Reigning NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series world champs Tony Schumacher, Robert Hight, and Mike Edwards collected wins at the 22nd annual O'Reilly Auto Parts NHRA Summer Nationals presented by Castrol GTX at Heartland Park Topeka to bolster their title defenses.
Neither Schumacher nor Hight had won in Topeka, but both crossed that task off their lists to move closer to the points leaders in their classes. Edwards, meanwhile, upped his already impressive points lead to 267 markers over runner-up Allen Johnson. After racing last weekend in Atlanta, the Full Throttle teams will have Memorial Day weekend off before heading to Chicago for the United Association Route 66 NHRA Nationals presented by Miller Welders. That race will kick off four straight weekends of competition and a string of seven events in the next eight weeks that will go a long way toward sorting out which teams will qualify for the NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series Countdown to the Championship playoffs this fall.
Tony Schumacher
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Don Schumacher Racing teammates Schumacher and Cory McClenathan each were aiming for their third win of the season and put on a whale of a final for the Topeka fans. Schumacher got off the line first and won on a holeshot, 3.87 to 3.86, to earn win No. 64. McClenathan is 97 points behind leader Larry Dixon, and Schumacher is just 11 points behind Cory Mac. The win was also the 100th for U.S. Army-sponsored teams.
“It was a heck of a day,” said Schumacher. “To go out and beat Cory by five-thousandths of a second, Dixon the round before, and Shawn Langdon by eight-thousandths of a second -- that’s what racing is about. That’s why you get up in the morning. I say it all the time, it’s not the trophy, it’s getting up Sunday morning and knowing you're going to have to dig real deep to get it, and we did.
“We needed to get [Topeka] off the list. It’s been a great career, but there were two tracks I hadn’t won at, here and Atlanta. I’ve got Atlanta left, and I’ve still got time in my career to go out and do that. I enjoy those big moments, where you have to really pull something off, and that’s what we had today. Cory’s a great driver, and he gave us a great race. We knew it was just going to be just inches no matter what.”
Schumacher defeated Dom Lagana, Langdon, and Dixon to reach the final, his 98th. He was in the 3.8-second zone all day, running 3.86 to beat Lagana, 3.88 to turn away Langdon, and 3.88 to best Dixon’s 3.92 in the duo’s third straight semifinal meeting. Schumacher now owns a 35-29 lifetime edge over his fellow world champ and longtime rival.
McClenathan, winner with his Fram dragster this year in Phoenix and at the inaugural NHRA Four-Wide Nationals in Charlotte, raced to the final round, the 61st of his Top Fuel career and 67th overall, by sitting down Morgan Lucas, Doug Kalitta, and Brandon Bernstein, opening with a 3.91, then running back-to-back 3.85s to reach his fourth final of the year.
Robert Hight
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Hight won his third straight Funny Car title and for the first time in Topeka by defeating Jeff Arend, 4.10 to 4.15, for his 16th win. The defending NHRA Full Throttle world champ moved past teammate Ashley Force Hood and into second place and sits just 49 points behind his boss, John Force.
“This is stuff you dream about,” said Hight. “I’d never won more than three races in a season, so to come out here and win three in row and win from the pole, that’s tough to do; not many guys do that. We went down the track convincingly all weekend long in the heat, and what’s cool about it is that it’s safe. [Crew chief] Jimmy [Prock] is tweaking and making changes, and the car’s responding. But there are eight other guys on this team that are putting that thing together perfectly every single run and not making any mistakes. With all the variables there are on these fuel cars, to run like this and do the job that we’re doing, you’ve got to give the credit to the whole team. We know this isn’t going to last forever, so we’re going to celebrate and cherish it.
“You have to give Arend and that whole team over there a lot of credit for coming back after their crash. We didn’t take them lightly. We knew we were going to go up there and run a good number, and I knew I had to do my job. Arend’s good on the Tree, and I had to stay focused. I was probably in [deep] a hundredth, so that was probably a 4.09, and the track was over 100 degrees. That’s unbelievable.”
Hight and his Auto Club Mustang completed their wire-to-wire run from the No. 1 qualifying spot with relative ease. He set low e.t. of the event at 4.074 on a first-round bye in the short field, then defeated tire-smoking Del Worsham with a 4.12. Ron Capps gave him a struggle in the semifinals, but, after an even launch, Hight pulled away to win, 4.12 to 4.15, to reach his 29th final.
Arend, runner-up in Houston this year with the Kalitta Motorsports DHL Solara, reached his fifth career final with a series of 4.1-second passes to beat Jeff Diehl, Force, and Jim Head in the three preliminary rounds. Arend had been just 1-10 versus Force but scored with a 4.13 to 4.15 win, then advanced to the final when Head suffered a massive engine explosion while leading, sending his Solara body high into the air. Head, temporarily blinded by the fire, lightly rear-ended Arend’s machine in the shutdown area, causing minor damage.
Mike Edwards
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Pro Stock boiled down to the class’ premier horsepower makers and its points front-runners in a rematch of last year’s final, and this year's title round lived up to the billing. Edwards, runner-up last year, took a .016 to .026 holeshot lead, then held on to win his 26th Wally with a 6.717 to Johnson’s quicker-but-later 6.710. The margin of victory was .007-second for Edwards, whose fifth win of the year matches his 2009 season total.
“It’s been a while since our last win in Topeka [1999], although we were runner-up to Allen Johnson last year,” said Edwards. “But what made this weekend so special was the fact that my parents, A.C. and Gladys, were here to see the win. They’ve never been to any of the races that I’ve won before, and you can’t believe how much it means to me for them to see this one. They’re from Oklahoma, and they only get to come to this race and maybe a couple of times to Dallas.
“We managed to leave first today, and that was a good thing because that Hemi Dodge of Roy and Allen Johnson is really running strong. They are a top-notch team, and they’re going to be something to reckon with all year long. I’m not sure that they won’t make a lot of winner’s circles this year because they are running extremely strong.”
Edwards reached his sixth final of the year in the season’s first nine events with a trio of passes within .012-second in his Penhall/K&N/Interstate GXP, defeating Justin Humphreys, Johnny Gray, and engine customer Ron Krisher, who red-lighted. The final-round appearance was Edwards' 45th in Pro Stock.
Johnson had dominated eliminations, posting three straight 6.70s that were either the quickest of the round or second-quickest. He opened with a 6.709 to beat Greg Stanfield, then recorded a 6.703 to best Greg Anderson and a 6.708 to defeat Atlanta runner-up Rickie Jones and reach his 19th final.
Duane Shields drove his A/FD to a 5.40 to 5.42 victory against Mark Niver’s entry in Top Alcohol Dragster, and Jay Payne scored win No. 38, his 22nd in Top Alcohol Funny Car, on Clint Thompson’s final-round red-light. David Rampy collected win No. 73 and his eighth in Topeka when he took his A/EA Bantam to victory against Lou Ficco Jr. in Comp.
Tim Nicholson posted his first win by scoring Super Stock honors against Kevin Helms, who was bidding for his second double-eliminator win. Helms, who scored his double in Denver in 2005, returned a short time later to take part in the Stock final but lost that one, too, to Dan Fletcher, who scored his 67th win.
Dustin Long defeated Larry Piper for Super Comp honors, and Super Gas gold went to Jason McClure, who used a .002 reaction time to defeat Mike Burkhart for top honors.
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