ANTRON BROWN BLASTS TO PROVISIONAL POLE

ON FIRST DAY OF QUALIFYING FOR NHRA WINTERNATIONALS

Antron Brown, who won the final race of last season here, continued his mastery of  the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona by finishing today’s first qualifying round for the 2011 season-opening NHRA Winternationals presented by Valvoline on the provisional pole for Sunday’s race.
The driver of the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster narrowly edged out his two Don Schumacher Racing teammates, each posting a 3.804-second 1,000-foot pass, to achieve his number one positioning on the basis of top speed.

Brown’s 319.98-mile-per-hour speed put him ahead of Spencer Massey, 319.90 mph in the Prestone/FRAM car, and Tony Schumacher, 316.38 mph in the U.S. Army machine.

“This session shows just how stacked the Top Fuel field is with great teams,” said Brown, who finished fourth in the 2010 NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel championship. “And I don’t just mean the DSR cars with our identical E.T.s; there are a lot of great drivers and teams which means we have to stay on our toes.”

Exemplifying his point, Del Worsham, making his first national-event Top Fuel pass in 15 years, achieved the round’s top speed of 321.96 mph during a 3.814-second run into the fourth position.

“It will be a very competitive year,” Brown added. “I’m confident in our chances because since about the last four races of last year, we’ve been running really well and consistently, a key to drag-racing success.”

The 34-year-old Indiana resident got off to a slow and rocky start in 2010, turning the corner in September as the final six-race Countdown to 1 playoffs began. Stronger finishes during this period, including two semi-finals and the win in the season finale helped set the stage for off-season optimism.

“I’ve got a great team preparing this car led by Brian [Corradi] and Mark [Oswald, co crew chiefs],” he said. “They built a new car during the off season, got it ready and we put down solid, consistent runs during pre-season testing in Florida.

“Last year we started out struggling; it’s great to get going like this!”

And the team’s performance did not seem at all affected by an extremely early start to the day thanks to several live segments on the KTLA-TV morning show.

“We got to the track before five this morning,” explained Brown. “So our guys really had a long day. I guess it just goes to show you, the early bird does get the worm!”

Qualifying resumes with another round tomorrow and two on Saturday prior to Sunday’s eliminations.