Schumacher powers to Top Fuel win in Gatornationals

Tony Schumacher

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Tony Schumacher added yet another impressive NHRA Top Fuel win to his resume with a victory over teammate Antron Brown in Sunday’s 41st Annual Gatornationals at Gainesville Raceway.

Tim Wilkerson beat out Bob Tasca III to top the Funny Car division, while Jason Line topped Mike Edwards in the Pro Stock final. Eddie Krawiec took top honors in the Pro Stock Motorcycle final over Shawn Gann.

After setting the record for the fastest top speed with a record-setting run of 324.98 mph in the semifinals, Schumacher clocked in at 322.04 mph in the finals to notch his 62nd finals victory and his fourth in the Gatornationals.

“This is absolutely special," said Schumacher. “First of all, this is the Gatornationals; it’s Gainesville. I’ve won it four times now. But my lights have been bad at the first two races.

“It was a perfect win for this team. This is something we needed to do. Now we’re in the points lead and that’s important as we go to Charlotte for the four-wide race."

Schumacher’s victory also gave him the lead in the Full Throttle Series Top Fuel points by 10 points over Cory McClenathan.

“It’s so early in the season to be worrying about points, but it’s still nice to know we’re leading," said Schumacher. “We’re going to have to keep improving with each race because the competition is so intense. There’s some close racing going on right now."

Tim Wilkerson

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

This weekend’s event was the first for Brown since his crash at Phoenix three weeks ago that claimed the life of a spectator. Brown topped the qualifying rounds and then defeated Shawn Langdon in the semifinals to advance to the finals against Don Schumacher Racing teammate, but spun his tires just 150 feet off the line and ended up posting a time of 6.632

“All and all, it was a great weekend for our DSR Matco Tools team," Brown said. “We rebounded from the lowest of lows three weeks ago and we're back on track with this Matco Tools car. We won as we kept the win here in the DSR family and it's still a win for Matco and the Army. We're excited and geared up to go to Charlotte and we don't really know what to expect with the four wide, but we know we have a really strong race car."

Wilkerson posted his first trip to the final round for 2010 and made it pay off, posting a 303.78 mph run to score his 14th career Funny Car final and his first at the Gatornationals.

Wilkerson started from deep in the field after qualifying ninth and needed to beat new Funny Car speed record holder Matt Hagen, who his previous record-setting mark with a lap of 316.15mph in the opening round before losing out to Wilkerson.

After defeating Tony Pedregon in the semis, Wilkerson faced off against Tasca, the defending Gatornationals winner, in their first-ever final round meeting. Wilkerson got off the line first and beat Tasca with an elapsed time of 4.097 to Tasca’s 4.192.

“When you run well and you run consistent, people will show you enough respect to try pretty hard against you," said Wilkerson. “We did have a good day today. I’m not going to say we were world-beaters, but we made some pretty darn good runs to keep them on their toes.".

Jason Line beat out teammate Greg Anderson to reach his 44th final, beating out Mike Edwards with a holeshot victory to win his second straight Gatornationals Pro Stock victory.

Jason Line

Rhonda McCole/AR1.com

Line scored a .004 at the start and came back to beat Edwards by a margin of victory of just .0282 seconds for his 21st Pro Stock final victory.

“We didn’t run great, that’s for sure, but I guess right now the only way to beat Mike (Edwards) is with your left foot because you’re not going to outrun him," Line said. “Fortunately, he gave us the opening, and we managed to get it done somehow."

Krawiec posted his 6th career final round victory in a come-from-behind battle with Gann in their first final-round meet. Krawiec led off the line before Gann overtook him, but Krawiec was not to be denied as he beat Gann to the line by just .0186 seconds, posting a top speed of 195.68.