Don Schumacher from Park Ridge, Illinois retired from racing in 1974 to focus on his family business and his rivals were happy to see him go, as he was the winner of the 1972 Coca-Cola Cavalcade of Stars, the 1973 AHRA World Championship, had 5 NHRA (including Indy) and 9 IHRA event titles driving his Plymouth Barracuda Funny Cars always called “Stardust” plus 17 NHRA championships and 339 wins.
He and his parents moved to Chicago in ’47, and lived above their parents’ tavern. They were bookies, and his dad had already started Woodward Schumacher Electric, which was making custom transformers for the radio and TV industry.
"There were a number of tracks around the Chicagoland area," Don said. "After the Pontiac, I got a Oldsmobile and was in the process of changing it into a gasser.
At 18 years old he got the parts of a 426 hemi together and sent them up to the Golden Commandos in the Detroit area to build him a fuel-injected motor to run in the gas class.
He even tapped his parents’ gambling connections to get the Stardust Casino in Las Vegas to sponsor him. He won a lot from 67 to 74, then retired from driving a race car, and turned to being a business man with his dad's electric company.
Then his son went into drag racing, and Don became team owner in 1998. You know Tony Schumacher I'm sure, one year after his dad took the reins, Tony won the top fuel championship. Today, he is the winningest driver in Top Fuel dragster history
Don Schumacher Racing's all-star lineup in 2003 was one top fueler driven by Tony; three Funny Cars driven by Whit Bazemore, Gary Scelzi and Scotty Cannon; and Pro Stock Motorcycle duet of three-time champion Angelle Savoie and her cousin-in-law Antron Brown
Today, in 2019 it includes Top Fuel dragsters for Antron Brown and Leah Pritchett, and funny cars for Ron Capps, Jack Beckman, Tommy Johnson Jr. and Matt Hagan.
“If you can turn any profession into your passion, to where you’re willing to work longer and harder than the competition, you will be successful,” Don said. He makes 400 parts for his race cars in house because no one else in his mind could make them good enough. He makes them a little better, a little lighter, a little stronger.
this photo by Ron Lewis, at Carlsbad
https://www.nhra.com/news/2018/top-fuelers-and-funny-cars-1960s
http://www.myrideisme.com/Blog/don-schumacher%E2%80%99s-top-five-most-influential-funny-cars/
https://autoweek.com/article/nhra/racing-legend-don-schumacher-still-driven-dominate-improve-nhra
https://autoweek.com/article/car-news/really-big-shoe-buck-stops-don-schumacher-actually-lots-them
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