At Reading Beckman takes Funny Car lead, Brown pads his in Top Fuel

Both DSR drivers leave Maple Grove with E.T. records

READING, Pa. (Oct. 8, 2012) - The only things Antron Brown and Jack Beckman didn't do over the past four days at Maple Grove Raceway were win national event titles.

Antron Brown

Photo by: NHRA

Brown and the Matco Tools "Tools for the Cause" team advanced to their 11th championship round through 21 NHRA Full Throttle Drag Racing Series events this season but fell short of winning a seventh event this year when Brown was upset by rookie Khalid alBalooshi, who recorded his first NHRA Top Fuel title.

Brown with crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald extended their points lead over DSR teammate Spencer Massey's Prestone/FRAM team to 104 points with only two events remaining in the Countdown to the Championship. Another DSR driver, Tony Schumacher, is ranked third but trails Brown by 136 points.

Brown's first-round time of 3.722 seconds on Sunday set the national record but another driver, Shawn Langdon topped that on Monday with a 3.712. However, in the semifinals, Brown responded with an astounding 3.701 to leave Maple Grove with the record and bonus points.

In Funny Car, Beckman and the Battery eXtender by Schumacher Electric/Valvoline NextGen team completed a major step in a miraculous season by setting a national elapsed time record and advancing to the semifinals to move around teammate Ron Capps and the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge Charger R/T for the lead in the Championship standings.

Beckman with crew chief Todd Smith and assistant Terry Snyder will arrive at the next Full Throttle event in three weeks with a 23-point lead over Capps, who lost to Beckman in Monday's rain-delayed second-round match-up.

Third-ranked Mike Neff of John Force Racing, who won the Maple Grove Raceway title, moved within 54 points of Beckman and 31 of Capps.

Johnny Gray, another DSR Dodge driver, made a big jump in points by advancing to the championship round at Maple Grove where he lost to Neff. Gray moved from eighth to fourth place but is 191 points out of the lead.

Source: Don Schumacher Racing