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Preview

U.S. Nationals preview - NHRA aces prepare for the Big Go

Testing at Lucas Oil Raceway proved not only the U.S. Nationals' significance in the NHRA calendar, but also that it's going to be very tough to beat those Don Schumacher Racing machines, in both Top Fuel and Funny Car. Anne Proffit reports.

Tony Schumacher

Tony Schumacher

NHRA

Tony Schumacher
Tony Schumacher
The Top Fuel of Antron Brown
Tommy Johnson Jr., Jack Beckman
Antron Brown
Funny Car winner Jack Beckman
Robert Hight
Robert Hight
Jack Beckman

The 63rd Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals are the biggest NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event of the year. Not only is this race the last in the “regular” season that sets a 10-race, six-contest playoff for championships in Top Fuel, Funny Car, Pro Stock and Pro Stock Motorcycle, the vast grounds of Lucas Oil Raceway outside Indianapolis becomes the home of more than 1,000 racers and racecars for a festival of straight-line competition in a variety of pro and amateur classes.

There are races within this race, such as the Traxxas Nitro Shootout for Top Fuel and Funny Car and there is bragging to be done for anyone picking up a Wally trophy at the close of five days of racing. It’s the Nationals – it’s the Big Go – and this is, appropriately in Indiana, the one everyone wants and needs to win.

For that reason, most of the prime players in the top pro classes hover around this track for two days of testing the week prior to the big race. This, too, is a tradition in NHRA and one in which many teams, most based in nearby Brownsburg, opt to participate.

On Wednesday there were six Top Fuel dragsters on the premises; that increased to eight for Thursday’s session but didn’t change the name at the top of the leaderboard -  Tony Schumacher, reigning U.S. Nationals winner and a 10-time victor in this prestigious contest.

Schumacher’s best of 3.707/327.19 lap edged his Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) teammate Antron Brown (3.753/325.50), Brittany Force (3.773/301.07) running a John Force Racing dragster, Aussie Wayne Newby in Rapisarda Racing’s rail, Billy Torrence shaking down his dragster for a rare appearance and Shawn Langdon, prepping for his first U.S. Nationals outing with Kalitta Motorsports.

Eight-time series champion Schumacher bettered his Wednesday time onThursday when he ran 3.702/332.34, and Brown stepped up the pace with his lap of 3.722/330.72, as did Torrence with a 3.775/292.08. Langdon moved up the ladder, Newby stayed about the same, newcomer Ashley Sanford joined the group, as did rookie Troy Coughlin Jr. of Kalitta Motorsports. Brittany Force didn’t make a clean lap down the track, landing in the eighth and final place after the second day of testing.

In Funny Car Wednesday’s top testing time belonged to 2016 race winner Matt Hagan of DSR. His best of 3.861/332.92 in a Dodge Charger R/T eclipsed John Force Racing’s Robert Hight’s Chevrolet Camaro SS (3.863/328.78). Third on Wednesday was reigning champ RonCapps, urging his Charger down the Indy track at 3.898/327.98, followed by JFR’s Courtney Force, Jim Head Racing’s Jonnie Lindberg in a Toyota Camry, Tommy Johnson Jr.’s Charger, J.R. Todd’s Kalitta Motorsports Camry, 16-time champ John Force and Jack Beckman.

That changed on Thursday when two-time Indy winner Beckman of DSR used his first pass in a Dodge Charger R/T to turn 3.827/337.07. It would be 2012 champion Beckman’s only full run down the track and he said, “If you go to a test session and your car goes to the finish line under power every run, you’re not pushing the envelope enough. The whole point of a test session isn’t to just go and make laps; it’s not practice. It’s trying things you think might work – and they don’t always work.”

Hight was second again on Thursday at 3.842/330.88 and Capps continued in third place at 3.863/330.72. Johnson Jr. was fourth, followed by Courtney Force, John Force, Todd, Lindberg, Brainerd winner Alexis DeJoria and Cruz Pedregon, the latter four driving Camrys. Hight noted he’d made “about seven runs and all of them have been in the 3.80s. We failed to go one time but we were trying some crazy stuff. I wish Indy started tomorrow,” Hight admitted. “It’s a big week and I can’t wait.”

Four-time U.S. Nationals champ and 16-time Funny Car titleholder John Force agreed with son-in-law Hight: “We had a good test session. We changed a lot of motor stuff and the clutch over the last couple of races. And it’s starting to show - we’re running some good numbers. Big picture: I said we’d be ready for Indy and we’re ready for Indy. We’re ready to go racing.”

There were three Pro Stock Motorcycle entries at the track for Wednesday testing only: While Mark Maquette (Victory) and Ryan Oehler (Buell) are entered in the U.S. Nationals next week, Ron Tornow, not on the current entry list, had the best lap time of 6.960/190.65 on a Matt Smith Buell. There are 22 motorcycles on the entry list for this race.

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