Nationals at the Colonel's Brainerd Internationals Raceway.
Schumacher beat Doug Kalitta in the final round to move ahead of Larry Dixon for second place in the season standings, 24 points
behind leader Gary Scelzi. Schumacher won the final with a quarter-mile run of 4.585
seconds at a top speed of 318.69 mph. Kalitta finished in 4.655
seconds at 306.81 mph.
John Force, Kurt Johnson and Antron Brown also won their divisions in the $1.8 million competition, the 16th of 23 events in
the $45 million NHRA Winston Drag Racing Series.
Force extended his Funny Car lead over Jerry Toliver, beating Jim Epler with a run of 4.935 seconds at 309.34 mph.
Johnson won for the third time in the last three events, beating
Pro Stock points leader Jeg Coughlin with a run of 6.986 seconds at
196.59 mph. The win was Johnson's third in
the last four races this season in his AC Delco Chevrolet Camaro.
Brown won the Pro Stock Motorcycle final, beating Tony Mullen with a run of 7.304 seconds at 178.99 mph.
Schumacher left Brainerd last season in almost the same position in points. In 1999, Schumacher trailed then leader, Mike Dunn by 30 points.
"This was my last ride with Exide." Schumacher said, alluding to stepping
out of his dragster and bringing Melanie Troxell on as his teammate. "To be
able to turn it over to Melanie is awesome. It's still our team, but I won't
be driving it.
"To be able to give this win to them (Exide), that means a lot. That was the first team to put me in a sponsored car."
Schumacher will run a two-car team starting at the US Nationals. Troxell will step into the Exide dragster and Schumacher is scheduled to announce his new sponsor on Sept. 1.
Although this is Schumacher's first win at CBIR, he said his crew chief, Dan Olson is no stranger to Brainerd.
"This track is good to Dan." Schumacher said. "He ran good here with Eddie
(Hill). We were running as good as anybody last year, and I red lit. We
didn't get a chance to prove anything. Who knows what would have happened
because we had a great running race car."
Schumacher defeated Chris Karamesines, Kenny Bernstein and Andrew Cowin
before meeting Kalitta in the finals. Despite tearing through the competition, Schumacher said his car's horsepower was the key on Sunday.
"I really didn't feel that I was all on my game today." Schumacher said. "My
reaction times weren't great, but I just had a dynamite race car. When that
happens, you don't want to make a mistake. I may have overdone it and spent
a little time making sure it (the Christmas tree) was yellow. I'm a human
being and I didn't want to give it away."
Force, extended his points lead over Jerry Toliver, as his Castrol GTX Ford Mustang had no problems negotiating
the quarter-mile while Epler's WWF Racing Chevrolet Camaro lost traction
just past the starting line. Force has won the Colonel's Truck Accessories
NHRA Nationals back-to-back and this was his ninth win at CBIR, the most for
Force than at any other racetrack.
"You've got the air here and (crew chief) Austin Coil likes to make horsepower." Force said, the nine-time NHRA Winston Funny Car champion. "We struggled with the 90-percent rule, as good as we run, we couldn't get her down
there too far because she was running out of motor.
"That one (semi-final) run against (Del) Worsham, it drove her right over there into the wall. The
track has a lot of bite with the air like this."
Force leaves Brainerd with a 160-point lead over Toliver and has made up 212 points since the Prolong Superlubricants Northwest Nationals in Seattle. Even though Force leaves with a triple-digit lead over Toliver, he
isn't planning on letting up.
"All I have to do like him (Toliver) and not qualify and he is right back in the lead again." said Force, referring to Toliver's DNQ at the Fram/Autolite Nationals in Sonoma. "In 1992 against Cruz (Pedregon), we had a 1,200 point lead. We went into test mode and Cruz won five races in a row. He won Seattle, Sonoma, Brainerd, Indy, Reading and I couldn't get past the first
round without tipping over onto my roof."
Pedregon went on to win the 1992 Winston Funny Car championship, the only Funny Car championship in the
1990s to not belong to Force. | |
ALSO SEE
NHRA Colonel's Truck Accessories Nationals results
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