ANTRON BROWN EXCITED TO GET BACK TO RACING

WANTS THE COMPETITION TO BEGIN

Excitement permeates the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster team in anticipation of the 51st annual NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline kicking off the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series season this Thursday through Sunday on the drag strip of the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona.

    “We’re really excited about going out and racing,” said Antron Brown, the driver of the car. “We had a good test session and now we are ready to see what we can do in competition.”

    The team turned in consistently fast 1,000-foot runs during five days of pre-season testing earlier this month in Florida, including back-to-back passes at better-than-national-record times of 3.76 seconds.

    “We’re back in our groove, like we were in 2009 [when he won six races in 10 final rounds and finished third],” said the 34-year-old Indiana resident who finished fourth in the 2010 Top Fuel standings. “We had a good year. It was our first full one with Don Schumacher Racing, which meant we had to work through a lot of changes, different combinations and had to get used to things.

    “By the time we got into the Countdown to 1, the last six races of the year, we were racing like we did in ’09. We went rounds, went to a couple of semi finals and then won the last race [the Auto Club of Southern California NHRA Finals here].

    According to Antron the goal for this season is a simple one, one not wrapped up in specific finishing positions.

    “Our main goal is to work as hard as we can and show up on race day,” he said. “We want to go rounds and, of course, win some races. This is going to be an extremely competitive field of Top Fuel cars and we plan on being in the fight for the top.”

    The Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster the team will wheel to the starting line for Thursday’s initial qualifying run will be a different car than one the last race of 2010. Built around a DSR-designed chassis, the car met or exceeded co crew chiefs Mark Oswald and Brian Corradi’s expectations during testing.

According to Corradi, all of the changes incorporated in the new car have been successful, “There is one way to describe how the changes we have made have worked – flawlessly!”

“We made a lot changes since last year,” added Brown. “All of that new stuff is obviously working out and we are getting real consistent. Being consistent is what winning drag racing is all about.”