Crowning the 2014 Champions

TAN Original Content
Photos courtesy of David Smith


TAD National Champion - Chris Demke
Three times a runner-up in the last four seasons, Chris Demke was determined to lock down his first NHRA Lucas Oil Series National Championship with team owner Jerry Maddern and the Peen Rite team. A "rollercoaster season" as the California driver described it, started with a powerful win at the season-opening Winternationals at Pomona then fell into a rough patch with early losses and hurt parts. The team regrouped and returned with a vengeance in late spring, picking up a win at the Billings regional. Regional wins at Columbus, Topeka, and Seattle followed, as well as victories at the Route 66 Nationals and 60th U.S. Nationals. Demke's highlight of the year was a rare three-win weekend at the NHRA Nationals in Reading, PA, where Maddern Racing locked up the national championship on Friday, the delayed Carolina Nationals event win on Saturday, and the actual event title on Sunday. Another notable 2014 accomplishment - Demke clocked the fastest blown alcohol speed at Reading, 277.94 MPH.

TAFC National Champion - Steve Harker
All eyes were on the Top Alcohol Funny Car class in 2014, watching to see who would replace 17-time champ Frank Manzo as the class champion at the end of the year. Australian Steve Harker filled the role fittingly, running a season that rivaled the dominating ways of "The Ace". Harker displayed deadly consistency, starting with consecutive wins at the Norwalk national and St. Louis and Bowling Green regionals. He fell in the second round at the U.S. Nationals, but won his next five national events - Charlotte, Dallas, Reading, Las Vegas, and Pomona. As if those wins weren't impressive enough, Harker ran seven 5.4s during late-season eliminations, including a 5.429 in the Reading final. The first non-North American driver to win an NHRA national championship, Harker also swept the potential three-win weekend at Maple Grove.

TAD East Region Champion - Jackie Fricke
Driving the JC Auto Glass/Accelerated Travel A/Fuel dragster, Jackie scored a runner-up at Virginia and regional event wins at Lebanon Valley and Epping to clinch her first TAD regional championship. Fricke's pedalfest win in the Epping final gave her the tie-breaker win over Rich McPhillips, who finished the season with an equal amount of points.

TAFC East Region Champion - Mickey Ferro
The Ryco driver bowed out in the second round of his first four regional events before winning Epping and claiming runner-up at Atco. Ferro clinched the championship by just one point over rookie Matt Gill.

TAD North Central Region Champion - Marty Thacker
While the now four-time regional/divisional champion didn't reach the winner's circle in 2014, Thacker consistently reached the final round, doing so at the Norwalk, Chicago, St. Louis, and Bowling Green regional races.

TAFC North Central Region Champion - Steve Harker

Speed City photo

TAD Central Region Champion - Randy Meyer
Meyer had his hands full this season, between racing his own car, tuning it to two national event wins with driver Shayne Lawson, and fielding a second Randy Meyer Racing entry with Chase Copeland driving. Meyer runnered-up at the Topeka event and won the Earlville regional, resetting the track record in the process. The accomplished driver/tuner/owner also fared well in national competition, winning the Spring Nationals at Houston and the Lucas Oil Nationals completed at the U.S. Nationals for a third place finish in national points.

Megan Meyer photo

TAFC Central Regional Champion - Dale Brand
A favorite to win the national championship for most of the season, Brand locked up the Central Region title with an impressive lead of over 100 points. The former IHRA Alcohol Funny Car standout won three of his five regional events, taking runner-up at the other two. Dale finished No. 2 in national standings with one win, a runner-up and five semifinal appearances.

TAN photo

TAD West Region Champion - Chris Demke

TAFC West Region Champion - Jay Payne
The PEAK-sponsored driver was victorious at the Houston and Billings regional events, also adding a runner-up at Phoenix. On the national level, Payne debuted the second Camaro TAFC body at the Chevrolet Performance U.S. Nationals with a win and finished the season third in points.

Samsel, Noakes Win First NHRA Titles at Maple Grove

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

At the Auto-Plus NHRA Nationals at Maple Grove Raceway, veteran Robin Samsel won his first NHRA title of any kind in Top Alcohol Dragster and Canadian Paul Noakes did likewise in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

Samsel, a soft-spoken 64-year-old great-grandfather from Marion, Ind., who has been racing Top Alcohol Dragsters since 1996, had two previous final-round appearances, both runner-ups in regional/divisional competition, including one earlier this year. In his first national event final, Samsel produced one of the best reaction times of his career, a .020, to get the drop on Brandon Booher, who is known for his lights but had just a .083 that time. Any other light Booher had all weekend – or any other run with that .083 reaction time – would have been enough to win, but he slowed from his earlier 5.30s to a 5.51 and fell short of Samsel's 5.56 by seven-thousandths of a second as both drivers made by far their slowest runs of eliminations.

Booher qualified No. 1 with a 5.30 that held up all weekend for low e.t. With a 5.37, Samsel wasn't far behind and qualified a career-high third behind Booher's 5.30 and defending event champ Bill Reichert's 5.31.

Heading into the final, Booher, who ran nothing but 5.30s and had a worst reaction time of .059, clearly had the upper hand. Booher, who won his first national event title in Charlotte and is third in the national standings, erased 2011 world champ Duane Shields, Canadian Jeff Veale (who set top speed with an outstanding 274.11-mph charge), and 2013 East Region champion Dan Page with times of 5.33, 5.30, and 5.36.

Samsel was just as consistent but about a tenth back with 5.47, 5.44, and 5.49 wins over Doug Foley, Richard Bourke, and friend Rich McPhillips, respectively. Bourke's full-tenth holeshot in round two made Samsel's margin of victory just two-thousandths of a second.

"This is unbelievable," Samsel said after winning the final in a race nearly as tight as the second-round match with Bourke. "I owe it to my kid [Tony]. He's always there and he's the one who makes it all happen."

In Top Alcohol Funny Car, Noakes also earned his first NHRA win, also on a final-round holeshot, with a close 5.61 to 5.59 win over Mickey Ferro, who had taken out Frank Manzo in the semifinals. Ferro had a decent .076 reaction time, but Noakes had him all the way with a .035.

"I actually saw a lot of yellow that time," Noakes said. "I didn't think it was that good."  It's his seventh major win, including six IHRA titles in 10 career final-round appearances, highlighted by a 2007 win in Grand Bend, Ont. "That probably meant a little more to me because my whole family and everybody's family there," he said, "but this is big."

With a 5.62 in the final qualifying session, Noakes qualified No. 2 behind Manzo, who had won 12 of the past 13 national events at Maple Grove and who paced the field by nearly a tenth with a 5.53. Noakes, who came within a few thousandths of beating Manzo in the final here last year, put away John Fiorini, who was making his first appearance all year, in with a 5.72 in round one. His Les Mellows-tuned Meritor/Euclid Mustang was the picture of consistency on Sunday with times of 5.62, 5.60, and 5.61 against Fred Tigges in round two, Todd Veney in the semi's, and Ferro in the final.

Ferro, who was runner-up to Manzo in Charlotte in his only other start since May, picked up from 5.60s on Friday and Saturday to three consecutive .50s on Sunday. A 5.57 took out 2013 East Region champion John Anderika in round two, a 5.58 upset nemesis Manzo in the semi's, and a 5.59 left him 28-thousandths of a second short of Noakes in the final.

"A .076 light?" Ferro said. "That sucks. You need to be in the .030s or .040s in the final. I knew I had to cut a light that time, and that's what I was thinking about going up there. You shouldn't be thinking about anything. I never saw him, but I had a feeling I lost on a holeshot. I never saw my win-light on, but when I went around the corner, they waved me over to the side where the winners go to be interviewed, and I thought, 'Thank God.' Then they pointed me back over to the other side and it was just a kick in the gut."

 

Manzo Back in 1st Place, Booher Wins First National

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

At the Carolina Nationals in Charlotte, Frank Manzo won for the third time in a row and the 103rd time in his unparalleled career to shoot from sixth to first in the national Top Alcohol Funny Car standings, and in Top Alcohol Dragster Brandon Booher won his first national event to keep alive a longshot bid for the national championship.

Manzo, who uncharacteristically stumbled through his first three national event starts this season without reaching a final, backed up his Brainerd and Indy victories with a dominant performance in Charlotte, qualifying No. 1 and running low e.t. of every round, including a final-round 5.59 against rival Mickey Ferro's 5.70.

Manzo, who red-lighted by just thousandths of a second on his most recent night run, in the final round of the New England Dragway regional in July, sat on the line in the first round for a .352 reaction time against John Headley, who was appearing in his first race after suffering a mild heart attack last month. "I've never seen the green light before," Manzo said. "Under the lights like that, I have to say it really was a beautiful shade of green." Following a 5.51 on a second-round single, he beat fourth-ranked Shane Westerfield, who red-lighted, in the semi's, and Ferro in the final.

Ferro, whose car now is tuned by Steve Boggs and who is sharing the car with pal Tony Bartone, topped Bill Naves with a 5.53 in the first round and Todd Veney with a 5.54 in the second round and singled in the semifinals. A wiring glitch in the final kept all his timers from working and slowed him from the mid-5.50s he'd been running to a 5.74. "I've still never beaten Frank in a national event final," said Ferro, who was competing for the first time since May, "but it's an honor just to race him. I hope I get one more chance at Maple Grove."

"It's unbelievable how this whole thing's turned around," said Manzo, who was knocked out in the quarterfinals at Gainesville and the Charlotte spring race and in the semi's at Norwalk. "The beginning of the year was tough, but now the more I try to slow the car down, the faster it goes. I'm not sure if we're going to run for the championship or not [yeah, right] or if we're going to Dallas [he entered the race yesterday], but this is definitely the last year I'll be in the car."

Booher also is making a last-minute schedule change and heading straight for Dallas from Charlotte after winning his first national event title with a 5.35 to 5.39 final-round decision over Gatornationals winner Rich McPhillips. "To me, the biggest thing about this is the performance of a converter car," he said. "People laughed at me when we started with this thing, and look how much success we've had this year."

Booher won three consecutive regional events this summer – Chicago, Cordova, and Columbus – and holds a commanding lead in the North Central Top Alcohol Dragster standings. A national title, unthinkable just a few months ago for a driver who until then had never won a Top Alcohol Dragster race, now is a possibility.

Booher qualified a strong fourth with a 5.37 and ran nothing but 5.30s in eliminations, including a 5.32 at 275.39 mph – the third-fastest speed ever recorded by a blown-alcohol car behind only national points leader Jim Whiteley's 277 and 276 last season. He took out Karen Stalba in the first round with a 5.35, four-time Charlotte runner-up Ken Perry with the 5.32 in round two, and No. 1 qualifier Jeff Veale in the semi's with a 5.33. His reaction times weren't outstanding, but that was by design.

"I've had a couple of -.00 red-lights this year, and I couldn't afford to push it, the way the car was running – especially in the first round, which was after dark on Saturday," said Booher, who is regularly in the .020s. "I made sure the light was on that time and only really pushed it in the semi's against Veale because he'd been cutting .030 lights and running 5.30s."

           

Like Manzo, Booher, now a career-high fifth in the national standings, will be in Dallas this weekend. "The crew is making a lot of sacrifices to be there, and we really don't have the money to do this, but you've got to go for it when your car's running like this," he said. "And if we win Dallas and Reading, who knows? Maybe we'll head west at the end of the year and really take a shot at this thing."

Mickey Ferro Wins North Central TAFC Championship

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

He's still looking for that elusive first Top Alcohol Funny Car national championship, but Mickey Ferro is number 1 in one of the toughest regions in the country, the North Central, where there are enough 5.50 cars to fill up entire eight-car fields. In five regional starts this year, Ferro reached the final every time, winning two – both on holeshots – and taking runner-up at the other three.

The Stamford, Conn., veteran opened the season with a final-round loss to Kris Hool in February at Gainesville, then won Chicago over yearlong rival Chris Foster and Columbus over upstart Tony Bogolo and wrapped up the title with back-to-back runner-ups on consecutive weekends in August.

"Don't ask me how we did it because the car didn't run as well as it should have a couple of times," Ferro said. "Plus, I had to miss a two races – one because my daughter graduated from college and one because it conflicted with a sponsor's race in Houston – but in the end, we got the job done. Chris is a fierce competitor, and we were fortunate to win it. It came right down to the end, to the last race in Bowling Green, where he qualified first and we qualified last. We had to run each other first round, and if we won it we'd win the championship, and if he won, he probably would have won the championship."

The highlight of Ferro's regional season had to be Chicago, if only because of the strength of the field. The bump was a 5.66, making it one of the fastest fields in regional/divisional history. In addition to the usual Murderer's Row of North Central talent – Foster, Fred Hagen Jr., Andy Bohl, Cassie Simonton, and Ray Drew – Frank Manzo himself was in town. Ferro outran Hagen in the opening round but had to resort to holeshots to win the semifinals over Drew and the final over Foster.

“I was lucky to have good lights that day because both Drew and Foster were running better than we were," said Ferro, whose Columbus win also was a direct result of his great driving – that time after the clutch came out. "Foster overpowered the track in the first round," Ferro said. "He had everybody covered in qualifying. We struggled all weekend, and I was shaking, short-shifting, and way over by the wall a few times." He coasted to a 6.35 at just 187 mph in the final but still got the win on a holeshot when Bogolo, who had upset Foster in the first round, outran him with a 6.23.

Now Ferro, who also has a pair of Division 2 championships on his résumé, turns his attention to the national title. "We still have a shot," he said. "I haven't been thinking about it too much, to be honest, because Frank's going to be awfully hard to catch. I'm more focused on passing Tony Bartone for second, but, mathematically, we still have a chance to do it. Frank has to really screw up, and Bartone does, too, but at least we have a shot."

TAN



McPhillips, Veney Add to Eastern Regional Leads

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

 

At Beech Bend Raceway Park in Bowling Green, Ky., incoming East Region points leader Rich McPhillips won Top Alcohol Dragster at the final North Central regional of 2012, and Todd Veney did likewise in Top Alcohol Funny Car.

McPhillips, who had three runner-up finishes but no wins in regional competition this season, got the best of a classic final against North Central points leader and five-time world champ Bill Reichert, 5.53 to 5.54. McPhillips got the jump at the starting line with a .056 reaction time and had it all the way.

"This still doesn't guarantee anything," said McPhillips, who also won the Summer Nationals at Topeka this year. "We did everything we could by winning this race, but [John] Finke is running good out in Topeka [at the Central Region event that eventually was postponed by rain], and [Duane] Shields and [Richard] Bourke still have multiple races left that they can claim."

McPhillips took a crucial semifinal victory over Lebanon Valley winner Dan Mercier, who climbed to second place in the East Region this weekend, when Mercier's chutes deployed before half-track. McPhillips advanced to his fourth regional final of the season and fifth overall with his worst run all weekend, 5.64, while Mercier dragged the laundry to a 6.70 at 111 mph. Reichert, who had won his previous three regional starts this season and had won this event in each of the past four years, took the other semi over Mike Kosky, who qualified on one shot and ran low e.t. of the first round, 5.38.

Veney won Alcohol Funny Car over a short field, edging Mickey Ferro in a rematch of the previous week's Cecil County final, 5.67 to 5.74. "I'd never beat Mickey until last weekend, so to do it twice in the final was unbelievable," he said. "I really want to thank Jay Blake and Tom Howell for making the car run this well and all the guys who made the sacrifice to fill in for our regular crew when we decided to come here at the last minute."

Veney got around Ray Drew in the opening round in a close race, 5.76 to 5.74. Ferro fought to maintain control en route to a 5.74 in the same round against two-time Division 3 champ Chris Foster in a monumental matchup with major points implications. Foster, who had the North Central lead coming into the event, and Ferro both have two regional victories this season, but Ferro has runner-ups in his other three regional starts and now leads Foster by 52 points.

Top Alcohol Teams Headed for Late-Season Showdown

Courtesy of Will Hanna & Todd Veney/Pro Sportsman Association
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.