ANTRON: THE UNACCOUNTED FACTOR
Mon, 2009-01-26 16:28
Sophomore Driver Thunders to Quickest Pre-season Lap …
What
do you get when you cross a sophomore Top Fuel driver with an
enthusiastic nature and a pair of Funny Car tuners who have weathered
weeks of employment uncertainty?
If you’re Antron Brown and tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, you get the quickest Top Fuel lap in preseason testing - a thunderous 3.781 seconds, 316.45 mph. Not a bad end result considering the uncertainty of the previous month.
The aforementioned parties, combined with the positive nature of new team owner Mike Ashley, has all the makings of expanding the much anticipated rivalry between Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon into a three-man barn yard scrap, winner take all. Sophomore Driver Thunders to Quickest Pre-season Lap …
What do you get when you cross a sophomore Top Fuel driver with an enthusiastic nature and a pair of Funny Car tuners who have weathered weeks of employment uncertainty?
If you’re Antron Brown and tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, you get the quickest Top Fuel lap in preseason testing - a thunderous 3.781 seconds, 316.45 mph. Not a bad end result considering the uncertainty of the previous month.
The aforementioned parties, combined with the positive nature of new team owner Mike Ashley, has all the makings of expanding the much anticipated rivalry between Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon into a three-man barn yard scrap, winner take all.
“I’m like a kid in a candy store with this car,” Brown crowed. “When you’ve got Brian and Mark Oswald on the same team and Lance Larsen is out here helping out, it’s incredible the team work we have here.”
Yes, even Lance Larsen, noted tuner for Mark Pickens Motorsports, was on hand helping longtime protégé Corradi find just the right combination for the dragster during testing in Phoenix.
This weekend marked the first time Corradi had tuned a Top Fuel dragster in his career and for Oswald, his last experience dated to the early 1980s.
Forget Barrack Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign, Ashley instilled a desire to win in his team moments after acquiring the Matco Tools-sponsored operation from Tim Buckley. Brown jumped on board with the campaign immediately.
“I’m just fortunate enough to be on a good team like we are and to have Mike Ashley take us over as a great motivator and a great team owner,” Brown continued. “He really understands racing because he is a racer. To have gone through what we’ve been through and to have been through two different team owners now we finally have some stable ground to walk on with Matco. There’s never been a doubt in my mind, but it gives my teammates a very stable atmosphere to work in. Five of them are from the team that I was just on and we have a lot of new guys as well. We are all just meshing well together and gelling with each other. “
Brown has seen more than your average second year driver in the last few months. He's watch the team sold twice, lost his veteran tuner, Lee Beard and welcomed in new owner Mike Ashley and a pair of unseasoned Top Fuel tuners.
Brown had not other logical choice but to be positive. He always felt from day one that his destiny was held by a higher power.
“I’m a firm believer that when one door closes, the Lord opens up another door for something great to happen,” Brown said. “I’m looking forward to this race year because there are going to be a lot of fun races and everything. We’re going to be one of the teams to beat out there.”
The numbers confirm Brown’s assessment isn’t mere idle talk.
The quickest 1,000-foot pass Brown posted last season was 3.803-seconds in the first round at Virginia Motorsports Park in October. The quickest 1,000-foot E.T. was posted by six-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher at 3.771-seconds. Only Schumacher, Hillary Will and Doug Herbert ran in the 3.7-second range last season. Schumacher and the U.S. Army/Matco Tools team posted the second quickest testing lap at 3.795-seconds on Sunday.
“I also want to thank my Matco family here in Phoenix this weekend,” Brown said. “It’s great to have such awesome support from the local Matco group with district manager Kent (Holladay) and the Phoenix group. We had a lot of Matco distributors hanging out with us this weekend here at testing, and we love the support for our race team here at MAR.”
What
do you get when you cross a sophomore Top Fuel driver with an
enthusiastic nature and a pair of Funny Car tuners who have weathered
weeks of employment uncertainty? If you’re Antron Brown and tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, you get the quickest Top Fuel lap in preseason testing - a thunderous 3.781 seconds, 316.45 mph. Not a bad end result considering the uncertainty of the previous month.
The aforementioned parties, combined with the positive nature of new team owner Mike Ashley, has all the makings of expanding the much anticipated rivalry between Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon into a three-man barn yard scrap, winner take all. Sophomore Driver Thunders to Quickest Pre-season Lap …
What do you get when you cross a sophomore Top Fuel driver with an enthusiastic nature and a pair of Funny Car tuners who have weathered weeks of employment uncertainty? If you’re Antron Brown and tuners Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald, you get the quickest Top Fuel lap in preseason testing - a thunderous 3.781 seconds, 316.45 mph. Not a bad end result considering the uncertainty of the previous month.
The aforementioned parties, combined with the positive nature of new team owner Mike Ashley, has all the makings of expanding the much anticipated rivalry between Tony Schumacher and Larry Dixon into a three-man barn yard scrap, winner take all.
“I’m like a kid in a candy store with this car,” Brown crowed. “When you’ve got Brian and Mark Oswald on the same team and Lance Larsen is out here helping out, it’s incredible the team work we have here.”
Yes, even Lance Larsen, noted tuner for Mark Pickens Motorsports, was on hand helping longtime protégé Corradi find just the right combination for the dragster during testing in Phoenix.
This weekend marked the first time Corradi had tuned a Top Fuel dragster in his career and for Oswald, his last experience dated to the early 1980s.
Forget Barrack Obama’s “Yes We Can” campaign, Ashley instilled a desire to win in his team moments after acquiring the Matco Tools-sponsored operation from Tim Buckley. Brown jumped on board with the campaign immediately.
“I’m just fortunate enough to be on a good team like we are and to have Mike Ashley take us over as a great motivator and a great team owner,” Brown continued. “He really understands racing because he is a racer. To have gone through what we’ve been through and to have been through two different team owners now we finally have some stable ground to walk on with Matco. There’s never been a doubt in my mind, but it gives my teammates a very stable atmosphere to work in. Five of them are from the team that I was just on and we have a lot of new guys as well. We are all just meshing well together and gelling with each other. “
Brown has seen more than your average second year driver in the last few months. He's watch the team sold twice, lost his veteran tuner, Lee Beard and welcomed in new owner Mike Ashley and a pair of unseasoned Top Fuel tuners.
Brown had not other logical choice but to be positive. He always felt from day one that his destiny was held by a higher power.
“I’m a firm believer that when one door closes, the Lord opens up another door for something great to happen,” Brown said. “I’m looking forward to this race year because there are going to be a lot of fun races and everything. We’re going to be one of the teams to beat out there.”
The numbers confirm Brown’s assessment isn’t mere idle talk.
The quickest 1,000-foot pass Brown posted last season was 3.803-seconds in the first round at Virginia Motorsports Park in October. The quickest 1,000-foot E.T. was posted by six-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher at 3.771-seconds. Only Schumacher, Hillary Will and Doug Herbert ran in the 3.7-second range last season. Schumacher and the U.S. Army/Matco Tools team posted the second quickest testing lap at 3.795-seconds on Sunday.
“I also want to thank my Matco family here in Phoenix this weekend,” Brown said. “It’s great to have such awesome support from the local Matco group with district manager Kent (Holladay) and the Phoenix group. We had a lot of Matco distributors hanging out with us this weekend here at testing, and we love the support for our race team here at MAR.”
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