Atlanta: Antron Brown final report

ANTRON BROWN SUFFERS RARE EARLY LOSS SUNDAY AT ATLANTA

COMMERCE, Ga. (May 16, 2010) - Antron Brown suffered an rare first-round exit Sunday morning at Atlanta Dragway behind the wheel of his Don Schumacher-owned Matco Tools/U.S. Army dragster during final eliminations of the 30th annual Summit Racing Equipment Southern Nationals. The 24-time NHRA winner remains fifth in the NHRA Top Fuel standings.

A day after qualifying sixth with a qualifying-best lap of 3.940 seconds at 275.84 mph, Brown was paired up against No. 11 qualifier Pat Dakin, a veteran racer from Ohio. The drivers used nearly identical reaction times in the .080 of-a-second range as Brown powered to a lap of 4.000 at 297.88, but Matco team's effort wasn't enough to hold off Dakin's hard-charging black dragster. The part-time runner powered to a pass of 4.002 at 303.09 to score the holeshot win as a result of a quicker reaction time. It was just Brown's third career holeshot loss in Top Fuel to his seven wins by leaving the starting line first. The Matco dragster dropped a cylinder early in the run. Brown is now 0-1 against Dakin and has a mark of 11-8 in 19 rounds this season.

"This was another tough weekend for our DSR Matco Tools team," Brown said. "But when things get a little rough,we have to get tougher. Our team is going into Topeka next weekend with our heads held high. We just seemed one run behind all weekend long and we couldn't catch up. We dropped a hole (cylinder) early on that run and Pat Dakin's team did a great job. We're ready to move on to Topeka,"

The next NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series event is the 22nd annual O'Reilly Summer Nationals, May 21-23, at Heartland Park Topeka in Topeka, Kan. Brown, who spent 10 seasons in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, has made only two starts at the Topeka race. Brown earned the No. 1 qualifying award at Heartland Park last May at 3.841-seconds.

-source: dsr