J.R. Todd Beats Schumacher in Finals at Sonoma
SOMONA, Calif.(July 30) -- J.R. Todd's incredible ride in NHRA POWERade Series drag racing continued unabated Sunday at Infineon Raceway when he collected his second Top Fuel victory of the season and second in three weeks.
Once again, Todd got the win light against three-time defending series champion Tony Schumacher, who had the quickest elapsed times in the first three rounds.
But Jimmy Walsh, the SKULL Shine dragster's crew chief and tuner, was up to the task. Todd's 4.619-second, 309.27-mph quarter-mile run got him to the finish line first without the tires losing traction on the tricky racing surface. Schumacher, meanwhile, was slowed by traction problems and he couldn't keep up, finishing in 4.679 seconds at 316.01 mph.
In the past three weeks, Todd has gone from an unknown to a rising series star. His victory at Denver was totally unexpected. His win Sunday was not nearly as shocking.
"This win was a lot different than the first one," said Todd. "I didn't expect to win (at Denver) that early in my career but after we did, I knew we definitely could go out and win again. People really didn't know who we were at Denver, and then we started winning rounds and knocked off the Army car (Schumacher) in the finals. And then do it again at Sonoma and to just outrun him like we did shows just how capable we are and how good Jimmy Walsh is. They definitely can't take us lightly now."
Todd's two wins have come in his ninth and 11th career races. During this three-race Western Swing (races in Denver, Seattle and Sonoma), Todd has catapulted from 15th to 12th in the standings. He now has 614 points and is 60 points out of the top 10 with eight races yet to be run.
His path to the title round included wins over Alan Bradshaw (4.690 to 8.720), David Grubnic (5.152 to 5.410) and Hillary Will, his rival for rookie of the year honors, (4.678 to 4.637).
"I knew we had to step up (the performance) in the finals," added Todd. " This was basically the same circumstances as Denver. He had been running strong all day long and had probably a tenth (of a second) on everybody and had the dominant car. When one of the TV reporters asked me what I needed to do (to win the finals), I said probably run a low 4.60. That's what we had to do if we wanted to out run him."
And that's what he did.
This is all heady stuff for Todd, who spent the last five years working as a crew member on a Top Fuel and a Funny Car team. Dexter Tuttle, the SKULL Shine car owner, signed him before the start of the season, but it wasn't until he received sponsorship help from SKULL Shine and Knoll-Gas Torco Race Fuels that the team began to jell.
It is still a work in progress, but it is quantum leaps ahead of where it was two months ago.
