ANTRON BROWN’S EXPECTATIONS HIGH

GOING INTO THIS WEEK’S GATORNATIONALS

Antron Brown drives the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster onto the strip at the Gainesville Raceway here anxious for this weekend’s 42nd annual Tire Kingdom Gatornationals to commence.

According to the 35-year-old Indiana resident, who reached the semifinals nine days ago in the opening race of the 2011 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series, continuing the positive momentum going into this race is important.

“I just want to stay in the groove now that we’re racing again,” said Brown. “We had a good start in Pomona (Calif., site of the initial race); I just want to do better.

“Actually, going back to the last part of the 2010 season, we’ve been doing well and I look forward to that continuing this week in Florida.”

Brown opened the Winternationals by posting a 3.790-second/ 325.37-mile-per-hour first-round win against Mike Strasburg, a round during which he set his personal top-speed record. Brown used a 3.828/320.66 run in the second round to defeat Doug Kalitta, before losing to Shawn Langdon in the third.

Last year Brown, who finished fourth in the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel championship, made it to the final round of the Gatornationals before losing to Tony Schumacher, a Don Schumacher Racing teammate. In addition, he had been the race’s number one qualifier.

“This is always a race where you have to bring your “A-game” if you want to have a chance to win,” he said. “My guys have this car running really well, so we’ll see.”

His semifinal finish at the Winternationals propelled Brown into third place in the Top Fuel driver standings with 82 points (32 points behind leader Morgan Lucas)

“This is a big race for Matco Tools and the U.S. Army,” he explained. “I really want to do well for our distributors and for our soldiers.”