Crowning the 2013 Champions

TAN Original Content
Photos courtesy of David Smith, TAN

TAD National Champion – Jim Whiteley

Whiteley took his Norm Grimes-tuned YNot Racing blown dragster to national event wins at the Winternationals, U.S. Nationals, Dallas, and Las Vegas2 to claim his second consecutive national title. Another regional title was earned thanks to wins at the Denver, Tulsa, and both Las Vegas regional races. Jim will step away from the driver’s seat in 2014 to support wife Annie (TAFC) and son Steven (PM). 

 

TAFC National Champion – Frank Manzo

The Ace’s 2013 national scorecard was winless until Brainerd, adding wins at Indy, Charlotte2, and Las Vegas2 before retiring with a win at the Finals at Pomona. “Uncle Frank” also scored at the Maple Grove regional early in the season. Manzo ends the 2013 season with an unmatched 17 national titles, 22 divisional championships, and over 220 event wins to his name. 

TAD East Region Champion – Dan Page

Noted chassis builder/driver/tuner Page drove his self-built, Arthur Gallant owned and tuned A/Fueler to three regional final rounds, winning the first at Maple Grove. Dan will likely forfeit the seat to a TAD rookie in 2014.

TAFC East Region Champion – John Anderika

Anderika enjoyed a phenomenal regional season, reaching the finals at five of six events, winning the last two. He has decided to step away from the seat of his converter-equipped East Coast Auto Electric TAFC to focus on a recently opened restaurant, Anderika’s All American Grill. 

TAD North Central Region Champion – Brandon Booher

Booher won his first hard-fought regional championship in just his third full season in the class. The former Pro Top Outlaw champion drove his torque converter-equipped blown AB Construction dragster to wins at Joliet, Columbus, and Cordova, the first of his career. He also added his first national event win to his resume at Charlotte2. 

TAFC North Central Region Champion – Andy Bohl

Bohl locked up his first regional championship after racing to victories at Indy, Columbus, and Bowling Green, the first and last coming over class legend Frank Manzo. 

TAD Central Region Champion – Gord Gingles

Canadian A/Fuel driver Gingles won just a single event – Topeka – to take his second consecutive regional championship. He also scored his first national event win at Brainerd, driving one of two “The Bull” cars for Clif Bakx. 

TAFC Central Region Champion – John Lombardo Jr.

Second generation flip-top driver Lombardo earned regional wins at Woodburn and Noble, locking up his second regional/divisional title at the latter. He opened the season with a win at the Winternationals. Lombardo will partner with Rick Jackson Racing to form a powerhouse one-car team in 2014.

TAD West Region Champion – Jim Whiteley

TAFC West Region Champion – Jay Payne

“Thunder Slug” reached the money round at five regional events, winning at Firebird and Topeka. Payne and his Peak Motor Oil team attended the most events of any TAFC driver – ten nationals and seven regionals.

Reichert Wins TAD, Bohl Locks Up TAFC Title

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photos courtesy of Steve Fuhrman

At the North Central Region in Bowling Green, Ky., former Top Alcohol Dragster world champ Bill Reichert earned his first win since the opener at Indianapolis, and in Top Alcohol Funny Car, Andy Bohl, who also won the Indy race, clinched his first regional championship with his third win of the season. Both won from the No. 7 qualifying spot.

For Reichert, it was his 10^th career win at Beech Bend Raceway, including five in a row from 1994 to 1998 and four in a row from 2008 to 2011. "I think I've done better here than I have at any other track," he said, "but we struggled almost all weekend."

Reichert qualified second-to-last with a 5.48 and slowed to a 5.63 in a first-round win over No. 2 qualifier Jared Dreher, then picked up almost two-tenths in the semi's, just in time to take out Marty Thacker. "I've been working with different cams all year trying to make more power, and I tried something different this weekend, too," he said. "When the car slowed down in the first round, we had to accept that we just weren't doing what it wanted and made a major move."

In the final, Reichert's Rislone Dragster dipped into the 5.30s with a 5.36 (low e.t.), in a lopsided win over 2006 Bowling Green winner Ken Perry, who shook hard immediately. "After all these years, this still feels as good as it ever did," he said. "This combination seems to be tunable, and I think we might actually be 'back,' but it'll be pretty hard to win the [national] championship – I think that's just about impossible now – and the region isn't looking too good, either. I'd have to win another one, and [Brandon] Booher would have to not make it to any more finals."

With three consecutive wins coming into the event, Booher, who surprisingly hasn't raced Reichert head-to-head all year, would appear to have a stranglehold on the regional crown and can clinch it with a final-round appearance at Earlville the week after Indy. He qualified No. 1 with a 5.37 but fouled against Perry in the semifinals by just three-thousandths of a second, his second -.00 red-light of the year.

The North Central Alcohol Funny Car title was decided early, when Bohl, who had already won two races this season (Indy and Columbus) met Chris Foster, who had also won two (Norwalk and Chicago) in the first round. Foster, who came out on the wrong end of a similar first-round meeting with Mickey Ferro here last year after twice winning down-to-the-wire division championships earlier in his career, fought for traction and slowed to 12.87 while Bohl made his best run of the weekend, a 5.67.

"It's a relief to finally win a [regional] championship," Bohl said. "I lost one on a red-light right here at Bowling Green and lost another when the other guy [Foster, in 2009] had to win the last race of the year to pass me. Frank Manzo was the first person I saw when I got out of the car, and I hugged him so hard I almost knocked him over."

With the title locked up, Bohl edged Ray Drew by just eight-thousandths of a second in the semifinals, 5.69 to 5.72. Manzo, who qualified No. 1 with a 5.62 and set low e.t. of eliminations with a 5.65 on his first-round single, had a harder time than expected getting around Wayne Butler in the other semi, when his car broke a lifter and Butler got a better light in a 5.72 to 5.80 race.

For Manzo, who had been to four previous regionals this season and reached the final every time, nothing less than a win would help him in the national standings. Manzo, whose 40-final winning streak in national competition will never be beaten, surprisingly had lost three of four regional finals this year, including the Indy final against Bohl, and he dropped this one, 5.70 to a tire-shaking 5.79.

"Lane choice won that race," Bohl said. "It was a coin-flip which one was better in the first round, but by the final, the right lane was definitely the one to be in. I looked at the left before we ran and said, 'No way is going to get down that lane.' I'm surprised he ran as good in that lane as he did. I know how it sounds, but I had more confidence against Manzo in the final than I did against Foster. Against Manzo, I had the good lane, and I knew what my car was going to do. Against Foster, that was a pretty clutch deal – basically one run for the championship and I'd just changed five things after pretty much embarrassing myself in qualifying."

Booher Wins Third In a Row, Bohl Second of 2013

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photos courtesy of Steve Fuhrman

At National Trail Raceway in Columbus, Brandon Booher collected his third straight victory and took a commanding lead for the 2013 North Central championship in Top Alcohol Dragster and Andy Bohl won for the second time this season and assumed the favorite's role for the North Central Top Alcohol Funny Car title.

Booher, who never won a race until last month, padded his lead with a close final-round decision over Marty Thacker, who now has three final-round appearances this year. Thacker delivered by far his best run of the weekend, 5.48, and Booher his slowest, 5.46, but Booher's 5-mph better speed, 266 to 261, made for a car-length lead at the finish line.

"I had no shift light that time and got on the limiter a little bit on the 1-2 shift," Booher said. "For a second there, I was thinking, 'Where's the light? Where's the light?' but I guess I still ran good enough to win."

Booher qualified No. 2 (5.42) behind defending event champ Bill Reichert (5.38), who was upset by No. 8 qualifier Jared Dreher, 5.46 to 5.47, for what surprisingly was his third straight first-round loss in the North Central region. Thacker put away Cordova runner-up Robin Samsel in that round, 5.51 to 5.62, and Booher eliminated Norwalk national event winner Dave Hirata, 5.42 to 5.57.

Booher made his best run of the weekend, 5.41, to take out Ken Perry in one semifinal match, and Thacker won the other on a holeshot over Dreher, 5.58 to 5.51, which left him at a considerable disadvantage for the final. Thacker, who won Columbus four times in the 2000s, picked up a tenth but fell just short, 5.46 to 5.48.

"Last month, I had nothing but bills and computers on my desk, and now I've got three Wallys sitting there," Booher said. "I'm really getting used to winning. People keep telling me they thought I'd be more excited after I won, but I always saw the potential in this torque converter. It's not like, 'OMG.' It's more like 'finally.' I'm not going to say I always thought this would happen, but I'm competitive to the nth degree, so maybe I did. The way I look at it, we could have won the first two [Indy and Norwalk], too."

Booher now is a prohibitive favorite for the North Central Top Alcohol Dragster crown, and with his latest win, Bohl moved into a tie with yearlong leader Chris Foster in Top Alcohol Funny Car and with fewer races claimed and more in-division points has the upper hand.

Bohl, who opened the regional season with a victory at Indy, qualified No. 1 and won the final with a 5.78 over Brian Harvanek, who shut off to a 7.49. "That's the first time I've ever run the table – No. 1 qualifier, low e.t., and top speed," said Bohl, who had low e.t. and top speed not just of the event but of every round.

Bohl paced the field in qualifying with a 5.736, just thousandths ahead of Harvanek's nearly identical 5.739, and made the only run all weekend in the 5.60s, a 5.68, on a first-round single. "Having nobody in the other lane gave me a chance to go for it," he said. "It also gave me lane choice for the semifinals, and at this race that was really important because it was absolutely a one-lane racetrack."

Harvanek won the first round over Steve Franke, who was making his first appearance of the season, and the semifinals over Lance Van Hauen, who has gone rounds at his last several events, with a 5.719. Bohl beat Foster in the other semi in a race crucial to the North Central standings, 5.710 to 5.76, closing the gap on Foster and gaining lane choice for the final.

Harvanek, who has been to at least one final for four consecutive years, produced the best reaction time of the entire event in the final, but veered toward both the centerline and the wall and had to lift. "I saw him out there and just hoped he couldn't make it stick in that lane," said Bohl, who drove through shake for the 5.78 win. "You hate to just leave the car alone, but sometimes that's the smartest thing you can do and it won me the race."

 

Reichert, Bohl Win Indy North Central Opener

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association

At the rain-plagued North Central opener in Indianapolis, five-time world champ Bill Reichert got his second win in three starts in Top Alcohol Dragster, and Andy Bohl became one of the few drivers in years to beat Frank Manzo in a Top Alcohol Funny Car final. Eliminations, already postponed a week, were run in their entirety on Monday after racers in all classes except the Top Alcohol Dragster and Funny Car headed home Sunday night following a long day sitting in the rain.

In the Top Alcohol Dragster final, Reichert left within thousandths of Thacker in a battle of former U.S. Nationals winners and scored with a consistent 5.42 opposite Thacker's close 5.46. "Bill's no fun to race anymore," Thacker said. "I've never seen anyone completely turn his reaction times around the way he has. If this was a couple of years ago, I would have beat him on a holeshot."

"He would have," said Reichert, who cut a .048 light in the final. "After all these years, I've figured out how to let my experience work for me instead of against me. All you have to do is hit the gas when the yellow light comes on – why does that have to be so difficult? Trying to force yourself to have a good reaction time never works. You have to trust yourself and just let it happen."

Running quick and fast has never been a problem for Reichert, and neither has being consistent, and it wasn't at Lucas Oil Raceway, one of his favorite tracks. After qualifying No. 1 with a 5.30 last week under vastly different conditions, the Rislone driver reeled off a 5.41 against Dave Hirata, who went up in smoke in round one, and a 5.43 against defending event champ Jared Dreher in the semifinals to reach his second final of the season, including the 4-Wide Nationals. His only loss this year came in the semifinals of the Gatornationals, one of the few races he hasn't won at least once.

Thacker came from the bottom half of the field by winning both preliminary rounds at the starting line. He beat No. 3 qualifier Ken Perry with a 5.53 when Perry red-lighted and 2012 Central Region champ Gord Gingles on a holeshot in the semi's, 5.43 to 5.42.

Bohl got his first victory of the season and one of the most rewarding wins of his career when he stopped Manzo in the final with a 5.70 at 251, coasting across the finish line after banging the blower near the five-second mark. "It's always been an honor just to be in the other lane from Frank Manzo," he said. "I've run him I don't know how many times and never beat him. Never left on him, either." He did this time with a clutch .048 reaction time, his best of the weekend, and won easily when Manzo's car got sideways in low gear.

"The thing just drove right into smoke, and I was staring at the wall in the other lane," Manzo said. "I don't know why I never got back on the gas – a senior moment, maybe? I'm usually a lot smarter than that in finals."

Manzo qualified No. 1 with a 5.52 and unloaded a 5.51, low e.t. of the meet, on his first-round single when opponent Dale Brand was unable to return for the rain date. In the semi's, his backpedaling 5.60 was enough to handle Chris Foster's tire-shaking 5.82.

Bohl, the only driver to make it to the finish line under power in all three qualifying sessions last weekend, beat John Bojec in the first round, 5.67 to 5.87, and defeated last year's runner-up, Brian Harvanek, in the semi's with a 5.63.

"It would have been nice to run a little better against Manzo, but I didn't want to beat myself," said the Wisconsin owner/driver/tuner, who went out earlier than expected in Gainesville and Charlotte after strong qualifying performances, including a career-best 5.50-flat in Gainesville. "It's hard not to go for it against somebody like him, but I let the track come to me, and this weekend is something I'll never, ever forget."