It took four qualifying tries, but Antron Brown makes it to the number 1 spot.

Brown, Matco Tools team shoots to second straight pole
at Las Vegas spring race, look for efficient Sunday in eliminations

LAS VEGAS (March 29, 2014) - Antron Brown and his Matco Tools Top Fuel team would like to extend at winning streak at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway Sunday after championship eliminations of the NHRA SummitRacing.com Nationals.

And they took a step toward that by winning their second straight pole in the Las Vegas Spring race and 35th of his career.

Antron used his last of four qualifying runs to earn his first No. 1 qualifying spot in the past 13 events going back to last year's U.S. Nationals a few miles from his home in Pittsboro, Ind. His best run was 3.768 seconds at 325.14 mph, which is the fastest through two days of qualifying.

"Our class right now is just incredible," said Antron, who has owns 42 NHRA titles. "I saw the ignition box come out, the Matco guys went into the (electronic) management box with the clutch flows, the fuel flows and everything started changing and I said 'Uh-oh, here we go, this is when it gets good.'

The Matco Tools team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald with car chief Brad Mason and the Matco crew produced a consistent dragster at Las Vegas and they continue to be the hottest Top Fueler over the past seven Mello Yello events.

After advancing to last spring's championship round, the Matco team returned in the fall to win the event title.

"We are truly blessed to have the team we have. It's going to be a fight like this all year long. You don't have to be the fastest car, you have to be the most efficient car. I think we have our stuff together to go out there on Sunday and get the job done with the Matco Tools/U.S. Army/Toyota car.

"We want to be efficient and efficiency pays off. We just want to be there. We want to run strong each round. So that's our goal this year, to be more efficient. Our deal is we just want to get better week in and week out."

TOP FUEL
No. 1 Qualifier: Antron Brown (DSR), 3.768 sec., 325.14 mph

ANTRON BROWN, Matco Tools Top Fuel Dragster
Qualified: No. 1
CHAMPIONSHIP ELIMINATIONS
First Round: BROWN vs. Mike Strasburg
QUALIFYING
FRIDAY: 4.579 sec., 166.39 mph, (Session 1); 3.797, 322.96, (Session 2)
SATURDAY: 3.816, 320.97, (Session 3); 3.768, 325.14 (Session 4)
 

About Matco Tools

            Since 1979, the mission of Matco Tools has been to provide professional mechanics and auto enthusiasts with all of the premium tools, storage and equipment they need to get the job done, while also offering best-in-class service and customer support. The company's network of 1,500 premier independent mobile distributors is focused on developing and maintaining trust-based relationships with its customers and has increased its revenues by an average of 8% in each of the last three years. Ranked among the top 30 in Entrepreneur Magazine's 2014 Franchise 500®, the company continues to expand throughout the United States and Canada, adding several hundred mobile stores each year.  For more information, please visit www.MatcoTools.com.

About Don Schumacher Racing

     Don Schumacher Racing, headquartered in Brownsburg, Ind., fields seven professional NHRA teams. In Top Fuel, the U.S. Army dragster driven by seven-time world champion Tony Schumacher, the 2012 NHRA Top Fuel world champion Matco Tools dragster driven by Antron Brown and the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster driven by Spencer Massey; and in Funny Car, 2012 NHRA world champion Jack Beckman in the Valvoline MaxLife Dodge Charger R/T, 2011 world champion Matt Hagan in the Mopar Express Lane/Rocky Boots Dodge, the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge of Ron Capps and the Make-A-Wish Dodge driven by Tommy Johnson Jr.

     DSR has won 220 NHRA national event titles and 11 world championships.

JFR Ready for Eliminations Tomorrow

TEAM JFR QUALIFYING REPORT
2014 NHRA Final Qualifying Summary
3^rd of 24 races in the NHRA Mello Yello Series

45^th annual Amalie Oil NHRA Gatornationals

Auto Plus Raceway

Gainesville, FL
March 14-16, 2014

 * * *

C. FORCE GEARED UP FOR GATORNATIONALS AFTER STRONG SATURDAY

GAINESVILLE, FL – Courtney Force will take on the NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car field from the No. 5 spot on Sunday at the 2014 Amalie Oil Gatornationals. Force entered Saturday not in the show, but quickly turned things around for her Traxxas Ford Mustang team. The 25-year-old started the day with a 4.131 ET at 308.85 mph and moved solidly into the show at the No. 7 spot and picking up three bonus points as the quickest Funny Car of the session.

“I’m excited that our Traxxas Ford Mustang team was able to come out here on Saturday of qualifying and improve on our last two qualifying sessions. We moved up to the top half of the field and that’s what we were going for,” said Force.

In the fourth and final qualifying session, the 2012 Rookie of the Year posted a 4.121 ET at 308.64 mph and moved up to the No. 5 spot and gaining her team two bonus points for being second-quickest of that session. That run set her up to take on competitor Matt Hagan in the opening round on race day.

“It definitely feels great. We changed some things around and it seems to be going in the right direction. We went out there and ran a 4.131 and a 4.121 so we were able to improve on the last run down the track,” said Force.

This will be the eleventh time the pair have matched up on race day since Force’s Funny Car debut in 2012. They are 5-5 in previous match-ups.

“We’re excited going into tomorrow. I think we have a good feel for both lanes. We have lane choice, but we have tough competition going up against Hagan. We’re just going to give it all we got and hopefully go some rounds,” said Force.

Robert Hight and the Auto Club Mustang team made a strong run to start the day. His Mike Neff tuned Funny Car posted the second quickest ET of the session and gave the team a great boost going into the final qualifying session. With temperatures cooling slightly after a number of delays in the Top Fuel session Hight’s Mustang hazed the tires at the top end and he will go into eliminations as the No. 10 qualifier and will race former teammate Tony Pedregon.

“Today was a good day. We made another solid run in the first session under race day conditions. In the last session Neff was looking for the edge and we just missed making another good run. Every time we go down the track we learn something plus we learn from our teammates. Courtney’s Traxxas Mustang made two good runs and we were right with her in the early session. The crew chiefs will get together tonight and we will all have a good game plan for tomorrow,” said Hight.

“The lanes are pretty even and I don’t see any reason we can’t have a long race day tomorrow. Tony Pedregon will be tough and we can’t look past him. I will do my job on the starting line and I know these Auto Club guys will give me a great race car.”

Hight is 9-15 against Tony Pedregon and he defeated him in the first round of last year's Gatornationals.

John Force tried to tame the unpredictable track surface of Auto Plus Raceway for two straight days. The 16-time NHRA Mello Yello Funny Car champion struggled through four qualifying sessions and could only manage a 4.38 second elapsed time, placing his Castrol GTX High Mileage Mustang in the 16th spot.

“It’s been tough and we’ve struggled with this car but all our cars are in and the dragster is running good. Even though the Castrol car is struggling, but they said to me down there on top end during the interview after that last qualifying run, ‘Cruz is low qualifier like you were in Pomona and now and you’re number 16’. At the end of the day when you’re number one and I was low ET and got both ends of the track record, I was sick over that on Sunday morning because you know that car is right on the edge because no one else can do it. We’ll be fine tomorrow,” said John Force.

While most racers agonize by not qualifying in the top-half of the field, it doesn’t faze John Force who has won the Gatornationals seven times.  

“Being the 16th qualifier, I’ve got nothing to lose I’m going out there with a full heart and going after that kid. I love Cruz, it’ll be a fun race, a Toyota against a Ford and we’re going to have some fun.”

Force is 61-29 against Pedregon, 3-1 at the Gatornationals and 13-8 in previous first round meetings. Force has never won a race after qualifying No. 16 so this is an opportunity for him to achieve another milestone.  Force's streak of No. 1 qualifying performances ends at five. 

Coming off her first Top Fuel final round appearance just last month in Phoenix, Brittany Force struggled to qualify in the top half of the field today. Brittany’s Castrol EDGE Dragster to ran a 3.86 second elapsed time placing her in the 13th spot. She narrowly missed picking up a qualifying bonus point in the first session on Saturday posting the fourth quickest Top Fuel run of the session.

“Qualifying didn’t actually go as expected as we’ve had some crazy runs and little bit of confusion in the first qualifying session,” said Brittany Force, who was recently named Rookie of the Year by RACER magazine.  

In trying to get a hold of Auto Plus Raceway crew chief Todd Smith has been trying to get Castrol EDGE Dragster back to its consistent ways. As a driver, Brittany knows the unpredictability of conditions come race day. She is 2-4 against Doug Kalitta but 2-1 in first rounds. 

“It’s been very past two days for us but the important thing is we’re No. 13 and we’re are in the show and we’re ready to play tomorrow. We’re running Doug Kalitta and we’re beaten him before so I’m pumped and ready for tomorrow and we’re ready to go some rounds,” said Brittany Force.   

* * * *

THE DRIVERS

JOHN FORCE, 64, Castrol GTX High Mileage Ford Mustang

Final Qualifying: 16^th at 4.380 seconds at 246.98 mph

Bonus Qualifying Points: 0

First Round Opponent (W-L): Cruz Pedregon (61-29)

ROBERT HIGHT, 44, Auto Club of Southern California Ford Mustang
Final Qualifying: 10^th at 4.132 seconds at 303.78 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +2 (2^nd quickest of Q3)

First Round Opponent (W-L): Tony Pedregon (9-15)

COURTNEY FORCE, 25, Traxxas Ford Mustang
Final Qualifying: 5^th at 4.121 seconds at 308.64 mph
Bonus Qualifying Points: +5 (Quickest of Q3 and 2^nd quickest of Q4)

First Round Opponent (W-L): Matt Hagan (5-5)

BRITTANY FORCE, 27, Castrol EDGE Top Fuel Dragster

Final Qualifying: 13^th at 3.865 seconds at 315.93 mph

Bonus Qualifying Points: +1 (3^rd quickest of Q3)

First Round Opponent (W-L): Doug Kalitta (2-4)

* * * *

RACE SCHEDULE:

Sunday, March 16

Final Eliminations                      11:00 AM

Camaro Z/28 Engineers Get Grip on Wheel Slip

Tire grip, braking capability require action to prevent wheels rotating in tires

2014-03-13

DETROIT – While running fast laps at several of the country’s most challenging tracks, Camaro Z/28 engineers noticed the tires were providing so much traction and the brakes so much stopping force that the wheels rotated inside the tire – an unexpected challenge that required fast thinking.

“We were told to build a fast car – period,” said Mark Stielow, Camaro Z/28 program manager and pro-touring expert. “We knew on Day One we’d need to bring some of the best suppliers onboard to make it happen.”

The suppliers included Pirelli and its P Zero™ Trofeo R tires and Brembo for carbon-ceramic brake rotors. The Trofeo R tires have a track-oriented tread design and compound that, together with the carbon-ceramic rotors, help the Z/28 achieve up to 1.5 g in deceleration force.

It was a perfect combination, but engineers quickly found that when the Z/28’s capability was tested, the wheels were rotating – slipping – inside the tires. They sought the root of the problem by marking one of the Pirelli P Zero™ Trofeo R tires at the beginning of a lap with a chalk line relative to the valve stem on the wheel. At the end of the lap, they recorded where the chalk line ended up and noticed the tire had rotated at least a full 360 degrees from where they started.

Racers use an abrasive paint around the bead of the wheel, where the tire meets the rim, to combat the problem on race cars. The Z/28’s engineers tried it, but it wasn’t strong enough to prevent the slippage, so other approaches were tried. Finally, they tried media blasting, which involves shooting a gritty material through an air gun at the wheel's surface, adding texture to the paint for the tire to grip.

“Media-blasting the wheel created an extremely aggressive grit on the rim, which finally got the tire to hold,” said Stielow.
Along with the tires and brakes, some of the tire slip can also be attributed to the 7.0L LS7 engine helping spin the wheels with an SAE-certified 505 horsepower (376 kW) and 481 lb-ft of torque (652 Nm). While going around corners, the helical-gear limited-slip rear differential also sends power to the wheels so well that differences in tire slip can be observed from side to side on the rear axle.

The 2014 Camaro Z/28 arrives in dealerships this spring

Modified Chevrolet Bowtie Makes Z/28 Even Cooler

Traditional badge modified in the name of all-out track performance

DETROIT – In developing the 2014 Camaro Z/28, the team scrutinized every component looking for ways to improve track performance, lap after lap. Even the iconic Chevrolet bowtie faced audit.

During aerodynamics testing, Powertrain Cooling Development engineer Richard Quinn noticed that the bowtie on the Z/28’s grill was displacing air away from the radiator, which can impact engine cooling – an important aspect for all vehicles, especially track-oriented cars.

Removing the bowtie altogether did not seem to be an appropriate solution. Instead, Quinn took a cut-off wheel to the gold fill of the bowtie, leaving the silver outline intact. He installed the prototype on the grill and retested to see the results.
“There are engineers in our team that race as a hobby,” said Quinn, “and we used that racer’s mindset to look for ways small or large to get better performance out of the Z/28. Even the smallest details on the Z/28 were weighed for cooling benefit, and this is one that stuck.”

The “Flowtie,” as the engineers now affectionately refer to it, is just the chrome outline of the traditional bowtie, with the center removed. This simple solution alone was enough to allow three additional cubic meters of air into the engine per minute. Engineers found the Flowtie dropped the temperatures of engine coolant and engine oil by 2°F (1.2°C) during extended track sessions. That seemingly small improvement was enough to justify making the Flowtie standard on every new Z/28.

“The Flowtie is just one example of the team’s focus on track performance,” said Al Oppenheiser, Camaro chief engineer. “That same attention to detail is evident throughout the cooling systems for the LS7 engine, as well as the carbon ceramic brakes and the differential.”

The naturally aspirated Z/28 weighs 300 pounds less than the supercharged Camaro ZL1 and 55 pounds lighter than the Camaro 1LE - with changes ranging from lightweight wheels to thinner rear-window glass.

“The Camaro Z/28 has more than 190 unique parts, compared to a Camaro SS,” Oppenheiser said. “Like the Flowtie, each of these parts were changed with one objective: to deliver incredible performance on the track – not just for the first lap, but lap, after lap, after lap.” The 2014 Camaro Z/28 arrives in dealerships this spring.