By Rick Sheek (rsheek@starhq.com)
Talk about no problem with the transition. Antron Brown made the move from Pro Stock Motorcycle to Top Fuel without skipping a beat.
Brown reached the winner’s circle in just his fourth start this year, at Houston. He was top qualifier at the season opener at Pomona.
“I’m beyond words,” Brown said recently by phone. “For sure it’s been a dream so far already. First off, getting a Top Fuel ride was something I wanted to do.
“I didn’t know if I would do it until it happened, but I’ve had a lot of people believe in me. They gave me a shot to shine, and the team hasn’t let them down. We’re getting there. We’ve been real successful. I’m loving it.”
Heading into this weekend’s eighth-annual O’Reilly NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals at Bristol Dragway, Brown trails reigning and five-time champion Tony Schumacher 608-540 in the point standings.
Schumacher wrapped up the title last year the final pass of the year, edging Brown’s teammate Rod Fuller.
“The U.S. Army team is a phenomenal team,” Brown said. “they’ve won the last four championships in a row, so that tells you how strong they are. (Crew chief) Allen Johnson, the whole crew and Tony as the driver
– those guys have performed when the pressure’s on.”He’s only 68 points ahead of us. One good race for us and one bad race for them and we could go around them.”
Brown was a 16-time winner in Pro Stock Bike, where his best championship finish was second on two occasions in eight seasons on the circuit. Brown insists he wasn’t burned out racing motorcycles, he just leapt at the opportunity to drive the dragster for David Powers Motorsports and climb in the seat with the Matco Tools team and veteran crew chief Lee Beard.
“The bike deal was a lot of fun,” Brown, 32, said. “I was brought up as a kid going to races at Englishtown watching Top Fuel and Funny Car. I looked at this as a dream job, but I didn’t know if it would come.”
The New Jersey native and Indiana resident advanced to three-straight final rounds with Houston, Las Vegas and Atlanta — recording two victories.
“We’ve just got to be ready to rock those last six races,” Brown said, “and put on the performance of a lifetime.”
This weekend is the eighth stop on the 24-event, $50 million POWERade Drag Racing Series tour. Brown hasn’t raced at Thunder Valley since 1999, the inaugural year of the Winston Showdown all-star event and the return here of NHRA.
“I know it’s a phenomenal race track,” Brown said. “Bristol is a phenomenal facility. They put on a great show for the fans.
“I look forward to coming back to Bristol. It’s definitely a big race. It’s almost the halfway point before the Countdown starts. We’ll be able to hit our final leg at Bristol before the Countdown.”
The Countdown to the Championship is the six-event playoff which decides the world champion.
“We’re going out there to win the race,” Brown said. “It would be great. We want to go out there and do well.”
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