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.

Page Wins East Title in Just Third Season in TAD

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photos courtesy of David Smith

 

In just his third year in Top Alcohol Dragster, Dan Page topped the wide-open East Region, where six different drivers have won the championship in the past six years (including the Division 1 era) and everybody was in it to the end again.

"People race for years and never win a championship, and we got one," said Page, who built the chassis, the same A/Fueler team owner Arthur Gallant drove to the national championship in 2002. "A lot of people would love to drive this car. Arthur knows what he's doing, and the potential is there to win any race you go to. It's unbelievable to get into something that's run this good for this long with a team that's this good at what they're doing."

Page, whose previous best was in the 5.80s in a blown dragster in New England Dragway's Pro Comp series, got up to speed immediately as an A/Fuel driver, winning the New England Dragway divisional in 2011, his rookie season. He's remained one of the top drivers on the East Coast throughout his three-year career, especially this year, when he emerged from a yearlong battle with John Finke, Rich McPhillips, and Richard Bourke that in the end came down to a single one round.

"The whole year was a blur," Page said of the rugged East Region, where enough cars to fill two Top Alcohol Dragster fields regularly show up for events. "After a while, the races all start to run together. I have to think about it to remember which one we won [Maple Grove] and which one we didn't qualify at [Lebanon Valley]."

Page won Maple Grove on Memorial Day weekend, missed the cut at Lebanon Valley, then rallied for back-to-back final-round appearances at the last two Eastern events, at New England and Cecil County. "We're there to win – that's what it's all about – but any time you get to the final it's a good thing, and we got to three," Page said. "We just struggled with consistency."

Everybody did. A different driver won each of the first four races, and each of them also had at least one DNQ somewhere among those first four. By the end of the year, in what has to be a first, the top nine drivers in the standings all failed to qualify at least once.

"It bounced back and forth so much that we really weren't thinking about winning the championship – at least I wasn't – until the end of the year," said Page, who qualified No. 1 in Richmond but got beat first round, then went to the final at New England despite starting from the bottom half of the field. "Everybody loves to be No. 1 and it's cool to say you did it, but how often does the No. 1 qualifier actually end up winning? We were No. 1 in Virginia this year. Last year, we didn't even qualify there, but when you've got this many cars showing up every time, some really good ones are going to be on the way home before first round. Since they went to the regional format, this is a way tougher deal. I wasn't that surprised that we DNQed once – it could have happened more."

Finke did it twice (Gainesville and Maple Grove) but also won twice (Lebanon Valley and New England) to finish in second place. Seventy points back, in third, fourth, fifth, and six place, respectively, Jackie Fricke, McPhillips, Bourke, and Karen Stalba all were within one point of one another.

Bourke won the Gainesville opener over McPhillips, and Randy Meyer won Richmond over Dan Mercier. At Maple Grove, Page set low e.t. of eliminations (5.32) in the semi's and ran about as quick, 5.34, in the final against Bill Reichert, who had dominated that track for years. Page set low e.t. by a tenth with a 5.42 in the first round at New England Dragway but dropped the final when Finke retook it with a 5.41. At the pivotal Cecil County closer, where Nos. 1 and 2 qualifiers Finke and McPhillips both went out first round, Page took command with his third final-round appearance of the year, setting low e.t. of eliminations (5.43) but slipping to a 5.70 in the final to lose to the No. 8 qualifier, Stalba.

Still eligible for one more regional start, Page and the Gallant team headed to Bowling Green, where they set top speed during qualifying but went out in the first round. The title went back to Massachusetts with Gallant and Page when Finke, racing the same weekend in Topeka, lost in the semi's, but Page isn't sure if he'll be back in the seat next year.

"Somebody else is supposed to be driving," said Page, who's not at liberty to divulge her name. "Either way, I hope it works out for Arthur because he funds this thing himself. Anybody could've driven that car this year. It's not like I saved all these runs, and when it goes down the track all by itself like that, the guy turning the screws is the one who's really making it all happen."

If Page isn't driving next year, he'll be tuning a Pro Mod, possibly one on the NHRA circuit. "One way or another, I'll be out there," he said. "To me, tuning and driving are just as satisfying. I'm not done – just maybe for now. I'm never going away."

 

Stalba, Anderika Complete Comebacks

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photos courtesy of David Smith

At the East Region closer in Cecil County, Md., Karen Stalba, who endured a disappointing title defense last year after winning the 2011 Division 1 championship, got back on top in Top Alcohol Dragster, and incoming points leader John Anderika clinched the championship by personally taking out the only two drivers who had a mathematical shot at overtaking him in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Stalba, who DNQed at five of six regional event last year and had won just one round so far this season, went from the No. 8 qualifying spot to victory, taking a final-round decision over current points leader Dan Page, 5.51 to 5.70. "For a year and a half, it's been nothing but frustration," Stalba said. "We got lost. Nothing went right all year last year, nothing went right all year this year, and nothing was going right at this race. We smoked the tires on both test runs on Thursday and when we did it again in the first qualifying session, I thought, 'Man, I hope we can just qualify. There were a lot of long faces around here."

Stalba ran a 5.53 on her final qualifying attempt to make the cut and upset No. 1 qualifier John Finke, who dominated qualifying with 5.30s on both runs, including a 5.31 that held up for low e.t., with a 5.51 in round one. Finke drove into smoke and was the third driver in a row not to make it down the right lane, which has always been the lane of choice at Cecil County and was throughout qualifying.

Dan Mercier ran a 6.67 in that lane and lost to Page's 5.52, and No. 2 qualifier Rich McPhillips slowed to a 6-flat in a loss to defending event champ Richard Bourke's 5.66. The only driver to win from the right lane was Jackie Fricke, who ran a 5.47 in Joe Cantrell's JC Auto Glass dragster to edge Wayne Morris, who ran a 5.54 in Cantrell's old car in the only close race of Top Alcohol Dragster eliminations.

Stalba stayed consistent in the semifinals with a 5.48 win over Fricke's up-in-smoke 10.09. Page set low e.t. of eliminations in the other semi with a 5.43 against Bourke, who had trouble firing, made it to the line at the last minute, and struggled to a 5.93.

In the final, Stalba became the only driver in either alcohol class to win in the right lane since Fricke beat Morris in the first pair after the National Anthem with a consistent 5.51 against Page's laboring 5.70. "Low 5.50s usually aren't enough, but on that track and in those conditions, it was exactly what we needed," said Stalba, who last scored two years ago at New England Dragway, also over Page in the final. "We tried something before the final session, it worked, we went further in that direction in eliminations and it worked even better, and the next thing you know, we won the race. It just goes to show that you never know, and hopefully, this was the start of a turnaround."

Anderika struggled in qualifying, ending up fourth in the short five-car field with a best of 5.87, but he came to life when conditions changed in eliminations. He won a crucial first-round race with Dan Pomponio, who won the first two regionals of the season, 5.72 to a tire-shaking 14.08, and beat Todd Veney in the semifinals, 5.70 to an up-in-smoke 9.95. Either of them could have won the regional title with a win at this event.

There was no runner-up. D.J. Cox, who hurt an engine on his only qualifying run, a 5.67, wounded another in a backpedaling 5.84 first-round win over Marie Ferriolo and didn't return for the semifinals. "I could have dragged it up there for the semifinals, taken the Tree, and shut off," he said, "and I could have done the same thing in the final, hoping the other guy red-lighted or crossed the centerline or something, but I'd had enough fun for one weekend."

With the win and the regional championship secured, Anderika putted down the track to a 21.58 at 50 mph for his second career win and second in a row. "This makes all the runner-ups and everything I've ever been through worth it," said Anderika, who was 0-10 in final-round competition from 2008 through June of this year. "We beat both of the guys who could have passed us, and everything happened the way it should have. Not many people knew, but I said at the beginning of the year that this is my last year driving. I'm retiring. Maple Grove is going to be my last race, and this is a perfect way to go out."

Anderika Breaks Through, Finke Takes 2nd Consecutive Win

Courtesy of Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
Photos courtesy of David Smith

With an upset win over The Man himself, Frank Manzo, John Anderika put years of final-round futility behind him for an overdue first Top Alcohol Funny Car title, and in Top Alcohol Dragster, John Finke won for the second time in a row in regional competition and the second year in a row at New England Dragway.

"Finally," exclaimed Anderika, who went the distance for the first time in 11 career finals, including four this year. "Now, I won't have to go through life being that guy who never won."

In a rematch of last year's final, Manzo and Anderika both ran exactly what they ran in 2012 – 5.60 for Manzo, 5.69 for Anderika – but instead of being passed in the last few hundred feet and falling short by thousandths of a second, Anderika had it all the way when Manzo narrowly fouled.

"I'm not as good as I was five years ago," said Manzo, always his own harshest critic, after missing a perfect light by less than a hundredth of a second with a -.009 foul. "If this was five years ago, I would have had a .025 light and won the race. I had to leave at a very specific rpm that time to get my car to run what I wanted it to run, and I was about 200 rpm too high when I brought it up. I was still coming down on the rpm as I rolled in, and it screwed me up. And what I did worked – it ran a .60-flat."

Manzo got quicker and faster from the first qualifying run through the final, resetting low e.t. on every run after the opening session: 5.73 off the trailer, 5.67 for the No. 1 qualifying position, 5.64 over returning veteran Paul Gill in round one, 5.62 against Todd Veney in the semi's, and the final-round 5.60. Anderika set the early pace in qualifying with a 5.71 and was unerringly consistent in eliminations with back-to-back-to-back 5.69s, against D.J. Cox, whose rear wheels spun in the tires, melting the tires; Eric Lourie, who now has been to the semifinals of every race this season; and Manzo, whom he'd never beaten in a dozen previous matchups.

"I didn't notice the red-light when we left," said Anderika, who had his best reaction time of the race, .044, in the final. "I saw him out ahead of me and thought, 'How'd he do that? I know I hit the Tree that time.' Then somewhere in 2^nd gear, I saw my win-light on the scoreboard and thought, 'He red-lighted?' I told myself not to lift, just in case, and enjoyed the ride. I wonder how long this feeling lasts?"

Finke backed up his 2012 New England Dragway triumph with a final-round victory over incoming East Region points leader Dan Page, driver (and builder) of Art Gallant's 2002 national championship car. Last year, Finke put up the best reaction time of the event in the final, .006; this time it was low e.t., 5.41.

"[Tuner] Tom Conway went for it, and he nailed it," said Finke, who, like everyone, was hampered by the oppressive 100-degree heat all weekend. In the final, in by far the best conditions of the event, he picked up more than a tenth and nearly 10 mph to stop Page, who rattled the tires early and backpedaled.

"I had to," said Page, of Hampstead, N.H., who was competing at his home track. "I've been to this place too many times, and I knew the track would come in for the final, after the sun went down. Arthur threw a lot at it, but it stuck the tire anyway." Page qualified just sixth with a 5.71 but leapfrogged to a 5.42 in the opening round that was low e.t. by nearly a tenth until Finke's final-round heroics. He won the semifinals over Canadian Jeff Veale with a 5.64.

After pacing the field with a 5.55, Finke took out Karen Stalba in round one with a 5.50 and recorded a 5.53 on his semifinal single when bucks-down veteran Bruce Horner was unable to appear after upsetting Finke's teammate, Jackie Fricke, in the first round.

"The heat was brutal for the A/Fuel cars," Finke said. "I mean, a .55 is No. 1 qualifier? I didn't think there was anything better than a high .40 out there in the final – 5.48 is what we were shooting for – but Tom did, and he was right."