Photos courtesy of David Smith
As the first year of regional
competition for Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car teams winds
down, championship battles in most regions are only intensifying. The West and
Central divisions still have multiple events remaining, but in the East, which
wrapped up competition last weekend in Cecil County, Md., and the North Central,
which concludes this weekend in Bowling Green, Ky., the situation is growing
clearer.
Top Alcohol Dragster in the North
Central Region remains the domain of five-time world champ Bill Reichert, who
has won his last three regional starts – Maple Grove, Chicago, and Columbus.
The only driver with even a remote chance to break his stranglehold is Ken
Perry, who won the Norwalk event and has been to just four regionals this year.
Odds dictate otherwise, but with a three-race win skein like the one Reichert
put together this summer, the Canadian driver could end the season with four
wins and a runner-up.
In Top Alcohol Funny Car, perennial
contender Mickey Ferro, who has reached the final in all four regional starts
this year, winning Chicago and Columbus and finishing second in Gainesville and
Cecil County, will clinch the championship with a win this weekend in Bowling
Green. Even if current North Central points leader Chris Foster is in the final
makes against Ferro and goes on to win an out-of-region event, he'll lose on a
tie-breaker (most in-region points).
If Foster wins Bowling Green and Ferro is
runner-up, they'll be tied, but Foster will win the tie-breaker. Any scenario in
which Foster goes one more round than Ferro this weekend will result in a tie.
Ferro has been to just two races in his home region, so he'll have to count
whatever points he earns this weekend because drivers must take points from
three events in their home region.
Ray Drew, Brian Harvanek, Cassie
Simonton, and Paul Noakes still have a mathematical chance at the North Central
Alcohol Funny Car title, but each would have to win-out to do it. If Foster
makes the final or Ferro the semifinal in Kentucky, all four will be
mathematically eliminated.
In the East, which ran its last of five
races last weekend, the top five drivers in Top Alcohol Dragster are separated
by just 32 points. Rich McPhillips leads second-place Dan Mercier by 11 points,
Duane Shields by 22, and both Richard Bourke and John Finke by 32.
Perhaps the most accurate measure of the
competitiveness in the East this season is the fact that McPhillips is the only
one of those five who hasn't won a regional. Duane Shields took the Eastern opener
in Richmond, Va., in April; Reichert scored at Maple Grove Raceway in May;
Mercier won at Lebanon Valley Dragway in June; Finke at New England Dragway in
July; and Bourke won at Cecil County Dragway last weekend. McPhillips has three
runner-ups.
With at least a semifinal appearance in
all four of his regional starts, Bourke, the only driver in the top five who hasn't
run at least five regionals, has had the best season overall. By just
qualifying for one more regional event, he'd tie McPhillips for the points lead
even if he lost in the first round.
In Top Alcohol Funny Car, Frank Manzo
would be adding to his record for all-time divisional/regional championships if
he'd only gone to three events in the Eastern Region. He won both events that he
entered, Maple Grove and New England, but drivers are not eligible for title
contention unless they run at least three events in the region that they
claimed at the start of the season.
Manzo's absence left the door open for
other contenders, and Todd Veney, who was fourth entering last weekend's event
at Cecil County, passed John Anderika and Eric Lourie for the lead by winning
that race. Anderika is second, Paul Gill and D.J. Cox now are tied for fourth,
84 points out of first, and Dan Pomponio, 95 points out of the lead, still has
an outside shot.
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