NHRA superteams shuffle and exchange staff

The first shots over the bow were a few public relations casualties, at powerhouse teams Don Schumacher Racing (DSR) and 2017 double-nitro-champs John Force Racing (JFR). The musical chairs began in earnest after the Thanksgiving recess, as these two mega teams began to reformat their personnel in anticipation of a better, more cohesive run at the Top Fuel and Funny Car championships for next year.

It’s customary for teams to poach talent, whether it be drivers, crew chiefs, top- and bottom-end mechanics. No job is immune, whether it’s a winning group or whether it’s a team pushing its way toward the top of the heap.

Don Schumacher Racing announced late Monday that it was shuffling staff members in its seven-entry nitro ranks, as Mike “Zippy” Neff returns to DSR following a 10-year stay with JFR. Neff won the 2005 Funny Car championship with DSR’s Gary Scelzi during his initial, seven-year tenure with the team. While at JFR, he helped team patriarch John Force win his 2010 Funny Car title, one of 16 the legend owns.

Neff’s new duties at DSR, which is about one mile from JFR in Brownsburg, IN, are as crew chief for the U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster driven by eight-time class champion Tony Schumacher. He takes over from Mike Green, who remains with the team to guide its safety and performance projects. Tony Schumacher finished eighth in season-long standings in 2017 with a single victory.

As team owner Don Schumacher welcomed Neff back to the DSR family, he also lauded the work of Green, who “developed the enclosed cockpit dragster that all DSR cars [and others in the class] run. Mike’s passion for the sport will help make the DSR cars safer and perform at a higher level next season,” he proclaimed.

Schumacher also felt the need to shift duties at the Matco Tools/U.S. Army Top Fuel dragster run for three-time class champ Antron Brown, who finished fourth in the Countdown to the Championship playoffs - on the strength of four wins - after winning the class the previous two years.

Schumacher elevated Brad Mason to assistant crew chief of Brown’s car, with 1984 NHRA Funny Car driving champion Mark Oswald remaining crew chief. Fully recognizing Oswald’s talents to “drive, tune, fabricate and do many, many things on these race cars,” Schumacher celebrated Mason’s opportunity to “move up, as he has been waiting his time to move into the assistant crew chief seat.”

It’s significant to note that Brown’s team has been largely intact since joining DSR during the later stages of the 2009 season. It was a return to DSR for Brown, who rode Pro Stock Motorcycles for the team until joining the Top Fuel ranks in 2008. That team, with Oswald and Brian Corradi as co-crew chiefs, together with Mason as car chief, remained intact until this week, with only minor changes in its staff.

Corradi returns to the Funny Car wars as he moves to JFR, working to up the game of Courtney Force, who finished third in this year’s standings despite failing to win a single race in her Chevrolet Camaro SS. Ohio native Corradi is the former crew chief for flopper drivers Mike Ashley, Dean Skuza and Melanie Troxel and at JFR he’ll work with Courtney Force’s current crew chief Dan “Danimal” Hood.

This year’s Funny Car runner-up and 2016 champion Ron Capps has changes to his team for the 2018 campaign. His DSR crew’s car chief Dustin Heim moves to be crew chief Rahn Tobler’s assistant next year on the NAPA Auto Parts Dodge Charger R/T. Capps earned eight victories during the 2017 season, yet failed to advance beyond the first round in the final two races at Las Vegas and Pomona, ceding the title to JFR’s president, Robert Hight.

Capps’ former assistant crew chief, Eric Lane now assumes the lead role in returning Ford to the winner’s circle. He takes over crew chief duties for Bob Tasca III, who announced both his and Ford’s return to NHRA’s Funny Car ranks during the SEMA show. Lane, who came to DSR after a lengthy crewing duties with JFR, has worked his way up the tuning ladder and is now prepared to take the helm of Tasca’s Ford Performance Shelby Mustang in 2018.

After assisting Tasca in his part-time endeavors over the past couple of years, Lane is excited about taking on the challenges of running a team.

 “I’m excited to team up with Ford Performance and tune a Ford Mustang again,” he said. “Having Ford back in NHRA is so huge, not only to me personally but our sport as well.

“I’m honored to be a part of this next chapter, not only for Ford but for the Tasca family, too. I am so excited to be working with a family that has been racing for years and has the same values and goals that I do.” When asked about the location of Tasca’s revitalized team, Lane said it would be “next to the NAPA trailer.”

More changes in team personnel lineups are bound to happen but these are the first big nitro shoes being filled for the coming 2018 NHRA campaign.