Schumacher not shaken by split with crew chief
Four panels of experts voted Top Fuel racer Tony Schumacher the motor sports driver of the year for 2008.
He even beat out NASCAR star Jimmie Johnson, who won his third consecutive Sprint Cup championship.
"Hee, hee, hee," the skeptics chortled, shrouded in shadows, when Schumacher’s driving skills were cited as the main reason he won the voting.
The presumption, widely believed but mostly unspoken, was that a robot could win in a Top Fuel dragster with Alan Johnson as crew chief.
Schumacher, Johnson and their veteran U.S. Army team won 15 of 24 national event titles last year to tie an NHRA season record while winning a record-setting fifth consecutive series championship.
But at the end of the season, Johnson left the Don Schumacher Racing operation to start his own team with $11 million in funding from sheikh Khalid Bin Hamad Al Thani of Qatar. Several of Schumacher’s crew members went with Johnson, who hired Larry Dixon to drive his Top Fueler and Del Worsham to drive a Nitro Funny Car.
The parting was amicable, Tony Schumacher said Saturday between qualifying sessions during the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals at Las Vegas Motor Speedway
When Dixon won the NHRA title at Gainesville, Fla., three weeks ago, it provided more fodder to those who figured Johnson’s new Al Anabi Racing team — that means Go Purple, signifying the color of the Qatar flag — would fare better than Schumacher’s.
But the laughing stopped March 29 when Schumacher defeated Johnson’s new operation to win the NHRA title near Houston. The victory, his first of the season, has Schumacher starting to ponder a sixth consecutive season championship and seventh overall series.
"We’re not where we want to be yet, but we’re figuring it out," said Schumacher, who held the pole after Saturday’s first session before dropping to fourth for today’s 16-car, single-elimination rounds.
Dixon qualified third, and three wins by each would set up a final-round matchup.
But no result today could mean more to Schumacher than winning last week, five events into the season with a virtually new team, including crew chief Mike Green.
Schumacher, 39, eliminated Johnson’s car in the semifinals before beating teammate and series points leader Cory McClenathan for the title.
"It wouldn’t have been as satisfying if we didn’t have to go through (Johnson) to get the win," Schumacher said.
Schumacher did it with three "holeshots." His stellar reactions to the electronic starting system were better than his last three opponents; he overcame a matching elapsed time by Morgan Lucas and quicker runs by Dixon and McClenathan. Last season, Schumacher won only three rounds with "holeshots."
"I don’t try to cut (the starting light) close until I have to," Schumacher said. "I study my opponents and know how I want to approach the (starting-line "Christmas") tree.
"Most of the time it’s more important to keep the car in the center of the racetrack than to cut a good light."
Schumacher, a Chicago resident, said earning lane choice by having a quicker run than his opponent of the previous round will win more races than optimum reaction times.
"Quicker reaction times might make me look like a better driver, but going for them more often would not make me a team player," he said.
His philosophy wins championships and makes his sponsor proud, Schumacher said.
"Nobody wants to be a weak link when your sponsor is the U.S. Army and you spend time with the kind of people they bring around," he said.
Among Schumacher’s guests Saturday at the speedway were Brigadier Gen. Arnold Gordon-Bray and Sgt. Peter Grain, 25, a Las Vegas resident who earned a Purple Heart in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
"People cannot fathom how wonderful it is to come to the track in the morning and hear such inspirational stories from men like that," Schumacher said.
The inspiration might have helped last week, and maybe it will do so again today.
Contact reporter Jeff Wolf at jwolf@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0247.
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