GoArmy.com > U.S. Army Racing

In 2009, Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher finished the season by capturing his sixth consecutive NHRA Top Fuel World Championship. Schumacher still owns the National ET record at 4.428 seconds set in 2006 and the NHRA National speed record for Top Fuel dragster of 336.15 mph from 2005. In addition to his accolades on the track in 2008, Schumacher was honored as the 2008 Driver of the Year by an elite panel of broadcasters and journalists and received the prestigious Economaki Champion of Champions Award.

It takes a tight team to be one of the best of Top Fuel class, and the U.S. Army team has proven they can eat up a quarter-mile track quicker than anyone.

Learn more about Tony and the crew, then find out when they will be blazing down a track near you.

	2009 Champion Tony continued to add to his national records of the most total championships with seven and most consecutive championships in NHRA history.
	DRAGSTER The U.S. Army Top Fuel Dragster — it has the fastest acceleration on land.
	DRIVER Tony Schumacher grew up watching his father Don "The Shoe" Schumacher dominate the NHRA Funny Car field. So it was only a matter of time before Tony began racing.
	PIT CREW Meet the team that keeps the Army Top Fuel Dragster fueled, lubed and on track to fly.
	SCHEDULE View the 2009 NHRA Top Fuel Schedule — look fast: you don't want to miss a race.
	NHRA Y.E.S. Program Presented by the U.S. Army, the NHRA's Youth & Education Services (Y.E.S.) program is motorsports' first and only full-time event dedicated to educational programming for high school and college-aged students.
	NEWS Read the NHRA Top Fuel News Archive.

	TONY SCHUMACHER: As the 2008 Top Fuel World Champion, I'm here to tell you that winning a championship or even a qualifying run cannot be done alone. If takes a whole team of people working together and doing their part to be successful. Just like our Army Soldiers, who rely on tough rigorous training and cutting edge technology to build a strength like no other. The US Army Race Team has received top-notch training, and uses the highest level of technology to ensure that our car is the fastest one out on the track.
	BRAD MORRISON: I'm Brad Morrison. I do left side of the engine for the US Army Top Fuel Dragster.
	RON FREIDMAN: My name is Ron Freidman. I do the superchargers and ignition.
	TYLER KLAUSER: Hi, my name is Tyler Klauser, and I do the bottom-end and the piston rod rags.
	NEAL STRAUSBAUGH: Hi, I'm Neal Strausbaugh from Hillsbough, Illinois and I'm the assistant-crew chief on the US Army Top-Field Dragster.
	RON FREIDMAN: A typical day for me is get here, unload the car, get the super-charger and the ignition ready for the first run, service in-take manifold, look at the supercharger, make sure it's ok for the next run. All checks out ok, put it back on and make another run.
	BRAD MORRISON: When we come back and pull the left-side engine apart, take the supercharger off, the manifold, the left head. Go over it, check everything, see if anything is broke. They put it all back together with new parts, warm it up, make sure everything is ok, and then go make a run.
	TYLER KLAUSER: I get everything ready in the morning, get the piston racks for the next round ready to go, and then when the car comes back after a run, I hop under there take the oil pan off, look at everything at the bottom-end and make sure everything is alright, and put it back together.
	NEAL STRAUSBAUGH: My day-to-day responsibilities are just to make sure everybody is in check. If we have any issues, I relay all those messages back and forth. As soon as the car is rolling up to the pit area, we're already analyzing things, making sure nothing is broken, or fallen off the racecar. Visually looking at everything really well as we tear the car apart to see that we can't find what had happened on the run or just make sure that it was all perfect. We gotta have everybody in the right place at the right time, to make it all happen.
	TONY SCHUMACHER: As you can see it takes a lot more than just one person to make a championship team. Success for the race team is similar to success for a Soldier. Built on challenging training, teamwork, and selflessness towards putting the mission first. Without these characteristics I wouldn't be standing before you today with five consecutive world championships.
	ANNOUNCER: And Tony Schumacher is now the winningest driver in the history of Top Fuel Dragsters.