The Sarge, Top Fuel dragster driven by Tony Schumacher, won the NHRA event in Dallas this past weekend. The win pulled Schumacher closer to the evil enemy Al-Anabi dragster in the championship chase, which has 3 more races to go. The road to an eighth Championship for Tony is a tough one, but at least now he is within realistic striking distance.
Outlaw13 and I attended one of the qualifying sessions, and spent a lot of time in the US Army hospitality tent. It was impressive to see the effort the Army and Schumacher's team went to to make their visitors and Army personnel attending the race welcome. Tony himself spent time speaking with new recruits and others - a talk he has to make hundreds of times during the season. He did it with enthusiasm, and took the time to say hello or sign an autograph for anyone who wanted one.
For those of you who have never been to an NHRA event, you ought to go just to experience it. There may not be any other sport where fans can get so close to the action, so close to the bigwigs of the sport. I mean, here we were visiting in the US Army hospitality tent, which was adjacent to Tony's pit area - the dragster was being serviced not 10 feet from the fans. On the other side, Schumacher's teammate Cory Mac's dragster was being serviced in his pit. Across the alley, John Force, Ashley Force, and Robert Hight's Funny Cars were right there, not 25 feet from us. Way cool. You also owe it to yourself to sit in the stands and watch/hear/feel these 8000hp monsters launch down the track. A typical Top Fuel car will go from 0 to 100mph in .8 of a second - yes, 8/10ths of a second! 320mph in 1000ft. Incredible!
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