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 2nd 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.
