Sonoma Pre-Race Report
NHRA Sonoma Nationals
Event 12 of 22
Sonoma Raceway
Sonoma, Calif.
July 22-24, 2022
Event 12 of 22
Sonoma Raceway
Sonoma, Calif.
July 22-24, 2022
ANTRON BROWN: Driver of the Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Fan Events:TODAY! Brown and his 11,000-horsepower Matco Tools Top Fuel dragster will be on display at Russian River Brewing Co. (700 Mitchell Ln., Windsor, Calif.) from 4:00 – 7:00 p.m. on Wednesday, 7/20. The event is free and open to the public.
Brown will join several NHRA Camping World Series drivers at a Sonoma Raceway-hosted autograph session under the grandstands on Friday from 4:30 – 5:15 p.m.
Brown will join his Toyota Gazoo Racing teammates for an autograph session at the Toyota Midway display on Saturday from 10:30 – 11:00 a.m.
Quotable:
“We’re really looking forward to getting back to Sonoma. It’s a great facility with a great fan turnout, and we’re expecting our Matco Tools/Lucas Oil hospitality tent to be packed. We have great Matco distributors like Jeff Sheldon and Jason Brooks who fill that tent up with passionate NHRA fans. We’re going to start the busy week off with our friends at Russian River Brewing Company with our car on display at the Windsor, Calif. brew pub on Wednesday afternoon. It’s great to have Vinnie and Natalie Cilurzo be part of the team for the weekend and then we’re going to go wine tasting with Steve O (Torrence), Ron Capps, Alexis DeJoria, and the Sarge (Tony Schumacher) at Three Fat Guys winery on Thursday for a fun race weekend kick-off event with NHRA on FOX. I’m ready to show them my sommelier skills. Toyota will be back on the midway and we have a busy weekend at the track. It’s going to be fun with a lot of interaction.
“We learned a lot at our Denver race last week. We were able to identify some areas that we need to focus on. We found out that we’d been having a fuel delivery problem at the step of the throttle off the starting line. We addressed it after Denver qualifying and got better on race day. Now we know we can be more aggressive with the clutch, and that gives us something to work off of at Sonoma this weekend. We’ve always done well there in the past. We’ve had great success there and it starts off with qualifying. We look forward to showing out for the folks in Nor Cal.”
About AB Motorsports
Established in 2019 and making its on-track debut in 2022, AB Motorsports is a single-car NHRA Top Fuel team owned and operated by three-time world champion Antron Brown. Headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., the team competes on the 22-race NHRA Camping World Drag Racing Series circuit thanks to the support of Matco Tools, Lucas Oil, Toyota, SiriusXM, Hangsterfer’s Metal Working Lubricants, and Summit Racing Equipment.Brown, who serves as both the owner and driver of the AB Motorsports Top Fuel dragster, is the only competitor in NHRA history to have won races in both the Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle categories. Brown is a 68-time NHRA national event winner and became the first Black driver to win a major U.S. auto racing championship when he captured the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel series title.
