In an anticlimactic win in Top Alcohol Dragster John Finke notched his first win of the season.
NHRA
Top Alcohol Funny Car champion Frank Manzo raced at his home track, Old
Bridge Township Raceway Park in Englishtown, N.J., this weekend during
the United Association NHRA SummerNationals. The Morganville, N.J.,
resident notched win No. 81 and extended his lead for most NHRA
national event wins for sportsman racers. The next closest racer,
David Rampy, has 70 NHRA national event wins.
Manzo, who has now won three out of the four national events he has
attended including one week ago in Joliet, Ill., took on the event’s
No. 1 qualifier, Jay Payne, Claremont, Calif., in the final round.
Although Manzo qualified in the No. 2 spot, he effectively outran Payne
throughout eliminations and as if to put an exclamation point on it,
Manzo peeled off the quickest and fastest TAFC run of the weekend in
the final. He laid down a 5.493-second, 253.20 mph pass to Payne’s
5.667-second, 260.76 mph effort. Payne’s runner-up finish was his best
of the season to date.