NHRA pros at Sonoma, Calif.

Top Qualifiers Go On to Win

Results compiled by Kay Burk
Photos by Jeff Burghardt and Mike Burghardt

(Mike Burghardt photo)

Jack Beckman finished off a dominating weekend at the NHRA Sonoma Nationals on Sunday, Aug. 2, by racing to the Funny Car victory. Antron Brown (Top Fuel), Chris McGaha (Pro Stock) and Eddie Krawiec (Pro Stock Motorcycle) also were winners of the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series event at Sonoma Raceway. It is the first time in NHRA history where all four No. 1 qualifiers went on to win the race.

TOP FUEL


(Jeff Burghardt photo)

Antron now has the same number of NHRA Top Fuel wins as his racing hero known as "Big Daddy."
Brown and his Matco Tools/U.S. Army team, led by his master tuning duo of Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, used a dominate performance during the Sonoma NHRA Nationals as Antron collected his 51st career NHRA win and 35th in Top Fuel.

"That is just a true, true, true blessing," Antron said of his category best fourth win of 2015. "When I was a kid watching this sport everybody knew who Big Daddy was. What got my interest in the sport was in 1986 in Englishtown when I saw him blow over. I said man, he's crazy, but he got out. I watched him on TV he got back in the car and he ended up winning the championship that year.

"To tie one of the greatest racers in history is just unbelievable and it hasn't sunken in. It won't sink in until I actually stop racing because I won't look at what we've done, I won't do that until I walk away from this sport because I'm still young and I'm hungry."

Antron now ranks sixth in NHRA career Top Fuel wins.

Antron's dominant weekend started Friday afternoon when the Matco/Toyota team carded the second quickest lap of the first qualifying session at Sonoma Raceway. Later that evening, Antron unleashed the fourth quickest pass in Top Fuel history at 3.707 seconds to earn his fifth No. 1 qualifying award of the season and 42nd career pole.

"It was a great race weekend," Antron said of his fourth Sonoma Raceway triumph.

"Anybody that can be a part of an organization such as DSR, you are just truly blessed to be a part of an organization like this. Even though I was on (Pro Stock Motorcycles) I was there at the start back when the shop was on 38th Street in Indy. We started from there and I've seen how this whole organization has grown over the years. Not to just a great organization but to be so great for the sport of NHRA. Every one of the teams works together. It's pretty awesome."

During qualifying at the track located just north of San Francisco, Antron's Matco Tools rail was the quickest of two sessions and second quickest of the other two sessions.

On race day, Antron's car, which flies the names of more than 1,500 Matco Tools distributors, posted three laps in the 3.7-second range, including a pass of 3.787 seconds at 320.74 mph to edge Top Fuel rookie Dave Connolly in the final round.