Tony Schumacher, Ashley Force Hood, Ron Krisher, and Craig Treble emerged the winners at the record-breaking 22nd annual O’Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals presented by Pennzoil at Houston Raceway Park. The event is the fourth on the 24-race 2009 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series schedule.
After losses in the second round twice and in the semifinals once through three events, Schumacher rolls into Baytown looking for his first run to the finals and first victory of the season in today’s final eliminations of the NHRA O’Reilly Spring Nationals at Houston Raceway Park.
To get that win, Schumacher, who will start third after qualifying in 3.868 seconds at 313.00 miles per hour, will have to continue to gel with his new team.
“We knew we were going to have a learning curve as a new team,” Schumacher said. “But, it doesn’t bother me at all, because I look forward to that. We had set every record out there. We had done everything you can do. … We are going to have to research, develop, train, practice and that is what makes it fun – figuring it out. It is knowing that you have a great team, knowing that you have to dig deep to figure it out and doing that.”
The 26-year-old Force Hood, the daughter of 14-time NHRA champion John Force, beat Jack Beckman in the finals to vault from 10th to third in the Funny Car standings.
“Our first win was against my dad (in 2008 at Atlanta), so to be able to race against another team’s driver in the final and win it, we’re maybe a bit more cheerful than after that first win,” she said.
Tony Schumacher won his first race Top Fuel race of the season, while Ron Krisher won the Pro Stock final and Craig Treble won in Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Matt Smith broke Angelle Sampey’s nearly two-year-old record for elapsed time in Pro Stock Motorcycle when he ran 6.865 in a second-round win over defending series champion Eddie Krawiec.
Then, Mike Edwards set a new Pro Stock record for speed when he ran 212.03 mph in his semifinal loss to Krisher.
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