Tony Schumacher, driver of the SCAG Power Equipment Top Fuel Dragster, is ready to defend his title at the upcoming Flav-R-Pac NHRA Northwest Nationals.
Schumacher is no stranger to the Northwest Nationals, having hoisted a Wally five times in the past and narrowly missing the top spot three times in 2005, 2009 and 2011. Furthermore, Schumacher has been the number one qualifier four times at the event.
Looking back at last year’s competition, Schumacher owned the NHRA Northwest Nationals, beginning the race from the third spot and defeating opponents like Scott Palmer, Shawn Langdon, Justin Ashley, and Brittany Force to claim his latest championship title. This triumphant run also marked the debut of Joe and Cathi Maynard, along with their partners Eric and Kim Lehman, as team owners in NHRA with Schumacher’s win putting a cherry on top by securing the first Wally trophy for JCM Racing.
Although Schumacher had a slightly rocky experience at the recent Mile-High Nationals – a first-round exit after qualifying 12th and being outpaced by Clay Millican – he’s determined to shake it off. After all, he leads the Top Fuel class in the number of times he’s claimed the No. 1 qualifier spot (four) at Pacific Raceways.
In Schumacher’s own words, “Look forward to getting back to Seattle. We’re the defending champions. Didn’t have the perfect car in Denver last weekend, but the engineering and the testing we did in Indy right before our Denver race was designed specifically for sea-level racing, so I’m eager to see what we can do when we get to Seattle. The conditions look beautiful, I look forward to getting there and trying to back up our 2022 win.”
