NHRA Great Don Schumacher Remembered as One Tough Competitor (autoweek.com)
Schumacher died Wednesday at the age of 79 after a long and private battle with lung cancer.
"He was a stout competitor, that's all I ever heard from anybody who talked about Funny Car racing back in the day," said three-time Funny Car champion Ron Capps, who raced for Schumacher from 2005 until forming his own team after the 2021 season. "He was just very involved in all the teams. He'd be up in the trailer talking to the crew chiefs, and if the car didn't run good, he wasn't happy. He'd let the crew chiefs know it.
Don Schumacher was the winningest team owner in the NHRA Drag Racing Series with 367 event wins and 19 championships—including a record eight Top Fuel titles with son Tony.
Schumacher was also a champion of safety in the sport as well as a champion in the boardroom as founder of Schumacher Electric—a company that specializes in batteries and chargers.
Schumacher's racing innovations include the closed canopy used by many in the Top Fuel dragster classes that has saved countless drivers from serious injuries. He also devised a roof-mounted escape hatch so that drivers could quickly exit their car in the event of a fire and spearheaded creation of an in-cockpit-activated fire suppression system....
