- - - Angelle Savoie News; Army team wins NHRA championship

Army team wins NHRA championship
---By Sgt. 1st Class Antony M.C. Joseph
---October 13, 2004
http://www4.army.mil/news/article.php?story=6446

READING, Pa. (Army News Service, Oct. 13, 2004) -- Drag racing superstar and
U. S. Army car driver Tony "The Sarge" Schumacher swept aside all
challengers to win the National Hot Rod Association Top Fuel Championship
Nov. 10 at the Maple Grove Raceway in Reading.

Adding to the successful day for the Army team were NHRA Pro Stock Bike
Racers Angelle Savoie and Antron Brown and who managed to finish one and two
respectively in their event.

During qualifying, Brown set a track record of 7.05 seconds, which was
beaten by Savoie during the final stages when she set a time of 7.03
seconds, .02 seconds outside the world record.

Although Schumacher only managed to qualify in fourth place, he was able to
see off his closest challenger, Doug Kallita, in the quarterfinals stage.
Kallita, who qualified in first place, was not able to maintain his form on
race day under intense pressure from Schumacher.

The Sarge went into this makeup event (original race cancelled due to
Hurricane Ivan) in first place in the standings, 4 points ahead of Kallita.
Though Kallita had a mathematical chance of overhauling Schumacher's lead,
it was the Army driver's race to lose. Before the race Mike Lewis, executive
vice president of the race team, said "Tony would basically have to stay at
home and Doug win all his races for there to be a change at the top of the
standings."

Schumacher, jubilant after clinching the championship, correlated his team's
efforts to those of the Army where teamwork is key to success, "the win was
a culmination of the teams dedication to duty. Just like soldiers, who this
team is very proud to represent, we work together to achieve our goal, and
the concerted effort is a key reason for us winning this championship.

The Army's successful Auto racing weekend was capped off by Joe Nemechek
winning the NASCAR Nextel Cup race ahead of the Air Force and the National
Guard cars, which finished second and third respectively.
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