CHANDLER, Ariz. (Feb. 20, 2013) – On paper, the U.S. Army Top Fuel driving duo of Tony “The Sarge” Schumacher and Antron Brown arrive for this weekend’s 29th annual NHRA Arizona Nationals at Firebird International Raceway near Phoenix in an all-too-familiar position – side-by-side near the top of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series championship standings.
Such has come to be expected from the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammates, who proudly represent the U.S. Army, which is the Nation’s preeminent leadership experience, where the Nation’s future leaders are developed and empowered with the confidence to take decisive action when needed and the flexibility to excel in constantly evolving situations.
Schumacher and Brown sit second and third in the Top Fuel standings after last weekend’s season opener at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif., but boy did the two U.S. Army drivers take vastly different paths to get there.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team were models of focus and precision, powering their way to top qualifying runs both Friday and Saturday, showing that only the strongest wear the colors of the U.S. Army Soldiers, who possess a mental, emotional and physical strength like no other en route to the top seed entering Sunday’s elimination rounds. Then, Schumacher meticulously picked off his competitors round after round Sunday before a thrilling dual against Shawn Langdon came up just short in the Top Fuel final.
That near-flawless charge through the elimination rounds by Schumacher was not even affected by his almost 90-minute wait at the starting line while safety crews cleaned up the aftermath of Brown’s horrific accident as he crossed the finish line during a dominant quarterfinal-round victory in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster. The incident, initiated by a massive mechanical failure as Brown crossed the line, sent his Dragster rear-end first into a concrete retaining wall and on down the dragstrip, coming to a stop with the driver compartment on its side in the sand trap. But the car’s safety technology, including a revolutionary new cockpit canopy, and Brown’s own ability to stay calm and collected while executing a series of safety maneuvers during his wild ride, deserves full credit for his walking away from the incident relatively unscathed. The level of engineering and teamwork on display during the incident and its aftermath was most certainly reflective of the Army’s leading-edge technology and the powerful, realistic training of its Army Strong Soldiers.
It’s fitting on many levels that the next stop on the tour is this weekend’s NHRA Arizona Nationals, where Brown and Schumacher both advanced to the Top Fuel final a year ago with Brown coming away with the first of his series-leading of six event titles en route to the 2012 Top Fuel championship. It was not only Brown’s first career Top Fuel championship, but it made him the first African American to claim a major U.S. auto racing championship. Brown also won the 2009 Arizona Nationals title with a final-round victory over Brandon Bernstein, and advanced to the 2011 Top Fuel final, where he was edged by Larry Dixon.
Schumacher is a three-time Arizona Nationals champ among his 69 career Top Fuel event titles, although it’s been eight seasons since his last victory in 2005, when he beat Morgan Lucas in the Top Fuel final. Schumacher’s other two titles came in 2000 and 2002, when he beat Dixon and Bob Vandergriff, respectively, in the event final. Schumacher also has been fast Top Fuel qualifier four times in his career at Firebird – in consecutive fashion from 2005 to 2007, and again in 2010.
TONY “THE SARGE” SCHUMACHER, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster:
You and the U.S. Army team certainly appeared to be in championship form again last weekend at Pomona, just like last fall when the Top Fuel title came down to your run in the final round. Did it feel that way, from your perspective?
“I’m ready to do it all over again and win another championship. We’ve had so many blessed moments. Those moments are a gift, and that’s what anyone dreams about who has ever been on the starting line. That is the lesson we learned again last year and we’ll be able to build from and can expect to have much better days this coming season. Our U.S. Army team exemplified the mental, emotional and physical strength like no other down the stretch, just like our U.S. Army Soldiers do every day of the year. So, as we continue to make our way through the early part of this new season, what you do the year before and the week before, in every way, shape and form, is going to guide you through what the next year holds. I’m ready to get to Phoenix and keep this train rolling.”
Phoenix is one of those stops on the tour where you’ve enjoyed a good bit of success. Is there anything particularly special about Firebird International Raceway in your mind?
“We ran 330 mph for the first time there, and we’ve won there a lot. We always seem to perform well there for the U.S. Army. I really enjoy going there. For one reason, it’s early in the year and the weather is wonderful and better in February than where I live near Chicago, where it’s 10 degrees. The fans are phenomenal and the fans have always been really good to us in Phoenix.”
In addition to your teammate Antron’s wild ride on Sunday, you also found yourself putting your cockpit canopy to the test at Pomona when your parachutes malfunctioned. Did it actually make you feel safer as you had to slide through the sand trap?
“You almost get a false sense of security. But, had I not had it on there, I would’ve been covered in dust, and my helmet would’ve been destroyed because of all the rocks coming in there from the sand trap. I’ll say it 1,000 times, I would not want to drive the car without it. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t have it. A lot of the guys say they don’t want to, for whatever reason – ‘Oh, I don’t want to catch on fire,’ or whatever the reason. Hey, it’s a Top Fuel Dragster, it’s going 330 mph, you might catch on fire. If you have a fear of that, pick another job, don’t kid yourself. It doesn’t weigh that much. Yours isn’t going to weigh more than mine. You’re much better contained and that’s the whole purpose. Wally Parks started the NHRA to make people safer, to get them off the street and onto the racetrack, told them to go fast and we’ll give you a trophy, but let’s make it safer. Every time something’s happened, we’ve fixed it, which is good. But we’re trying to be ahead of the game. My dad built a beautiful canopy but he doesn’t own it. Anybody can get it. And I see no reason why everybody doesn’t take advantage of that in the name of safety. After being through what all I’ve been through in my career, I really appreciate the guys on my team and my dad spending the money and the time to make us safer. We’ve all been through situations that weren’t very pleasant. We want to stay ahead of the game in the attempt to make everything safer. That being said, this is still about going 330 mph. There could be another problem that we haven’t thought of, but our guys are trying their best to stay ahead of it.”
ANTRON BROWN, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster:
You seem to be no worse for wear after what looked like a horrific incident at Pomona last Sunday. What are your thoughts as you head back to Phoenix as the defending event champion?
“I’m ready to get to Phoenix and get back on that horse. That’s what it’s all about. Our guys in the DSR fabrication shop prepared such a great, safe racecar. Everything is ready to rock. Phoenix is a good place to get it going and get back on track. We had a good showing out there last year and want to get back and execute that same thing. We have to start off one step at a time with qualifying and, hopefully, we can ramp back up to where we were there last year. We’ll bring out a brand new racecar. It’s never been down a racetrack. We’ll take it one run at a time and we’ll get four runs in qualifying. We can get back into our routine. We’re feeling pretty good going back in there. We definitely won’t be going there in test mode. We’ll be going there in race mode and make the right moves so we can contend for the win.”
During an incident like yours at Pomona, are you pretty much just along for the ride, or are there things you can actually do to help minimize the consequences?
“It’s just one of those instinct deals where it just kicks in when you’re in the moment. In a situation like that, you have to know your racecar and you have to know what it’s going to take to survive that situation. I guess it goes back to when I was a little kid racing dirt bikes and motocross – you always had to learn how to fall. If you didn’t know how to fall, you’d break a limb every time. I always learned the best thing to do is to just slow down and think about what you need to do to put yourself in a better position, and I guess that’s what happened there at Pomona. I just tried to think about what I needed to do to survive that accident. I was trying to get control of the car back but, once it was on its side, I just tried to turn everything off, hit the fuel shutoff and try to stop the engine from running, keeping it from revving up or anything else. When we were back in the shop building these cars, the crew guys would always crack on me, saying, ‘You’re always sitting in this car.’ Because, every time I got to sit in there, I was always practicing where everything is and I go through the progression – ‘Fire, fresh air, brake lever, parachutes, kill motor.’ I reach up and slap them down and got myself to where I was very aware of where everything was, so when a situation arises, I don’t have to think about it.”
How did your new cockpit canopy perform during your wild ride to the end of the dragstrip?
“The windshield’s five-eighths of an inch thick, so nothing got to me. When I hit the sand trap, I saw stones flying all over the place, but I didn’t get dusty, nothing got into me. It really, really did its job. The fresh air system and the fire system are there for me only because we now have the canopy. I could have turned my fire bottles on if I would’ve needed to. I was all coherent for that. The coolest part is, I can’t thank the NHRA Safety Safari enough because, when I was upside-down, I already saw their truck pulled up by the sand pit. I saw the guys running out there so I knew it was just a matter of time before they got to me. They were able to lift my car up on its side a little bit. They helped get my canopy open and I undid my seatbelts myself and I got out. I’m here to talk about it so everybody and everything did the job.”
From: Laz Denes
More...
Such has come to be expected from the Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammates, who proudly represent the U.S. Army, which is the Nation’s preeminent leadership experience, where the Nation’s future leaders are developed and empowered with the confidence to take decisive action when needed and the flexibility to excel in constantly evolving situations.
Schumacher and Brown sit second and third in the Top Fuel standings after last weekend’s season opener at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, Calif., but boy did the two U.S. Army drivers take vastly different paths to get there.
Seven-time world champion Schumacher and his U.S. Army Dragster team were models of focus and precision, powering their way to top qualifying runs both Friday and Saturday, showing that only the strongest wear the colors of the U.S. Army Soldiers, who possess a mental, emotional and physical strength like no other en route to the top seed entering Sunday’s elimination rounds. Then, Schumacher meticulously picked off his competitors round after round Sunday before a thrilling dual against Shawn Langdon came up just short in the Top Fuel final.
That near-flawless charge through the elimination rounds by Schumacher was not even affected by his almost 90-minute wait at the starting line while safety crews cleaned up the aftermath of Brown’s horrific accident as he crossed the finish line during a dominant quarterfinal-round victory in the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Dragster. The incident, initiated by a massive mechanical failure as Brown crossed the line, sent his Dragster rear-end first into a concrete retaining wall and on down the dragstrip, coming to a stop with the driver compartment on its side in the sand trap. But the car’s safety technology, including a revolutionary new cockpit canopy, and Brown’s own ability to stay calm and collected while executing a series of safety maneuvers during his wild ride, deserves full credit for his walking away from the incident relatively unscathed. The level of engineering and teamwork on display during the incident and its aftermath was most certainly reflective of the Army’s leading-edge technology and the powerful, realistic training of its Army Strong Soldiers.
It’s fitting on many levels that the next stop on the tour is this weekend’s NHRA Arizona Nationals, where Brown and Schumacher both advanced to the Top Fuel final a year ago with Brown coming away with the first of his series-leading of six event titles en route to the 2012 Top Fuel championship. It was not only Brown’s first career Top Fuel championship, but it made him the first African American to claim a major U.S. auto racing championship. Brown also won the 2009 Arizona Nationals title with a final-round victory over Brandon Bernstein, and advanced to the 2011 Top Fuel final, where he was edged by Larry Dixon.
Schumacher is a three-time Arizona Nationals champ among his 69 career Top Fuel event titles, although it’s been eight seasons since his last victory in 2005, when he beat Morgan Lucas in the Top Fuel final. Schumacher’s other two titles came in 2000 and 2002, when he beat Dixon and Bob Vandergriff, respectively, in the event final. Schumacher also has been fast Top Fuel qualifier four times in his career at Firebird – in consecutive fashion from 2005 to 2007, and again in 2010.
TONY “THE SARGE” SCHUMACHER, driver of the U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster:
You and the U.S. Army team certainly appeared to be in championship form again last weekend at Pomona, just like last fall when the Top Fuel title came down to your run in the final round. Did it feel that way, from your perspective?
“I’m ready to do it all over again and win another championship. We’ve had so many blessed moments. Those moments are a gift, and that’s what anyone dreams about who has ever been on the starting line. That is the lesson we learned again last year and we’ll be able to build from and can expect to have much better days this coming season. Our U.S. Army team exemplified the mental, emotional and physical strength like no other down the stretch, just like our U.S. Army Soldiers do every day of the year. So, as we continue to make our way through the early part of this new season, what you do the year before and the week before, in every way, shape and form, is going to guide you through what the next year holds. I’m ready to get to Phoenix and keep this train rolling.”
Phoenix is one of those stops on the tour where you’ve enjoyed a good bit of success. Is there anything particularly special about Firebird International Raceway in your mind?
“We ran 330 mph for the first time there, and we’ve won there a lot. We always seem to perform well there for the U.S. Army. I really enjoy going there. For one reason, it’s early in the year and the weather is wonderful and better in February than where I live near Chicago, where it’s 10 degrees. The fans are phenomenal and the fans have always been really good to us in Phoenix.”
In addition to your teammate Antron’s wild ride on Sunday, you also found yourself putting your cockpit canopy to the test at Pomona when your parachutes malfunctioned. Did it actually make you feel safer as you had to slide through the sand trap?
“You almost get a false sense of security. But, had I not had it on there, I would’ve been covered in dust, and my helmet would’ve been destroyed because of all the rocks coming in there from the sand trap. I’ll say it 1,000 times, I would not want to drive the car without it. I don’t know why everyone doesn’t have it. A lot of the guys say they don’t want to, for whatever reason – ‘Oh, I don’t want to catch on fire,’ or whatever the reason. Hey, it’s a Top Fuel Dragster, it’s going 330 mph, you might catch on fire. If you have a fear of that, pick another job, don’t kid yourself. It doesn’t weigh that much. Yours isn’t going to weigh more than mine. You’re much better contained and that’s the whole purpose. Wally Parks started the NHRA to make people safer, to get them off the street and onto the racetrack, told them to go fast and we’ll give you a trophy, but let’s make it safer. Every time something’s happened, we’ve fixed it, which is good. But we’re trying to be ahead of the game. My dad built a beautiful canopy but he doesn’t own it. Anybody can get it. And I see no reason why everybody doesn’t take advantage of that in the name of safety. After being through what all I’ve been through in my career, I really appreciate the guys on my team and my dad spending the money and the time to make us safer. We’ve all been through situations that weren’t very pleasant. We want to stay ahead of the game in the attempt to make everything safer. That being said, this is still about going 330 mph. There could be another problem that we haven’t thought of, but our guys are trying their best to stay ahead of it.”
ANTRON BROWN, driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster:
You seem to be no worse for wear after what looked like a horrific incident at Pomona last Sunday. What are your thoughts as you head back to Phoenix as the defending event champion?
“I’m ready to get to Phoenix and get back on that horse. That’s what it’s all about. Our guys in the DSR fabrication shop prepared such a great, safe racecar. Everything is ready to rock. Phoenix is a good place to get it going and get back on track. We had a good showing out there last year and want to get back and execute that same thing. We have to start off one step at a time with qualifying and, hopefully, we can ramp back up to where we were there last year. We’ll bring out a brand new racecar. It’s never been down a racetrack. We’ll take it one run at a time and we’ll get four runs in qualifying. We can get back into our routine. We’re feeling pretty good going back in there. We definitely won’t be going there in test mode. We’ll be going there in race mode and make the right moves so we can contend for the win.”
During an incident like yours at Pomona, are you pretty much just along for the ride, or are there things you can actually do to help minimize the consequences?
“It’s just one of those instinct deals where it just kicks in when you’re in the moment. In a situation like that, you have to know your racecar and you have to know what it’s going to take to survive that situation. I guess it goes back to when I was a little kid racing dirt bikes and motocross – you always had to learn how to fall. If you didn’t know how to fall, you’d break a limb every time. I always learned the best thing to do is to just slow down and think about what you need to do to put yourself in a better position, and I guess that’s what happened there at Pomona. I just tried to think about what I needed to do to survive that accident. I was trying to get control of the car back but, once it was on its side, I just tried to turn everything off, hit the fuel shutoff and try to stop the engine from running, keeping it from revving up or anything else. When we were back in the shop building these cars, the crew guys would always crack on me, saying, ‘You’re always sitting in this car.’ Because, every time I got to sit in there, I was always practicing where everything is and I go through the progression – ‘Fire, fresh air, brake lever, parachutes, kill motor.’ I reach up and slap them down and got myself to where I was very aware of where everything was, so when a situation arises, I don’t have to think about it.”
How did your new cockpit canopy perform during your wild ride to the end of the dragstrip?
“The windshield’s five-eighths of an inch thick, so nothing got to me. When I hit the sand trap, I saw stones flying all over the place, but I didn’t get dusty, nothing got into me. It really, really did its job. The fresh air system and the fire system are there for me only because we now have the canopy. I could have turned my fire bottles on if I would’ve needed to. I was all coherent for that. The coolest part is, I can’t thank the NHRA Safety Safari enough because, when I was upside-down, I already saw their truck pulled up by the sand pit. I saw the guys running out there so I knew it was just a matter of time before they got to me. They were able to lift my car up on its side a little bit. They helped get my canopy open and I undid my seatbelts myself and I got out. I’m here to talk about it so everybody and everything did the job.”
From: Laz Denes
More...
