CLERMONT — A streak was ended and another continued during the final rounds of Monday’s Mac Tools U.S. Nationals at O’Reilly Raceway Park.
Tony Schumacher’s quest for five straight U.S. Nationals victories was ended by his teammate Cory McClenathan in the Top Fuel semifinals.
McClenathan then met points leader Larry Dixon in the finals, giving Don Schumacher Racing a shot to unseat the dominant driver from Avon. But Dixon improved to 10-for-10 in final rounds this season, taking first place with a time of 3.838 seconds and a top speed of 319.60 miles per hour to McClenathan’s 3.870 seconds and 319.82 mph.
“I appreciate what (Schumacher) has done here and have a lot of respect for him,” Dixon said. “What he’s done is probably unprecedented. He’s earned every one of them, but we got ours today.”
Not too often does perfection pop up in racing, but Dixon’s 10-for-10 streak has never been accomplished in the sport.
“They weren’t all great final rounds,” said Dixon, a two-time NHRA Powerade champion. “I’ve had tire smokers, pedals and everything like that so there is a lot of luck involved as well.”
The victory was also Dixon’s fourth victory at the U.S. Nationals and his first in five years.
For the first time ever at the U.S. Nationals, father and daughter met in the Funny Car finals. Ashley Force Hood defeated her legendary father, John Force to become the first back-to-back Funny Car winner at the U.S. Nationals since Cruz Pedregon in 1994 and 1995 and fourth all-time to accomplish the feat.
“I’ve had many, many years here watching my dad, 27 years probably, and I’m sure I’ve been to every Indy since I was born,” Force Hood said. “But it’s kind of special to be on the other side of things. Not the kid in the winner circle watching the dad, but to actually be racing my dad in a final round and in the winner circle, it’s pretty surreal really.”
The victory was her first of the season and catapulted her four spots up in points to fourth, 69 points behind series points leader and her father Force.
In the other two pro classes, surprise winners came out on top. Greg Stanfield beat No. 1 qualifier and points leader Mike Edwards in Pro Stock. In the Pro Stock Motorcycle class, 20-year-old rookie L.E. Tonglet earned his second victory of the season beating Andrew Hines, who set a national elapsed-time record earlier in the weekend.
In Tonglet’s first round victory he ran a 6.954 second lap, even with a mishap that affected his day.
“I don’t know where that 95 came from because when I shifted into second gear it went straight to fourth gear so it really tugged it down a lot,” Tonglet said. “We were hoping that it didn’t hurt anything.“
The remainder of the day, the Metairie, La. native ran without third gear, but it turns out he did not need it.
The battle of the Force’s matchup took place after both beat their Schumacher opponents in the semifinals. Force beat the No. 1 qualifier Matt Hagan and Force Hood outran Hagan’s teammate Jack Beckman.
In the biggest upset of the day, Melanie Troxel, the No. 15 qualifer, beat the No. 2 qualifier Ron Capps in the first round of the Funny Car series. She lost the next round to Beckman.
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