Theballerlife.com would like to congratulate top fuel driver Antron Brown for making history on becoming the first African-American driver in history to win a major auto racing title.
The Associated Press reports:
Antron Brown became the first black champion in any NHRA pro series when he won the Top Fuel title on Sunday at the season-ending event.
Brown lost in the opening round of eliminations and had to wait to celebrate until the final, when Tony Schumacher lost in a photo finish to Brandon Bernstein.
”I feel so blessed to be in this moment right now and this is a big huge moment,” Brown said. ”I am just glad we could bring it home for Don Schumacher Racing. To win the world championship the way the competition has been this year in Top Fuel and to run and compete how we’ve been doing all season long is just phenomenal. We all switched the lead back and forth a bunch of times. Is this really happening?”
Brown led Schumacher by 67 points at the start of Sunday’s eliminations. It looked as if Schumacher might take the title until he lost the final to Bernstein by eighth-thousandths of a second.
When the win light went on in Bernstein’s lane, Brown was mobbed by his teammates, family and friends in a huge celebration at the starting line.
”If I can be an inspiration for any of the kids out there who have dreams, any Americans, that’s all I want,” said Brown, who earned six victories in 11 final rounds and was top qualifier three times en route to his title.
Antron is married to his wife of 12 years Billie Jo Brown. The couple met at Brown’s first Pro Stock Motorcycle race in 1998 in Gainesville, Fla. They have three children together, daughter Arianna, and sons Anson and Adler.
Here’s a video below of Billie Jo talking about what it’s like to be married to Brown and managing their three children’s busy schedule.
1st Photo Credit: Marc J. Rebilas/Toyotaracing.com
2nd Photo Credit: Marc J. Rebilas/US Presswire
