TAN Fan Blog-Billy Anderson

Photos Courtesy of Billy Anderson

Hi, my name is Billy Anderson, and I'm addicted to alcohol. Top Alcohol Racing that is!

Growing up, I was always a bigger fan of the Alcohol classes than the Nitro classes. I grew up in Massachusetts, about 45-minute drive from New England Dragway. My family and I would go to their major Funny Car events throughout the year, and the Alcohol cars were as big of a draw as the Nitro cars. Back in the early 1980's, the big battle was between Massachusetts' own Arnie Karp driving the Boston Strangler, against Nashua, NH's Dick Bill in the Bell Boys machine. Their battles at New England Dragway were epic. As the 80's went on, a good contingent of local Alcohol Funny Cars formed, names like Tony Arnone, Ronnie Taylor, Richard Polcaro, Billy Naves and Ed Parker were mainstays at the New England Dragway match races, even as the number of Nitro cars per event decreased due to the rising costs.

In 1992, New England Dragway moved to an IHRA track for two years, and then from 1998-2010. The divisional race they used to have moved to Lebanon Valley Dragway, and from 1995-2004, I attended that divisional race to see an open competition for the Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars. Those events were national event caliber, with many, many storylines throughout all of them, and great side-by-side racing. They were even attended by some big name touring drivers, including the late Darrell Russell.

For the Englishtown national event, my favorite round of all time was always the Saturday night round one of the Alcohol Dragsters and Funny Cars. It was always an exciting round, with so much potential, and possible upsets to be made. Also, the strategy of what pair Frank Manzo chose to be in was always a point of analysis. Sometimes it was the first; sometimes it was last.

Growing up in the New England area, I've always been very proud of my home Division 1. I think the alcohol racers in this area of the country are some of the best. I have gotten to experience races in the midwest and California, and will certainly not focus solely on the East Coast cars, though the events I attend this year will primarily be Division 1 events. I will try to comment on the events that are only accesible to me via internet and television. I will try to include relevant pictures with each article

For this blog, I would like to be able to not only write about the current events going on in the class, but also take some trips down memory lane in my notebook, and see what sort of gems I might uncover and recall. I hope you'll enjoy the journey with me.

Billy Anderson is a former writer for New England Dragway. Anderson resides in New York and can be found at many of the New England races in 2012. Follow Billy on Twitter at @DragRacingBilly.

TAN Driver Blog-Karen Stalba-TAD

I am getting pretty excited to start the 2012 season. The guys have been working hard to get the car ready and I've been gathering up all the parts for them. We were at the Division 1 Banquet a few weekends ago to get our hardware, and it was a pretty great view from the podium! After many years trying, to go out and win the division with my dad as crew chief is something pretty special. Most of us race with our families, so I know many people have felt the way I do. I have great people beside me. My husband Tommy is going to start his season off in Orlando for the points race, then he is racing Gainesville, so the week in between, we are going where all Champions go -- DISNEY WORLD! Tommy's parents are going with us and it should be a great time...first time taking the kids on an airplane...just me and my mother-in-law. I'll be loaded up with my iPad and Emily's Mobigo to keep the kids busy on the place, and a little Angry Birds on my cell phone should keep them occupied for a bit!

In the off season, we keep pretty busy. With all of Tommy's race cars, he always has something going on, and we've had some house issues, and the business is always pretty busy. Our son, Paul, is playing Ice Hockey two days a week and it is so stinking cute to see those little 5 and 6 year olds skating around. He loves it. He starts kindergarten next year...feels like just yesterday that I was taking a year off of racing to have him.

I need to get back to the track so I can start walking again to get rid of the extra pounds I gained over the winter! Only good thing about extra weight is that my firesuit pants won't fall down so easily! There is always a ton of cooking and eating going on in my house...all I've done since we stopped racing is cook. Thanksgiving-Christmas-New Year's-Poker Game...yes, we had a basement full of 40 guys playing cards in front of a wall of Wallys and we had a feast of food. I love to cook, so I don't mind much and it is always a good time. Even Stat Guy Lewis Bloom made it out for the evening. I make Sweet Potato Ravioli that Tommy goes nuts over...I had to find something to do with the cases of sweet potatoes that the local farm friends bring us! Tommy says I need to sell them to help fund the race car. If I tried that, I don't think I'd ever make it out of the kitchen to actually race! Well, off to sleep...gotta snooze while the kids do so that I can get over this bad cold I have. Until next time!

Karen Stalba is the driver of the AA Auto Salvage/Stalba Motorsports A/Fuel Dragster. Find Stalba Motorsports on Facebook, follow Karen on Twitter at @KarenStalba and check out http://www.karenstalba.com/





TAN Driver Blog-Marie Ferriolo-TAFC

Happy new year!! I hope everyone is enjoying their 2012 and sticking to their resolutions. I successfully gave up caffeinated coffee and I am flossing my teeth regularly. I'm also going to give P90 a try...some extra arm muscles wouldn't with my ability to steer the car. This is also the time of year I start watching football -- playoffs are more exciting for me than regular season games. Do I root for a team? Nope...I just root for  competitive games, not those high-scoring-one-team-gets-stomped-on-46 to 3 games.

We're getting everything ready for Gainesville. My Dad has been busy fabricating new front engine mounts and putting the motor back together. My Mom and I have our travel plans booked...I can't miss too much work so I'll have to fly down. Not going to lie, I'd probably enjoy the trip with my Dad -- he's the perfect long-distance travel partner because he doesn't talk too much, he doesnt smell and he always picks up the fuel tab :-) But my Mom is fun to fly with -- she's always got that one thing you never thought to put in your carry-on and I'll never have to worry about getting to my gate too late.

We fired up the car on Sunday for the first time. I had all of my gear on from head to toe and let me tell you, I didn't mind!! It was barely 30 degrees outside. Bottom line: the car started. (It's all about appreciating the little things these days). Just a few more weeks of work to fly through and then I'll be back on the track.

Enough sitting at my computer...I need to get myself onto the treadmill and burn off some of the peanut M&M's I ate at work today. I seriously need some good running/staging-lane music...Any recommendations are appreciated!! You can let me know on Twitter @MarieFerriolo.

Enjoy the rest of the week!


Marie Ferriolo is the driver of the Ferriolo Motorsports Top Alcohol Funny Car. Follow her on Twitter at @MarieFerriolo.

TAN Driver Blog-Karen Stalba-TAD

Hello everyone, it's Karen Stalba. Thank you for taking time from your daily life to catch up on mine. It's late-December and freezing here in New Jersey. The holidays are always busy and with Christmas coming, family members keep asking what I want. I have a terrific family and come January 14th, we will have that great Division 1 Top Alcohol Dragster Championship Trophy, so that should about do it! The box of Arias Pistons that arrived at the shop the other day were a good start though! I did however see a commercial for the Crafstman Universal Toolkit. I sure could use that here in the house. My kitchen counter usually looks like a mini Auto Body Shop, fixing cars and diecasts for our son. I'm pretty handy, but I always have to walk way out to the shop or trailer to find tools.

Some of us on the Stalba Team were in Orlando for the PRI show a couple of weekends ago and had a great time. The show was pretty casual; not overly crowded, which worked out great because it gave us a chance to talk to our suppliers and meet some face to face for the first time.

Just as good as the show was, so was the nightlife for the one night we were able to get out. Tommy and I had a couple of kid-free days (first away together in several years without the munchkins!) so it was crazy to be out and not have to worry about rushing home. We visited a fun place called Howl at the Moon, which featured a great band and a great crowd. Stalba Motorsports was well-represented in the crowd and on the mirrors behind the band....thanks to several friends who put up some dollars to give us some praise in shoe polish! Thanks also to Lucas Oil Products for coming on board again for the 2012 season. We hope to make them proud.

The new Regional Schedule for the Top Alcohol categories has raised a lot of questions, and we are still waiting to hear all the details as they become available, but it should be an interesting year. I know that everyone has their opinions on how to fix things, but for now, we will see how this works out. I am pretty happy they let us have 4 regions. I hope for the growth of the category that car counts do in fact improve and the tracks can promote us and provide a quality show for their attendees. Maybe we can find ways to help our tracks provide a quality show and increase awareness.

We are tentative for the Gainesville regional, but there is a lot to be done between now and then. With some end-of-year fuel shut-off problems we found, we would really like to do some testing before we travel so far. I noticed in testing at Atco that the fuel shut-off was off after my test run, and I didn't do it myself. To be sure, on the next pass, I glanced at it a couple times (not easy to look down going over 200 mph), but I watched it try to work it's way shut. So without the remote shutdown safety devices that are normally present divisional and national events, I noticed the problem. If that has been happening all year, then we found a major source of holes in our aluminum parts that go up and down! Thanks to the PRI show, we met up with Watterman pumps and bought a fuel shutoff with a detent. That should solve the problem!

My dad and Erick have been spending a lot of time in the shop getting things ready. I couldn't do this without them. Erick is meticulous and keeps everything looking beautiful. The timing was perfect for him to be getting out of Funny Car racing to join up with us.

Next stop for us is the Division 1 Banquet in Hershey, PA. We haven't been to the banquet since Tommy last won the Division in Super Comp, one of his six Division 1 Championships. I hope someday I'll be able to catch him in that category. I always say I am going to get some doll hair and dress up my two Wallys with long, dark hair so that I can quickly point out those Wallys on the wall of fame that are actually mine! The banquet is always a fun time to catch up with everyone. I'm still working on my speech, and with Bob Frey in attendance, I have a huge standard to try and meet!

Here's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. In the meantime, you can check out my website, http://www.karenstalba.com/, or follow me on Twitter, @KarenStalba, or find us on Facebook at Stalba Motorsports.


Karen Stalba is the driver of the Division 1-based Stalba Motorsports/Lucas Oil Products Top Alcohol Dragster. You can follow her on Twitter at @KarenStalba.

TAN Driver Blog-Marie Ferriolo-TAFC

First off I would like to extend my congratulations to all of the Top Alcohol and A-Fuel winners in each division and at the national level, especially Frank Manzo and Karen Stalba (go Division 1 woo!!). I hope everyone had a fantastic Thanksgiving and ate every piece of pumpkin pie because wasting tasty dessert should be a felony. I'm a huge fan of jellied cranberry sauce -- if it doesn't look like an aluminum can when served it shouldn't be on the table, that's my opinion. I would also like to give a shout out to Brad Littlefield and thank him for the opportunity to write something for National Dragster --I was totally honored!

2011 was a season of firsts for me -- lots of things learned for the first time, lots of things put on the car for the first time, and it was the first season we didn't cause severe damage to a motor (YAAAAY!!). There are a few things I'd like to repeat next year: qualifying, good burnouts, and having fun with friends. My performance at the Maple Grove national can willingly go unrepeated, thank you very much. The only cones I wish to see that closely next summer will be topped with two scoops of ice cream haha. Ah the learning continues!

I'm gearing up for the winter holidays at work -- lots of Christmas and Hanukkah themes to get my patients ready which includes holiday scrub top and matching festive footwear!! It's interesting to see how children evolve during the holidays, with everything from the songs they want to sing to the books they want to read, to what motivates them in conversation and what foods they want to eat. My patients continue to amaze me every day and I can't help but love going to work just to be inspired by them...even when they are repeating what their parents have said the night before -- sometimes the message is jumbled or they'll use jargon language, but you still get the, may it be embarrassing, point (Santa is not the only one with a red nose then haha!!).

I did a small photoshoot a few weekends ago and when I put on my firesuit it smelled like sweaty feet, probably because it was stuffed in a bag with my driving shoes. I aired it out and now it's safely stored away with my helmet and other driving equipment. I spent so much time this season mentally preparing myself for the next race there's a part of my brain which, I'm assuming, has gone into off-season hibernation.

The only things I'm focusing on right now are keeping up with an exercise routine, not going overboard on the holiday sales and catching up on gossip. There have certainly been a lot of rumors flying around about the changes in Top Fuel and some of them have actually come true.

Along with that, and more importantly I might add ;-) are the changes in Alcohol. It's hard to accept some of these changes and imagine what life in Alcohol will be, but part of that is due to the fact that I still call the national event at Maple Grove "The Keystones". Regionals vs. Divisionals...everyone has expressed their opinion and I'm not going to lie -- I'll probably always state "I'm in Division 1" first because it's a habit. I'll adapt I guess.

I'm very grateful to still be racing out of New Jersey because our team is still centrally located for most of our regions races. It was shocking for me to see Atco and Englishtown had withdrawn from our schedule in 2012. I'm sure the track owners had a justifiable reason to exclude our classes from the regionals and national next year but I can't help but wonder....in 2012, where's this New Jersey girl to call a home (track)?


Marie Ferriolo is the driver of the Division 1-based Ferriolo Motorsports Top Alcohol Funny Car. You can follow her on Twitter at @MarieFerriolo.

Vote for Divisional "Driver of the Year" Awards

Voting is now open to decide special award winners for Divisions 1 and 3. Categories include Pro/Sportsman Driver of the Year, Mechanic/Wrench of the Year, Track of the Year, and many more depending on divisions. Below are the links to each division's voting page.

NHRA Division 1 (Northeast)
NHRA Division 3 (North Central)

Permatex/Follow A Dream Team Wraps Up 2011 With Another Final

Courtesy of Jay Blake

Marstons Mills, MA -- October 18, 2011- With a final-round appearance at the last race of the year, Jay Blake's Permatex/Follow A Dream team climbed to sixth in the national Top Alcohol Funny Car standings. Driver Todd Veney qualified second at the Division 2 Lucas Oil Series closer at Silver Dollar Raceway with a 5.66 and dropped a close final to Mickey Ferro, the second-ranked driver in the country last season, 5.64 to 5.73.

Veney had low e.t. of the two previous rounds, with a 5.69 win over Melinda Green-King and a 5.65 against Mark Billington, knocking both out of the Division 2 championship battle won by Ferro. "Hopefully this locks up a spot for us in the Top 10," Blake said. "If it does, it'll be the first time we've done it two years in a row. The car ran well all weekend, but in the final the track was a little better than we thought."

It was the team's first appearance at the Reynolds, Ga. facility. "This was a good way to end a good season," Veney said. "It really helped us in the national standings and almost was enough to get us second in the division." With 267 points apiece, Veney and Eric Lourie tied for second behind Frank Manzo in Division 1, but Lourie won the tiebreaker.

The Follow A Dream team finishes the 2011 season with a 21-13 record (.618 winning percentage) and five final round appearances - one at a national event, one at the Jegs Allstars race, and three in divisional competition.

"The best part is that every single member of the team is going to be back for 2012," Blake said. "I thank every one of them - Tom Howell, Todd Veney, Ed Parker, Scott Osborn, Scott Spencer, Joe Connelly, Charlie Connelly, Maura McGonigle, and Alan Hadfield - for the hard work and dedication that made this a good year for our team."