Monday, April 05, 2004
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

Drag teams remain speed demons

NHRA's Anderson, Schumacher win third time this year

By JEFF WOLF
REVIEW-JOURNAL

Greg Anderson celebrates after winning the NHRA Pro Stock event at Las Vegas Motor Speedway. Photo by Craig L. Moran. Tony Schumacher reacts after winning the NHRA Top Fuel division in Las Vegas. Photo by Craig L. Moran.

The three most dominant teams in the NHRA Powerade Drag Racing series before this weekend reinforced their positions at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

Tony Schumacher in Top Fuel and Greg Anderson in Pro Stock each won for the third time in four events this year after they captured their respective titles in the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals Sunday before an estimated crowd of 18,000.

Although Del Worsham had his two-event winning streak snapped in Nitro Funny Cars, teammate Phil Burkart Jr. was the upset winner in the class.

Anderson was the most dominant driver of the weekend in the Pontiac Grand Am owned by Las Vegan Ken Black.

Anderson, of Charlotte, N.C., got revenge for the only race he's lost this year in 16 trips down the quarter-mile strip when he defeated Kurt Johnson of Buford, Ga., to earn the 19th title of his career.

Anderson has won six of the past seven NHRA events dating to last year, when he took 12 titles to earn his first season championship.

"It's pretty scary," he said of his on-track dominance that is being compared to the accomplishments of Pro Stock legends Bob Glidden, Warren Johnson and the late Lee Shepherd.

"I could never have dreamed about having my name mentioned with those names," Anderson said. "(Our success) is beyond what anybody could imagine. I can't believe it."

Anderson reset both Pro Stock track records on his only qualifying run Saturday to win his ninth straight pole.

In Sunday's eliminations, he defeated Vieri Gaines of Lakewood, Colo., David Connolly of Elyria, Ohio, Larry Morgan of Newark, Ohio, and Kurt Johnson of Sugar Hill, Ga., for the 19th title of his career.

"The bottom line is that we need to find more power," said Johnson, whose elapsed time of 6.849 seconds at 200.08 in the final wasn't enough to top Anderson's 6.849 seconds at 201.43 mph.

"We were right with him in the first 330 feet, but by the top end we were down a few hundredths (of a second) and 1 mile per hour in top speed, which is all horsepower."

Like Anderson, Schumacher continues to dominate, padding his lead in Top Fuel.

After beating Scott Weis in the first round, Schumacher, who qualified ninth, faced top qualifier Scott Kalitta.

Schumacher's day seemed to have ended when the tires on his dragster began to smoke at around 330 feet, but a second later Kalitta nearly hit the left guardwall after he lost traction and the belt on his supercharger flew off, handing the win to Schumacher.

Another break came Schumacher's way in the semifinals when Doug Herbert lost traction.

But in the final, Schumacher needed his best run of the day at 4.525 seconds and 331.25 mph to beat two-time reigning season champion Larry Dixon's effort of 4.571 at 323.97 mph.

"It was a hard day," Schumacher said. "We have a team that does not fail and that puts pressure on the driver."

He gave the most credit to crew chief Allen Johnson, who was hired in June.

"It's a lot of fun right now. It shows on my face and on Allen's," he said.

Schumacher said his team has been confident all week and was not intimidated after Kalitta set the track elapsed time record on Saturday or when his cousin, Doug Kalitta, ran the fastest pass ever in drag racing (335.57 mph) in qualifying.

"I went to bed last night and slept like a baby," Schumacher said. "They performed great, but it was cool. We race on Sunday in the middle of the afternoon when it's hot."

Doug Kalitta lost in the second round to Dixon.