Samantha Kenny joins dad, brother in NHRA Super Comps

Samantha Kenny's dad, Alan, won the NHRA Super Comp national championship.
Her brother, Jason, won a Super Comp race at Las Vegas.
On the final event of the year at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona, she was the only one of the three Kenny racers to reach the final day of elimination.
Samantha Kenny says she had one of her best seasons even though she didn't win a national event. She was eliminated in the fifth round at Pomona, but she had her family and supporters rooting her on.
The 30-year-old from Ohio is keeping the family tradition of drag racing alive and will be joining her dad and her brother when the NHRA drag racing season begins in 2013.
Go to the K&N website for more on Samantha Kenny and her drag racing career.

Photo: Samantha Kenny reached the final day of eliminations in the NHRA Super Comp division at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona in November. (Credit: Jegs)

Alan Kenny wins NHRA Super Comp national title

Alan Kenny has been chasing a national championship in drag racing for nearly 40 years. He won his first, the NHRA Super Comp national championship, with the help of his son.
The 60-year-old Kenny capped his championship season from the pits at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. He didn't advance to the elimination rounds at Pomona, but he secured the championship before the elimination rounds began.
Two weeks prior, Jason Kenny, his son, won the Super Comp event in Las Vegas and put a comfortable gap between his dad and his nearest competitors in the Super Comp standings.
Go to the K&N website for more on Alan Kenny's championship season.

Photo: Alan Kenny won his first NHRA Super Comp championship at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona. (Credit: National Dragster)

Antron Brown wins NHRA Top Fuel championship

Antron Brown won the NHRA Top Fuel championship. Brandon Bernstein won the Top Fuel race at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals. Tony Schumacher lost the final race and the Top Fuel championship by a fraction of a second.

Brown had to sit and watch as Schumacher advanced through the Top Fuel field and reached the final round. Brown lost in the first round after blowing up against Spencer Massey. He suffered burns on his hands and legs and wore gloves during his post-race news conference with reporters. He said the gloves were to protect his hands from small blisters that formed on them after his car exploded.

He also said he was ready to race again, despite the burns on his hands. But having to watch rather than race was painful in another way.

“Ain’t nothing you can do. Just sit and watch,” Brown said. “I felt like I was a kid back in elementary school when those days felt like they were 30 hours long. You want to race for it. You ask any racer out there, they don’t want to stay on the sidelines, waiting and hoping for someone to lose.”

Schumacher had to win the season finale to take what would have been his eighth Top Fuel championship. He met Bernstein in the final race.

Bernstein beat Schumacher off the line and held his lead across the finish line with a .037 seconds reaction time. He won by .009 seconds at 320.81 mph.

“Tony’s a class act,” Brown said. “They have no reason to hold their heads down. It just didn’t turn out like that this year.”

Brown is the first African-American driver to win an NHRA Top Fuel championship and the first African-American to win an auto racing championship in a major American racing series.

 “I certainly wanted Tony to win the championship,” team owner Don Schumacher said. “But certainly Antron and the Matco Tools deserved to win the championship. They had hiccups in both Las Vegas and here, first round. They came out here, they did it this year, they won the world championship. Antron is the NHRA Full Throttle Top Fuel world champion.”

Photo: Antron Brown became the first African-American to win the NHRA Top Fuel championship. (Credit: Tim Haddock)

Jack Beckman wins 2012 NHRA Funny Car championship

Jack Beckman had the odds stacked against from the start of the season. New team, new crew members, new approach to the NHRA Funny Car season.

Beckman narrowly won his first NHRA Funny Car championship at Auto Club Raceway in Pomona on Sunday, beating Don Schumacher Racing teammate Ron Capps by two points in the standings.

Beckman and Capps lost in the semifinals at the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals. Capps lost to Courtney Force. Beckman lost to Cruz Pedregon. After Capps lost, Beckman’s crew cheered from the starting line.

Beckman raced Pedregon following the Capps and Force race. After Beckman lost to Pedregon, he found Capps and gave him a hug before he took his helmet off.

“Character is an important thing, win or lose,” Beckman said. “I feel bad for him because I feel terrible if the situation was turned. There really wasn’t anything to say. It’s going to take me a while to wrap my head around this in an incredibly positive way. It’s probably going to take Ron a while to wrap his head around it in a very disappointing way.”

Photo: Jack Beckman won his first NHRA Funny Car championship by reaching the semifinals of the Automobile Club of Southern California NHRA Finals. (Credit: Tim Haddock)