Don Schumacher Racing 2011 Top Fuel Season Review

Overall, Don Schumacher Racing had a very successful season in Top Fuel. Their teams won 10 of 22 races and in 5 of those races there was an all DSR final. Their innovative safety cockpit design did its job; saving their drivers from serious injury from fire throughout the season. Here are some highlights for each of the drivers:

Antron Brown
Round Record: 50 - 16
Wins: 6
Runner up: 2

Antron had a great season in the Matco Tools / US Army / Aaron’s dragster, capturing 6 wins in 8 final round appearances. While he came up short of winning the championship, he won the next best thing – INDY! In winning Indy, Antron became the first driver to win that prestigious race in Pro Stock Motorcycle and Top Fuel. Antron had a consistent car all year long, advancing to the semifinals a whopping 13 times. Because of this consistency, Antron appeared in 66 out of a possible 88 rounds of racing. In addition to those accomplishments, Antron won 3 races in a row from Brainerd through Charlotte 2. He entered the Finals in contention to win the championship, but lost in the 2nd round and finished the season in 3rd place.

Spencer Massey
Round Record: 45 - 17
Wins: 4
Runner up: 4

Coming into the 2011 season, Spencer Massey had big shoes to fill. He replaced fan favorite Cory Mac as the driver of the Fram top fuel dragster. Because of Spencer’s ability to cut a great light and the success of crew chiefs Todd Okuhara / Phil Shuler, expectations were very high for the Fram team. Spencer’s car was very consistent all year long and his reaction time was the best in the class. He won the Topeka and Englishtown races back to back for his first 2 wins with DSR. Spencer’s season had many highlights, but there were two that really stood out. The first highlight was when the Fram dragster went 40 consecutive passes down the track without smoking the tires – a remarkable achievement. The second is when Spencer beat Del Worsham in the Reading final round on a hole shot when Del ran the quickest pass ever with a 3.735. Spencer came in to the Finals with a two point lead, but lost to eventual champion Del Worsham in the semifinals by a mere .0004 of a second and finished in 2nd place.

Tony Schumacher
Round Record: 38 - 22
Wins: 0
Runner up: 7

In 2011, Tony Schumacher and the US Army Top Fuel team did not walk away with a win, but it was not for a lack of trying. As the old saying goes, to be the best you have to beat the best. That is exactly what happened to Tony this year. Tony’s opponents fired moon shots against the US Army dragster at every race. Tony lost races this year by the slimmest of margins, sometimes by thousandths of a second. He had a consistent car all year with great performance numbers. The Army crew tuned Tony to 4 straight final rounds, 3 of which were part of the difficult Western Swing. During the Charlotte 2 race in September, Tony ran the fastest speed in the 1,000 foot era at 327.90 MPH. Tony entered the Finals with a mathematical chance to win championship, but needed way too much help for it to be a possibility. He would finish the season in 5th place.