Backstretch Motorsports

BROWN WINS AT HOUSTON, EARNS FIRST CAREER TOP FUEL WIN

Becomes first NHRA driver to win in Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle

BAYTOWN, Texas (March 30, 2008) – Antron Brown made NHRA history Sunday afternoon at Houston Raceway Park as the 32-year-old raced his David Powers-owned Matco Tools dragster to the win at the 21st annual O’Reilly Spring Nationals. He becomes the first driver in NHRA history to earn wins in both Top Fuel and Pro Stock Motorcycle. He won 16 races during his 10-years in the two-wheel category.

After qualifying the Matco Tools/iLocate GPS dragster in the No. 12 position with a run of 4.644 seconds on Friday afternoon. The New Jersey native bested veteran racer Doug Foley, 29-time Top Fuel winner Cory McClenathan, perennial title contender Doug Kalitta, and two-time series champion Larry Dixon to earn his first career Top Fuel win and 17th NHRA victory.

“The dream is unreal,” Brown said. “I dreamed about this as a kid growing up going to the Summer Nationals in New Jersey watching all the greats like Kenny Bernstein, Don Garlits, John Force and Don Prudhomme. I still ask myself, am I really here?

“It was unbelievable to qualify No. 1 at Pomona. We have a great team with awesome chemistry and I knew we could win. I didn’t think it would be long term and we’d be waiting until the end of the season to win. With the talent around me, I figured we’d be in this position. This Matco team just has an awesome group of guys. I’m just so happy to be a part of the team here at DPM.”

Facing off against Foley in the opening round for the second straight event, the drivers used nearly identical reaction times to start the race. Brown used a tune-up from crew chief Lee Beard to clock the third quickest pass of the first round, 4.591 seconds at 322.27 mph, to score the win light in the left lane. Brown edged Foley at the finish line after the New Jersey racer powered to a pass of 4.606 at 320.13 in his white dragster.

In a rematch of the quarterfinals at the season-opening event in Pomona, Calif., Brown evened his record with McClenathan at 1-1. The 16-time NHRA Pro Stock Motorcycle winner clocked low elapsed time of the round in the Matco Tools/Valvoline rail. Brown got the jump at the start and used Beard horsepower to record a pass of 4.541 at 326.56 to hold off the hard-charging FRAM dragster, which recorded a run of 4.566 at 305.22. It was the first time that Brown has advanced to the semifinals since making the move to Top Fuel.

Competing in the semifinals for the first time since the Auto Club Finals at Pomona last fall, Brown used a consistent Beard tune-up to advance to his first Top Fuel final round and the 34th final of his career. Kalitta used a slight starting line advantage, but Brown clocked low elapsed time of the round in the Matco-backed rail with a pass of 4.570 at 321.88 to earn lane choice in the final round of the O’Reilly Spring Nationals. Kalitta trailed with a pass of 4.689 at 311.56 in his red dragster.

In one of the closest races of the day, Brown’s Matco rail nipped Dixon’s silver and blue car at the 1,320-foot finish line. Dixon got a slight advantage at the start, but Brown drove the Matco rail to a run of 4.605 at 320.28 to earn his first-ever win at Houston Raceway Park. Dixon narrowly trailed with a pass of 4.621 at 309.06. Brown is now 17/17 in 34 career final rounds.

“The competition is so stiff out here in Top Fuel,” Brown said. “You have to have some luck and be good. That was a way close race and I didn’t see the win light come on in my lane and I thought we had lost. I felt like I was back in Pro Stock Bike, but only going faster. I couldn’t believe it when the TV cameras came to me at the top end.”

Brown is the 10th different driver that crew chief Beard has tuned to a victory. The win was Beard’s third at the Houston track. He tuned Gary Ormsby (1989) and Ed McCulloch (1993) to Top Fuel victories at the Baytown track.

“We chased our tail in qualifying, but we found some things Saturday night and changed them around and came out today and the car ran fantastic,” Beard said. “It did everything that we told it to do and Antron did a great job of driving. This new Matco crew has really come together as a team and hopefully this is the start of many wins for us.”

Headquartered in Houston with race operations located in Brownsburg, Ind., David Powers Motorsports fields the two-car Top Fuel operation of drivers Rod Fuller and Antron Brown. DPM proudly represents racing partners Matco Tools, Caterpillar, Forward Sports Marketing, Valvoline, Toyota, Ringer’s Gloves, Go Fast Sports, iLocate GPS, Goodyear, FRAM, and Autolite.

R1 BROWN (.065) 4.591 ET, 322.27 MPH def. Foley (.063) 4.606 ET, 320.13 MPH
R2 BROWN (.060) 4.541 ET, 326.56 MPH def. McClenathan (.095) 4.566 ET, 305.22 MPH
R3 BROWN (.056) 4.570 ET, 321.88 MPH def. Kalitta (.044) 4.689 ET, 311.56 MPH
R4 BROWN (.063) 4.605 ET, 320.28 MPH def. Dixon (.051) 4.621 ET, 309.06 MPH

In Funny Car, Del Worsham ended a two-year victory drought by driving his Checker Schuck’s Kragen Chevy Impala SS past the Ford of Ashley Force for his 22nd career win but first since the U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis in 2005. Worsham defeated Jerry Toliver in Round 1, fellow Chevy driver Tim Wilkerson in Round 2 and 14-time Funny Car champ John Force in the semifinals before facing off against Force’s daughter, Ashley, who was looking for the first career Funny Car win of her young career. In the final round Worsham had a winning elapsed time of 4.933 seconds at 316.60 mph to Force’s 4.971 e.t. at 302.62 mph.

“What a great day,” Worsham said. “I don’t think one person working on the car was on our car in ’05. We’ve just got a bunch of young kids that are really excited and really hungry. Everything just came together. I’m not going to say it was without trouble today – we had problems in the pits, we had problem in warm-ups, we had problems with our timer box – but it all came together. My Dad made some great calls on the starting line. It was getting hotter all day and going away, and he kept up with it and didn’t get crazy. He had a great day.

“As bad as I felt about the first two races, and I felt really bad about it, it was a lot different than last year when we didn’t qualify because the car ran well. We’d go out and test and it would make runs and I kept saying we could win a race, we just have to get everything right. We even tried today to fail, you know, try and do things and brake and not go down the track. But we kept up with it, and I could just tell by the way it was running that this day was going to come again, I just didn’t know when and didn’t know it was going to be this quick. It finally happened and here it is. It’s tough, but the fans are what keep you excited out here. That’s why you come out here. The fans out here thye come out here and support you and your family and it keeps everybody together. I’ve been driving 18 years now, and it just keeps me going.”

Anderson’s Pontiac Takes Surprise Win at NHRA Spring Nationals

By his own admission Greg Anderson’s Summit Racing Pontiac GXP wasn’t the fastest Pro Stock car going into today’s eliminations for the 21st annual O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park, but that didn’t stop the three-time POWERade champ from collecting his second win of the season by defeating No. 1 qualifier Kurt Johnson in the ACDelco Chevy Cobalt in the final round. In the money round Anderson, who qualified sixth, had an elapsed time of 6.692 seconds at 207.37 mph as Johnson spun the tires and slowed to a 13.425 e.t. at 64.01 mph.

“I’m a realist and I kind of know when you deserve to win or have a good chance to win, and I wouldn’t have put my money on us at the start of the day,” Anderson said. “But drag racing’s crazy and you’ve got to race on the track, not on paper. We struggled this weekend, but a lot of guys struggled. It just came down to timing. Whoever we were matched up with we just did a slightly better job to get the round win. Timing is everything. This is a neat win. I don’t remember winning one like this before. The racetrack just threw curveball after curveball at us, and we just kept getting infield hits, I guess. We never knocked one out of the park, but I guess it was enough to win. I’ll remember this one for awhile.”

This was Anderson’s 53rd career victory to break a tie with Joe Amato (52) on the all-time wins list, and he has been on both sides of the fence when it comes to winning or losing races.

“They always say it seems to even out. Sometime you deserve to win and you don’t, and other times you don’t deserve to win and you do. I feel bad for Kurt right now, but we’re all professionals and somebody’s going to hold the trophy at the end of the day whether they were the most deserving car or not. You see it every day in other forms of racing, sometimes the fastest car doesn’t win the race and that’s what happened here today.”

Smith Rides Away With Pro-Stock Motorcycle Win at HRP

Reigning Pro Stock Motorcycle Champion, Matt Smith dominated Houston Raceway Park on his Nitrofish Buell. After coming off of a semi-final finish in Gainesville a few weeks ago, Smith went home and worked to find more power, and it showed in Houston.

Running six second passes during each of his qualifying runs throughout the weekend, Smith would not only capture the No. 1 qualifying spot but the Full Throttle Award as well. Proving that his hard work in between races paid off.

“We definitely spent a lot of time on the dyno the last few weeks,” said Smith. “We were pleased with our performance in Gainesville, but knew we needed to work harder if we wanted to be the fastest. We worked till 2 or 3 in the morning many nights during those two weeks and so far it looks as if we are where we need to be.”

Going into round one, Smith had to face off against Junior Pippin. Smith not only left on the No. 16 qualifier but outran him as well. Second round Smith had to run Angelle Sampey with another great late and a great looking pass, Smith would once again find himself in the semi-finals.

For the second race in a row, Smith was up against the Harley Davidson of Andrew Hines. Not being able to beat Hines at all last year as well as this year, Smith was more than ready for the former Champ. Smith would leave the starting line first and never look back as he would sail into his first final of the year.

With Smith having to now run the Gainesville winner, Matt Guidera in the finals, Smith knew he would have to once again be on his A-game. Leaving on his opponent and never trailing the race, Smith would take home his first Wally of the year with his seventh career win.

“This is just great,” said Smith. “I can’t tell you how excited I am. Coming in here I am pretty sure I had never one a round at Houston, but I just stayed focused and it paid off. I have learned to race myself and it is paying dividends. Today is Kenny Koretsky’s (Nitrofish owner) birthday, so this one is for him. I have got to thank Nitrofish, Mark Stockseth, who was here, Mac Tools, Red Line Oil, Larry Tutterow, my dad, my guys, man there’s a whole list. It’s good to be in the winner’s circle again and I can’t wait for Atlanta.”

Smith moves into second place in the POWERade Pro Stock Motorcycle Championship point standings with his win, and stands only 17 points out of the lead. The Pro Stock Motorcycle class will run again in three weeks at Atlanta, GA.