Historic Maple Grove Raceway next stop for U.S. Army Team

The U.S. Army NHRA team with driver Tony Schumacher travels to historic Maple Grove Raceway here this weekend for the Toyo Tires Nationals.

Since opening in 1962, Maple Grove Raceway, which is located just outside the city of Reading, has been the scene of many barrier-breaking performances in all of the NHRA’s four professional classes including the first side-by-side four-second and 300 mph Top Fuel passes.

Schumacher has had tremendous success over the years at the facility that’s nestled in the heart of Pennsylvania’s Amish country.

Schumacher is coming off his fifth career win at the NHRA’s biggest race of the year – the Mac Tools U.S. Nationals.

In winning his third race of the year, the Chicago native sliced 82 points off Doug Kalitta’s lead in the standings. He enters the Toyo Tires Nationals weekend 54 points behind in second-place.

“It was really important to have the kind of weekend we did in Indy to stay in contention for the championship,” he offered. “We’re now less than three rounds behind Kalitta with 20 rounds of racing left in the season. We’re getting closer and closer with each race. Hopefully, we can keep our little freight train rolling along. Our mission will not be completed until we have that big POWERade check in our hands.”

Having won the last three events at Maple Grove Raceway, Schumacher is going into round 19 of the 2006 NHRA POWERade Drag Racing Series with an optimistic outlook.

“Much like O’Reilly Raceway Park has been good to us, so has Maple Grove,” he added. “It’s another one of those tracks that we feel we have a nice handle on.”