POMONA, Calif. — Five-time Top Fuel champion Tony Schumacher has carved his reputation in National Hot Rod Ass’n lore largely on his heroics at Auto Club Raceway.
However, most of his success on the historic quarter-mile in the Southern California cradle of drag racing has come in November at the Finals. The U.S. Army Dragster driver, celebrated for record-setting do-or-die triumphs here, had won the season-opening Winternationals only once before, in 2004.
He left Sunday’s Carquest Auto Parts Winternationals though, with a $40,000 victory over teammate Cory McClenathan in the start of his bid for a record fifth-consecutive championship.
Schumacher shared the winner’s circle with Funny Car’s Robert Hight and Pro Stock’s Greg Anderson.
Not only did Schumacher’s 4.499-second elapsed time at 331.28 mph top McClenathan’s 4.536-second, 329.26-mph performance in the FRAM Dragster, but it also moved him past Larry Dixon for second place (behind Joe Amato) on the Top Fuel career-victories list with 42.
Schumacher dedicated his event trophy to fellow Top Fuel driver Doug Herbert, who lost sons Jon and James in a Jan. 26 car accident in North Carolina and is racing this year under the “For My Boys” tour banner. Schumacher defeated a stellar lineup in Doug Kalitta, Herbert and Dixon but said he hated to be the one to race Herbert.
“There’s no way to comprehend what Doug and his family are going through right now,” Schumacher said. “The entire NHRA family feels horrible for Doug. We all raced with heavy hearts today. We couldn’t not feel that way. He really wanted to win this race. This trophy has to be with Doug — there’s no other place for it to sit.”
Funny Car winner Hight, who defeated Cruz Pedregon, dedicated his Wally trophy to a special individual — Ford engineer Niranjan Singh, who has been working with John Force Racing to make their Ford Mustangs safer.
“This guy worked day and night on our chassis program,” Hight said. “He worked Thanksgiving, and he worked Christmas. He used to work in Formula One and he’s one smart guy. He loves drag racing, and we’re fortunate to have him work with us on this program. This win wouldn’t have been possible without him.”

FLAMING EXIT: Tony Pedregon’s Funny Car explodes during the first round of eliminations Sunday at Auto Club Raceway @ Pomona, Calif. (NHRA Photo)

Hight used a pass of 4.861 seconds at 284.39 mph in his Auto Club Ford Mustang to win the $40,000 and establish himself as the frontrunner. Runner-up Cruz Pedregon capped an emotional day in which he saw brother and teammate Tony Pedregon crash heavily in the first round by posting a 4.879-second elapsed time at 322.50 mph in the Advance Auto Parts Chevy Impala.
Hight had to beat pre-season favorite Ron Capps, former mentor Gary Densham, and 14-time champion and boss/father-in-law John Force to reach his ninth career final.
As Hight was about to stage the car against Pedregon, he said he noticed that his supercharger belt was shredding.
“I just hoped it would hold on long enough for us to get the win,” he said, “and it did — but just barely. I honestly didn’t know who won. My car was slowing down (284 mph) and Cruz came around me so fast (322 mph) that I couldn’t tell whether he got me.”
 In Pro Stock action, three-time series titlist Greg Anderson christened the Pontiac GXP with a $25,000 victory over on-track nemesis and current champion Jeg Coughlin. It gave Anderson his fourth Winternationals win in the past five years.
In beating Coughlin with a 6.616-second blast, he broke by 13-thousandths of a second the track elapsed-time record he had established in qualifying.
 Anderson did what in drag-racing parlance is called “running the table” — setting low e.t. (6.616), top speed (209.39 in qualifying, which rewrote his own year-old track record), and sweeping the No. 1 starting position.
“It’s beyond what you hope for when you come out here,” Anderson said. “You want to be competitive at the first race of the season and not look like fools. We had a new hot rod this weekend with the GXP, and you never know for sure what’s going to happen. Every time we debut a Pontiac, it goes right to the front. Maybe we need to race a new model every year.”
Coughlin responded with a 6.638-second e.t. at 208.42 mph in the Jegs.com Chevy Cobalt. Coughlin ruled at last season’s finale on this track, winning the race and his third Pro Stock championship.
But Anderson, who thoroughly dominated the class from 2003-05, said, “I was scared to death to look over and see where Jeggie was. We needed all of that run to beat the defending champion. Jeg showed you there just why he is the champion. It’s a great race team over there, and if you’re going to beat them, you’re going to need your best effort.”