Longtime DSR Assistant John Collins
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Longtime DSR assistant John Collins promoted to crew chief for Tommy Johnson Jr.’s Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Don Schumacher Racing’s Make- A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T Funny Car team will have a distinct Iowa flavor when it arrives at Gainesville, Fla., next week for the NHRA Gatornationals. John Collins, in his seventh season with DSR and fifth as an assistant crew chief to Rahn Tobler, has been promoted to crew chief for the Make-A-Wish team with driver Tommy Johnson Jr. “I sold my (auto repair) shop in 2000 to move here for the opportunity to succeed,” Collins said. John Collins: “And DSR is the organization where DSR Make-A-Wish Dodge Charger R/T crew chief you can succeed.” Collins has worked with Tobler the past five seasons, including the last two as the assistant crew chief on the NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge team. “John is one of the most intelligent, creative people we have in our shop,” said DSR owner Don Schumacher, whose teams have won 220 NHRA event titles and 11 world championships. “Rahn and I both have believed that John has been ready to step up to crew chief for a couple years, and this is the right time for him. “I’m excited for John Tommy Johnson Jr.'s best Phoenix run earned him the No. 2 spot in qualifying. and our Make-A-Wish team. They’ve already done a great job this year but they need to have one leader who will be with them 100 percent of the time.” Replacing Collins on the NAPA team will be Eric Lane, who has been with John Force Racing since 2001. Lane most recently was the assistant crew chief on the Top Fuel dragster driven by Brittany Force, who advanced to her first Top Fuel championship round on Feb. 23 near Phoenix where she lost to DSR’s Antron Brown and the Matco Tools team. Lane, 40, is a native of Baldwin Park, Calif., and currently lives with his family in Avon, Ind. He graduated from Mt. San Antonio College and Universal Technical Institute before working for three years on Gary Eric Lane: NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car assistant crew chief Densham’s Funny Car team. The ties between Collins, 51, and Johnson, 45, are long. They are natives of Ottumwa, Iowa, and Collins’ wife Kelly graduated with Johnson in the same class from Ottumwa High School. In 1999, Collins helped on Johnson’s family-owned Top Fuel dragster. Collins lives in Plainfield, Ind., and Johnson in nearby Avon. “I’m very proud of what John has accomplished, and we all think he’s ready,” Tobler said. “I’ve told him when he’s ready I wouldn’t hold him back from doing what he’s always wanted to do. This is why he moved here from Iowa. He sold a successful body shop and repair shop to move here with his wife and two kids 14 years ago because he wanted to be a drag racer.” While Collins and Tobler have led DSR’s NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge driven by Ron Capps for nearly three years, they also have helped run Johnson’s Funny Car through this year’s first two NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series events. “We’ve basically been running that car for the last two race weekends, and that car ran very well with the structure of how we do things,” Tobler said. Despite competing at the first two events without a full-time crew chief, Johnson advanced to the semifinals on Feb. 23 near Phoenix and is ranked fourth in points heading to Florida for the Gatornationals. Collins’ first full-time job on a Top Fuel team was in 2000 when he worked on Joe Gibbs Racing’s dragster driven by Cory McClenathan. Collins joined Don Prudhomme Racing the following year and was reunited with Johnson on Prudhomme’s Skoal Funny Car. In 2003, Collins was moved to Prudhomme’s Top Fuel dragster driven by Larry Dixon and the team won the NHRA world championship that year. Antron, Matco team races off with Phoenix Top Fuel title CHANDLER, Ariz. – Antron Brown and his Matco Tools team at Don Schumacher Racing is the hottest Top Fuel team in the NHRA Mello Yello Drag Racing Series. Winning near Phoenix on Feb. 23 to earn the 2014 season’s second event title makes it three out of the last six on the circuit including two of the last four in 2013. Antron and his Matco team led by crew chiefs Brian Corradi and Mark Oswald defeated Brittany Force in the final round of the event at Wild Horse Pass Motorsports Park (formerly Firebird International Raceway). It is Antron’s 42nd Wally trophy and 220th for DSR. In one of the closest races of the day, the Matco team produced a time of 3.755 seconds at 324.20 mph to Force’s 3.793 (322.04). It was the first championship round in any category for the 27-year-old Force. “I didn’t look at who I was racing. None of these teams Artwork by Bruce Tatman are out here to play games. School is in and you better have your thinking caps on and be ready to go. She was a strong competitor all day.” Now it’s on to Gainesville, Fla., next week for the Gatornationals where he is the defending event champion. “I have a lot of confidence when we get to the later rounds in racing. As the rounds go on, our team gets stronger and stronger. We have a great final round kick all the time. When we have to step up to the plate, we step up to the plate.” Antron, who turned 38 on Saturday, is eager to get to the Gatornationals where he won a year ago. “My best memory was being able to give Don (Schumacher) his 200th win,” Antron said. “That was very special. We knew someone would, and I’m glad it was me and our Matco team. But it might not have been us if Johnny (Gray) didn’t go out before us and win the Funny Car title for 199. “And that was the first time we won in the finals at Gainesville.” Antron’s teammate Spencer Massey and the Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher dragster advanced to the semifinals in Arizona, but the U.S. Army’s Tony Schumacher was upset in the opening round by Force after he qualified No. 2. In Funny Car, Tommy Johnson Jr. and the Make-A- Wish team advanced the furthest for DSR in a Dodge Charger R/T. Jack Beckman’s Valvoline team moved on to the quarterfinals after beating Matt Hagan’s Mopar Express Lube/Rocky Dodge in an unfortunate pairing of teammates in the first round. Ron Capps’ NAPA AUTO PARTS Dodge lost in the first round. Matt Hagan's Mopar Express Lube/Rocky Boots Dodge Tony Schumacher and the U.S. Army team shot up to No. 2 in the last qualifying session near Phoenix. From left, Michael Vendely, Ryan McGilvry and crew chief Mike Green await a run near Phoenix. Jack Beckman's crew gets his Valvoline MaxLife Dodge Charger R/T ready between runs. From left: Marla Weidenaar, Sterling VanDusen, Chris Spall, Bill Haskins, assistant crew chief Terry Snyder and Nate Archambeault. ‘Arizona’s Real Rock’ hangs with Ron, NAPA John Holmberg, host of Holmberg’s Morning Sickness on 98KUPD in Phoenix, joins Ron Capps at the event outside Phoenix. Ron was John’s in-studio guest earlier in the week of the Phoenix race. Spencer Massey’s Battery Extender Powered by Schumacher Top Fuel dragster leaves the line under under a blue, Arizona sky. SPOTLIGHT ON DSR JOE CHRISMAN, NAPA AUTO PARTS Funny Car team When not racing with DSR, he’s racing with his father Joe Chrisman has started his 10th season as a crewman at Don Schumacher Racing and says there’s only one thing that could end his tenure. “I love what I do and enjoy being around our NAPA team, and the only thing that could get me to leave would be having an opportunity to race full time with my dad.” Chrisman, 31, spends much of his time at home working with his father, Joseph Sr., on their Outlaw Pro Mod full-bodied drag machine that exceeds 160 mph in the eighth-mile. He’s working toward earning his competition driver’s license. Joe Chrisman, NAPA AUTO PARTS team He quit high school football after his freshman year to work after school at the family’s Tranz Act of Indy (503 N. Arthur Drive, Indianapolis) building high-performance engines and transmissions. After working as a CNC lathe operator at a machine shop, he was hired at DSR in 2005 to help Bob Glidden begin DSR’s Pro Stock operation. He worked on each of DSR’s four different Pro Stock teams and was a crewman for each of the organization’s three NHRA Pro Stock event titles. In 2008, the resident of Brownsburg, Ind., moved to the Funny Car driven by Jack Beckman and has remained with that crew including when it was shifted with crew chief Rahn Tobler to the NAPA AUTO PARTS team and driver Ron Capps in April 2012. In addition to the three NHRA Wally trophies Joe won in Pro Stock, he has been to the winner’s circle nine times with Beckman and eight times with Capps for a total of 20 NHRA titles. Joe’s Funny Car responsibilities this year are superchargers and fuel.