Don Schumacher, whose one-car team grew to as many as seven, orchestrated 367 event victories and 19 championships. He started as a match-racer in the 1960s and ‘70s and emerged as not only owner of a powerhouse operation but also a safety innovator, corporate giant, and philanthropist. Son Tony Schumacher, his motivation for returning to the sport from corporate America in 1998, still competes as the most successful Top Fuel driver with 86 victories. Top Fuel ace Antron Brown saw it back in 2015, when his Hall of Fame boss at the time, Don Schumacher, returned to the dragstrip after a brutal battle with head and neck cancer.
“This is the best therapy,” Brown said. “You can see the smile on his face and the joy in his heart for being part of this sport of NHRA drag racing."
Schumacher – the force behind the safety canopy for the 11,000-horsepower dragster and roof hatch escape for Funny Cars in addition to his company’s 19 championships and 367 victories – said, “I'm blessed with what I have accomplished."
But the retired business mogul who settled in Jupiter, Fla., was cursed with the return of his cancer earlier this year. He passed away at age 79 Wednesday from complications of a months-long lung-cancer struggle.
"I love what I do, and I will continue to do what I do," Schumacher said in his 2015 rebound. "I'm a businessman, and that's what I do. I love racing. I love the sport of NHRA. I love my businesses. I love my family. I love what I do in life.
Schumacher leaves a lasting legacy on not only the NHRA community, where he etched his name as one of the sport’s most successful team owners and a champion for the advancement of safety innovation, but on the motorsports community as a whole. Schumacher’s contributions to the auto racing industry reach far beyond drag racing and have been widely recognized.
Continued: https://www.autoweek.com/racing/nhra/a46198893/nhra-drag-racing-legend-don-schumacher-dies-at-79/