Don Schumacher said he was unprepared for Wednesday’s notification
 

Friday’s announcement that the U.S. Army was ceasing their association with the Don Schumacher Racing Pro Stock Motorcycle team came as a total shock on Wednesday to the racing world. Two days later it shocked the rest of the racing community.

“The conference call on the Wednesday prior to the Memphis event, this decision came as a total shock to me,” Schumacher said. “The last word I had heard prior to that was that they were continuing with the present program in place and that everything was just fine.”

In Memphis, last Friday, the racing world learned otherwise.

Schumacher’s program with the U.S. Army runs on a year-to-year basis with a particular deadline every season. He said the advertising agency who represents the U.S. Army account had already verbally given a commitment within the specified time to continue for 2008. That order was rescinded.

Fans of the Angelle Sampey and Antron Brown tandem might be forced to pick one of the two for 2008.

Don Schumacher said he was unprepared for Wednesday’s notification
 

Friday’s announcement that the U.S. Army was ceasing their association with the Don Schumacher Racing Pro Stock Motorcycle team came as a total shock on Wednesday to the racing world. Two days later it shocked the rest of the racing community.

“The conference call on the Wednesday prior to the Memphis event, this decision came as a total shock to me,” Schumacher said. “The last word I had heard prior to that was that they were continuing with the present program in place and that everything was just fine.”

In Memphis, last Friday, the racing world learned otherwise.

Schumacher’s program with the U.S. Army runs on a year-to-year basis with a particular deadline every season. He said the advertising agency who represents the U.S. Army account had already verbally given a commitment within the specified time to continue for 2008. That order was rescinded.

Fans of the Angelle Sampey and Antron Brown tandem might be forced to pick one of the two for 2008.

“I am planning to field at least one motorcycle out there in 2008 and if plans work out, I wouldn’t mind running both,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher said he doesn’t know which one he will pick. He declines to name a front-runner to remain with DSR.

“I have already told them both to go out and seek employment because they have to take care of themselves, their families and such,” Schumacher said. “As I finalize things in the next 30 – 45 days, but that will be once I have completed things and put them together.”

Schumacher is at a loss for what prompted the U.S. Army to withdraw the program but has a good idea.
“I believe it had to do with a major change with most of their upper management people,” Schumacher said. “That is from the Pentagon through the Sessions command through the United States recruiting command. All of those top people changed. They were looking at all of their marketing dollars and decided this was a program that they wanted to change.”

There is a racing simulator on the NHRA Manufacturer’s Midway that features the likeness of the U.S. Army Pro Stock Motorcycle team and its future has yet to be decided. Also yet to be determined, is whether this marketing downsizing will affect the NHRA’s policy of offering the U.S. Army recruiting program an exclusive opportunity.

“This is a business and a business decision they made,” Schumacher said. “The only part that I am disappointed is how late it was made and how it personally affects the employment of the people at our racing teams.”

Schumacher said this move forces him to pay closer attention to his U.S. Army-sponsored Top Fuel team currently driven by his son Tony Schumacher. It also operates on the same contract particulars as the bikes.

“It’s something I think about a lot differently today than I have previously,” Schumacher said.

Schumacher said the U.S. Army dragster was not even discussed when the Pro Stock Motorcycle decision was handed down.

“The people have changed [replaced] who are running all of these programs and in a year-and-a-half with the elections, there will be another change,” Schumacher said. “If the people who are running are replaced with new people, you never know what might change.”

Schumacher denied this decision had anything to do with the level of exposure that Sampey and Brown had to the U.S. Army’s upper echelon as compared to Tony Schumacher.

“They [Angelle Sampey and Antron Brown] were a great part of the U.S. Army’s diversity program and have done a great job with the program,” Schumacher said. “This decision had no reflection on them personally or the teams, performance or how they finished. It was clearly a return on investment decision made by people who haven’t really visited the races as of yet.”

This decision by the U.S. Army and its advertising agency might have had something to do with the NHRA’s marketing of the class, sources have confirmed. Case in point – the NHRA didn’t mention the special $25,000 Ringer’s Pro Bike Battle in the Saturday wrap-up distributed to the general drag racing media until the last paragraph.

“I have indicated to different people that the only way they [NHRA] can really take that class, in my eyes, forward is to run the class at all 23 and soon to be 24 events,” Schumacher said. “You can’t do that on a part-time basis in my eyes. The biggest problem is funding – in acquiring the sponsorship dollars required so that these bikes can go out and run at every event. It’s a real difficult situation to deal with – which comes first the cart of the horse?”