NHRA - National Hot Rod Association

Tony Schumacher, J.R. Todd, and Erica Enders won the first Mission #2Fast2Tasty NHRA Challenge titles of the season, claiming the Winternationals Challenge honors during qualifying at the NHRA Arizona Nationals.

The Challenge brings competitive racing to the qualifying schedule during the regular season in the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series. The Challenge pits semifinalists from the previous race against each other, with the two winners matching up as part of Saturday’s final qualifying session.

Schumacher, who only got into one Challenge last year, a runner-up behind Justin Ashley in what was a two-for-one final held in conjunction with the Bristol final round, secured the win, the points, and the bonus cash with a 3.92 after Brittany Force smoked the tires early. Schumacher also will take part in the delayed Winternationals final later today with a chance for a three-win weekend.

"We're feeling really good," said Schumacher. "We made a monster, monster change from just the way they operated last year.  And even last year, we were making big changes throughout the year; we weren't running good enough to say let's just make a little move; it was big changes, big changes. But when we did this, it worked.We're happy where we're at, gaining knowledge, and have a great race car."

In Friday’s first round, Schumacher had defeated Billy Torrence, just as he did in Pomona while Force drove around Ashley’s holeshot for a 3.689 to 3.902 victory. Force took part in four #2Fast2Tasty events last year with the best result of a runner-up in the Topeka challenge held in Brainerd.

Todd, who was in seven Mission Challenge events last year and notched a win and two runner-ups, including here last year, where he finished second behind Alexis DeJoria, defeated John Force on a 3.94 to 4.00 count to add another line to his resumé. 

"Anytime you could turn on a win light against the greatest of all time, that's it's doing something whether it's the Mission race or the actual Sunday event," said Todd, who won the Gatornationals earlier this season. "He's a tough one to get by.

"It's weird to say that we've been struggling this year, but we have been struggling to get down to try to make clean runs and haven't really been consistent a lot, so coming up to this race I think the game plan was just going from A to B to make sure we got a good clean run. to start off the weekend."

In Friday’s first round, Todd had defeated world champ  Matt Hagan, while Force beat tire-smoking Ron Capps. Force won the Brainerd #2Fast2Tasty Challenge last year, which was held in Indy,

While the nitro cars ran their Challenge first rounds on Friday, Pro Stock did not run due to weather conditions, and ran both of their Challenge rounds on Saturday.

Erica Enders, who won the Mission Challenge last year in Brainerd, squared off against Mason McGaha for the #2Fast2Tasty points, cash, and glory, and captured another victory, 6.541 to 6.591, to keep alive her hopes for a weekend triple that will continue later today when she faces Dallas Glenn in the delayed Pomona final.

In round one, Enders had defeated arch-rival Greg Anderson while McGaha advanced to the final on Dallas Glenn’s red-light.

"We're obviously very thankful for what Mission is doing for our sport and our class, and it's exciting to have a race within a race despite the stress that it has been," she said. "Rolling off the trailer and having no shots at the Tree or the racetrack before that round of eliminations; it was nerve-wracking, but we were all under the same rules. 

"Both of my competitors were double-oh [.00 reaction times], taking me to school on the Tree, but fortunately, my horsepower saved me. I've saved my car before and today they saved me."