Schumacher keeps his promise

Top-fuel driver Tony Schumacher guaranteed that he would break his own elapsed time record and win the National Hot Rod Assn.’s final event, the 42nd Auto Club Nationals.

And then he did it.

Schumacher reeled off a record pass of 4.428 seconds at Pomona Raceway on Sunday, with a speed of 327.98 mph, to win his fourth championship and complete the greatest comeback in NHRA history.

It was Schumacher’s third title in a row, matching Joe Amato, and his 35th career victory, tying Don Garlits.

Schumacher’s heroics stunned Doug Kalitta, who led going into Sunday’s event with a 46-point lead.

After the first 10 events of the season, Schumacher trailed teammate Melanie Troxel by 336 points. He finished Sunday 14 points ahead of Kalitta. He earned 137 of a possible 138 points over the weekend.

In the final round of eliminations he lined up against Troxel, who won at Pomona in February. Troxel fired off a run of 4.586 seconds at 308.50 mph. She helped Schumacher by beating Kalitta in the second round with a hole shot victory.

“To have to set the record, you could not have written a script, a book or a line better than that,” Schumacher said. “Perfect timing, perfect situation, perfect outcome. Awesome.”

Schumacher’s dramatic victory stole the thunder from John Force, who won his 14th title by winning his 122nd career event. Force clinched the title when he defeated Ron Capps in the second round. His Ford Mustang then beat Robert Hight in the semifinals, and Jack Beckman with a hole shot in the final round. Beckman set a national elapsed time record with a pass of 4.662 seconds, at 329.99 mph.

Force, in the left lane, ran a 4.697 at 319.75 mph. The difference was beating Beckman off the line with a reaction time of 0.058 of a second to Beckman’s 0.103. Beckman’s speed also backed up his record 333.66-mph run from Saturday qualifying.

Force finished 112 points ahead of Hight and 133 ahead of Capps.

“He was hurt down there,” Force said of Capps. “But I got a job to do, and that’s win, and that’s the bottom line.

“If I don’t, my sponsors will take my money and give it to someone who wants to win. Like Capps.”

Schumacher earned $400,000 for the victory but was fined $20,000 earlier in the day for failing to follow the commands of starter Rick Stewart during qualifying Saturday. Schumacher, who had an oil leak, had been given the shut-off signal by Stewart, but staged and ran the car anyway.

Schumacher said he shuts off the car only at the command of crew chief Alan Johnson, who said he didn’t see the signal.

“Certainly, what Alan says is possibly true,” said Graham Light, NHRA senior vice president of racing operations who reviewed video of the incident.

Schumacher was not penalized any points, a decision that allowed Schumacher his chance to steal the title from Kalitta, who was trying to win his first and had led after the last 10 races.

Light called it a serious infraction but didn’t want to penalize the team for the actions of one person, Schumacher.

Jim Oberhofer, the veteran crew chief of Kalitta Racing who oversaw Hillary Will’s rookie season, said it was standard practice for the driver to take his orders from the crew chief, not the starter.

“I’m pretty sure a new rule is going to come out of this,” he said.

Greg Anderson won the pro-stock race over series champion Jason Line, and Andrew Hines won his third title in pro-stock motorcycle. Craig Treble won the event.

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martin.henderson@latimes.com