ANTRON BROWN WINS SECOND STRAIGHT NHRA MEET, EXTENDS POINTS LEAD

Category: Chronicle Archives Published on Monday, 27 July 2009 20:00 Written by Michigan Chronicle

Antron Brown continues to lay down tire tracks over other top fuel competitors in the National Hot Rod Association. The Chesterfield,
N.J., hot-rodder captured his second straight NHRA meet and fourth of the season winning the NHRA Northwest Nationals on Sunday, July 19, at the Pacific Raceway in Kent, Wash., near Seattle.

The win extended Brown’s lead in the NHRA Top Fuel Driver standings to 1,168 points – 137 more than Tony Schumacher, who’s currently in second.

“We just want to race to the best of our ability and take it one round at a time,” Brown said after the race. “The win against (Tony) Schumacher was awesome.”

In qualifying, Brown had the 10th fastest time with a speed of 305.84 and an elapsed time of 3.952. On race day, however, the track belonged to Brown.

In first-round eliminations, Brown defeated Clay Millican (Lifelock dragster) with a speed of 261.52 and an ET of 4.073. In the second round (quarterfinals), he held off Morgan Lucas (Geico Powersports/Lucas Oil dragster), racing to a top end speed of 282.54 and an ET of 3.987. In the semifinals against Spencer Massey, Brown hit 259.79 mph and a ET of 4.000 flat.

The final was a crowd-pleaser as Brown faced Schumacher, his toughest competitor so far this season. He nipped Schumacher at the finish line with a speed of 301.07 mph (ET 3.983) to Schumacher’s 300.00 mph (ET 3.990).
“To win by eight-thousandths (of a second) just shows what a great drag race it really was,” Brown said. “It felt so good to get the win light against those guys because we were the bridesmaid (runnerup) against them so many times last year. It really felt great to be on the winning team.”

JR Todd of Lawrenceburg, Ind., made his second appearance in NHRA Top Fuel competition at Seattle as well. Todd, driving the Mach 1/Global Services dragster, had the sixth-fastest time during Friday’s qualifying with a top end speed of 297.94. In Sunday’s eliminations, Todd won his first round of the season, defeating Terry Haddock with a top speed of 307.51 mph and an elapsed time of 3.964. He lost in the quarterfinals to Spencer Massey.

Todd had a slight lead at the start, but smoked his tires halfway down the track and lost traction. Because of the lost traction, Todd averaged only 143.11 and an ET of 5.131. After just two meets he has entered, Todd is 22nd in Top Fuel Driver points with 85.