Michael Schumacher is a seven-time World Champion; however, an also successful NHRA driver with the same last name, Tony Schumacher, might outperform his Formula 1 colleague. He started chasing his eighth title in one of the major drag racing competitions in the United Sates with winning two first rounds of the final stage of the Championship.
During the race in Texas, Tony Schumacher earned a unique achievement — he managed to drive to two victories during one racing weekend! But how could that happen? The fact is that the first race of the 2014 Countdown to the Championship (NHRA's playoff version), which had originally been scheduled to open near Charlotte one week earlier, was postponed due to an accident and bad weather conditions and rescheduled for completion during the next weekend.
There was just no equal to Schumacher in Top Fuel class on the Texas Motorplex dragstrip. On Saturday, he clinched victory in the rescheduled Charlotte race and then he raced to his second Top Fuel victory in two days, taking the AAA Texas NHRA FallNationals Sunday. This way, Tony has begun a six-race playoff with two victories in a row. Apart from taking the lead in the overall standings, he managed to establish a clear gap to his closest competitors by nearly 100 points. And that gives him a good chance to claim the victory, like soccer presenters usually say.
«It's an unbelievable situation. We've won two races in less than 24 hours”, said Tony Schumacher after the final run in Dallas, celebrating his 75th and 76th career wins in the most powerful NHRA class. »My family drove up, I won a race, we went to dinner, went to bed, came back, and won another race in under 24 hours”.
Doug Kalitta, who used to head the standings after the 18-race part of the season, was not able to show his best performance in Texas and sits 107 points behind Schumacher in third. Second-ranked Steve Torrence is only one point ahead of Kalitta.
In Funny Car, Courtney Force scored 11th win for a female this year in the NHRA pro categories, although her legendary father, John Force, is keeping the lead in the overall standings. The latter is in pursuit of his 17th NHRA title. Robert Hight and Matt Hagan managed to cut in between John and his daughter. Funny Car is packed much tighter than Top Fuel — there is just a 61-point gap between the Forces.
The final Pro Stock round saw the same competitors as during the race in Indianapolis we have told you about earlier — it was a duel between teammates Dave Connolly and Shane Gray. This time, however, it was Connolly who emerged the winner, allowing him to place second in Pro Stock standings. With this victory, Connolly is now 43 points behind leader Jason Line.
There are four races left this season and the upcoming one will be held this weekend. Viasat Sport TV channel will broadcast the entire race, including qualifying and elimination runs, in Russia and CIS countries on September 29th starting at 15:30 (Moscow time).
