Brown, Beckman, Line, Tonglet Top Southern Nats

Jack Beckman

Antron Brown, Jack Beckman and Jason Line each earned another victory while LE Tonglet tallied his first win of the season in Sunday’s final eliminations at the 31st annual Summit Racing Equipment NHRA Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway.

Brown claimed his second Top Fuel victory after easily skating into the final round to face his Don Schumacher Racing teammate Tony Schumacher.

After qualifying seventh coming into Sunday’s eliminations, Brown went largely unchallenged through the opening rounds, taking out David Grubnic, Shawn Langdon and Terry McMillen to earn his sixth final-round appearance against Schumacher.

Schumacher looked to have the edge going in, having faced a tougher road to the final round. After beating out Ike Maier in the opening round, Schumacher barely edged out Larry Dixon and top qualifier Spencer Massey to move onto the money round.

In the final, Schumacher led at the start with a .045 light, but Brown had the distance covered before the 60 foot mark, moving out to a full car-length lead at the finish to post a 3.856 at 318.69 mph over Schumacher’s 3.905, 315.86 to notch his 11th career Top Fuel victory.

Antron Brown

“It was tough all weekend," said Brown. “Qualifying didn’t go like we wanted it to of course. But our boys just pulled together like they did in Vegas and when race day comes, the game face goes on. Any given Sunday anybody can win it. We came out here this weekend and just took it one round at a time."

“Fast" Jack Beckman topped Mike Neff in the Funny Car final to score his second win of the season, putting up a 4.111 at 311.05 mph to Neff’s 4.119, 305.49 in their first ever final round meeting.

After defeating Melanie Troxel in the opening round, Beckman eliminated top qualifier John Force and then took down Cruz Pedregon to move on to face Neff, who saw all of his early round opponents go up in smoke, earning victories over Jon Capps, Matt Hagan and Bob Tasca III.

Beckman and Neff seemed evenly matched in the final, hanging side-by-side until the 600-foot mark when Beckman took control for his 11th career victory.

“Any win is good," said Beckman. “You take everybody serious. But beating a John Force car has kind of got a nice topping on that ice cream sundae if you know what I mean. They are at the top of their game."

Jason Line powered to his third win of the season over defending Pro Stock champion and Summit Racing teammate Greg Anderson in their second final round meeting of the season.

Line took victories over Shane Gray, Vincent Nobile and Allen Johnson while Anderson beat out Warren Johnson, Rodger Brogdon and top qualifier Mike Edwards to make it to the final round.

With lane choice, Line hit a .034 light and never trailed, going 6.600 at 208.42 mph to earn the 24th Wally of his career.

“It was a good day, it really was," said Line. “After the semis, Greg and I got down there and we were excited. We felt we needed a miracle to win because we didn’t feel like we performed like we should’ve. But somehow we got it. But Summit won today and that was the biggest thing."

In the Pro Stock Motorcycle final, it was a battle between the top two qualifiers as LE Tonglet beat out Karen Stoffer to win his first race of the season, going 6.924, 191.62 mph over Stoffer’s 6.970, 192.30.

“We’re really happy with the way that Nitro Fish Suzuki is running," said Tonglet. “It’s really been a fun bike to ride. It’s so smooth and it’s just hauling butt. There is really nothing more we can do to it."

Tonglet, who rallied from seventh to claim the no. 1 qualifier spot from Stoffer on Saturday, bested Shawn Gann, Gerald Savoie and Andrew Hines to reach his first final round of the year and his first ever against Stoffer, who beat out Mike Berry, Matt Smith and Jim Underdahl.