Brown Maintains Points Lead
Despite Disappointing Performance at 40th Nationals in Gainesville
Race 3 - 3.15009 - Antron Brown spent the off-week between his Firebird Dragway victory and this weekend’s round in Gainesville with extremely good company. First on the agenda, attend the Indianapolis stop on the AMA SuperCross Series at Lucas Oil Stadium on Saturday, as well as celebrate his 33rd birthday on Sunday.
The SuperCross event was attended by his family and most of his MAR teammates, with the intention of rooting for James Stewart. Brown’s comments,“I must say that Lucas Oil Stadium is quite an impressive place…we went to support my boy James Stewart, too. He had a darn good race. James rode really hard but fell twice and still finished second to Chad Reed.”
His loyalty was even rewarded with photo taken with himself, his son Anson, and Stewart. Sunday’s 33rd surprise birthday party was also attended by friends and family, his MAR teammates. But also attending the party was good friend and fellow Top Fuel Dragster competitor Larry Dixon. “It was cool to see all my team members and a lot of our friends.
It was cool that my homie Larry Dixon and his family hung out with us. Larry is definitely one of the drivers I have a lot of respect for, and he’s a great role model, too. Our kids really enjoy playing together and hanging out.”
Dixon will probably be asking if parties with Antron can occur each and every weekend during the NHRA Full Throttle Series after a performance that saw him prove to be nothing less than dominant throughout the entire race weekend.
Dixon’s Alan Johnson/Al-Anabi Top Fueler was nothing short of brilliant, as he qualified No.1 with a 3.886 e.t,, only to better that in the first round win over Doug Kalitta, with a .3882 e.t. at 312.50 mph. He followed that up with a 3rd round win against Morgan Lucas, with a consistent 3.885 e.t. 311.77 mph.
These performances were followed by the only hiccup of the weekend, the semi-final round matchup against the equally consistent Brandon Bernstein. The blower belt broke during the run, which concluded with a 4.091 second e.t. Had Bernstein not smoked the hides and eliminated himself for the second race in a row, the outcome may have been quite different.
Brown’s weekend started with a 7th place seed, after disappointing qualifying rounds had him with a best time of 3.946 seconds. His 1st round win over Clay Millican showed an improved time of 3.920 seconds at 305.63 mph.
This gave him a matchup with 2nd generation driver Bobby Lagana, Jr, who had only 2 round wins in his entire Top Fuel career up to this weekend’s race. Lagana Jr. had eked out a victory in round 1 over Spencer Massey. Massey’s car broke and only ran a 10.288 e.t. to Lagana Jr’s 4.307. Lagano ran a equally lucky, if not consistent 4.410 e.t. against Brown, who smoked the tires in epic fashion at about the 100 foot mark, His 6.096 second e.t. was not indicative of the consistency that this team and driver combination has been able to show during the preseason and the first two race weekends of this season.
Despite the poor showing this race weekend, Antron Brown holds a 259 to 239 points lead in the season-long battle shaping up against Brandon Bernstein. Dixon’s victory places him in a strong third place at 206 points, with Doug Kalitta fourth at 196. IF he is a superstitious man, friendship notwithstanding, Antron Brown may want to choose his dinner guests, during the off weekends, a little more carefully.