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Sections News
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2003 K&N Filters SuperNationals Englishtown New Jersey - Sportsman Coverage 5/18/2003 Throughout 2002 the East Coast was in the midst of the largest drought in years, 2003 is shaping up to be just the opposite. Rain has plagued the Northeast since the start of the year. Coming into the race at Englishtown, 8 out of 10 weekends had seen rain. This weekend was no different. The weather was OK for Thursday's time trials but come Friday the weather turned nasty with rain washing out half of Friday's action and cold and cloudy weather remaining for the weekend. The up side to this was the cool weather and lack of sunshine on the track surface made the place a mineshaft. Forget the shorts, tank tops, and sunscreen. It was time for some record numbers. Drivers and crewchiefs couldn’t keep up with the conditions. Breakouts were the norm in the earlier rounds until the teams got a handle on the track and weather conditions. The only appearance by the sun was late Sunday afternoon. With so much time lost to the rain, the Sportsman eliminations were completed after the Professional program was completed. OK for the Pros but the stands were empty during the remainder of the Sportsman program. Rumor has it that the race will move to June for 2004 swapping places with the race in Columbus. Alcohol Funny Car Going into the finals it looked like multi time World Champ Frank Manzo had his hands full. His opponent Bob Newberry was flying. The "Newb" from Schenectady had just defeated former winner Eric Lourie with a 5.578 at 258.07 while Manzo "only" could muster a 5.671 against the red lighting Jay Payne.
Jay Payne was low qualifier with a 5.615 while Scott Woodington from Delran NJ was on the bump with a 6.648 in his brand new Camaro. Manzo went a mind-blowing 5.552 262.33 in the first round defeating the exploding car of Darrel Cox. The 262.33 is the fastest Alcohol Funny Car run in NHRA history and the 5.552 is the third quickest ever. Not a bad weekend for the Ace. Alcohol Dragster Nothing new here. T-Bone racks up another National event win on his way to the 2003 Lucas Oil Championship. Although he did not qualify at the top of the pack, once eliminations got underway it was an all Tony show. Bartone ran consistent 5.20s and 5.30s to easily lap the field. Well if Tony Bartone wasn't low qualifier, who was? Well it was fellow A/FD racer Richard Bourke from Old Tappan driving Michael Bartone's dragster. Michael just happens to be Tony's brother. Richard ran a 5.455 266.69 to grab the top spot. Alas, Richard ran into a little trouble in the first round losing to the blown dragster of Delaware racer Steve Cantrell. Cantrell who did not get the car down the track in qualifying, just flat out beat the A/FD with a 5.473 at only 236.67 to the fueler's 5.536 at a whopping 269.94. It should be mentioned that Steve’s brother Kevin works at Norm Drazy’s PSI shop in Phoenix Arizona which could explain the ET.
In the final Bartone faced the blown dragster of Drag Racing School owner Doug Foley. Foley had beaten NED regulars Bruce Horner and Mark Albert earlier but his wins were easy ones and the best Doug had run during the weekend was his 5.608 qualifying time. The only way T-Bone was going to lose is if he shot himself in the foot and that wasn't going to happen. At the green Foley got off first but a blower pop slowed Doug to a 10.062 at 89.10 MPH while Mr. Bartone sped to a 5.342 @ 275.06. Another victory for T-Bone and more points toward his 2003 Championship. Competition Eliminator If racecars could talk what a story they would tell. None is more telling than the wining Camaro F/AA of Billy Griffin from Norwalk CT. Billy's racecar began it's life as a Don Ness Pro Stocker that was campaigned by Frank Iaconio in the early 80's. This was the same car that Frank drove when he lost the 1983 NHRA Championship to Lee Shepherd by only one round. Later the car was sold to Frankie Sanchez who set a record with it in Houston and later NED racer Joe Folgore raced the Chevy with some success. But the story does not end there. The next owner was Connecticut racer Bill Casey who ran it as a D/A in the early 90's as the "Super Pumpkin". So now the car is owned by Griffin and campaigned as a F/AA with Bob Ingles power and Bill Casey remaining with the car as crewchief. Although the car has a winning past, up until Englishtown 2003 Billy had never gotten past the second round at a National event in either the Camaro or the dragster he used to race. That all changed at E-Town with Griffin running the wheels off the car for his first win.
Although Bartucci's Chevy had fouled, Billy kept the loud pedal on for just a little too long and was hit was a 0.011 index change. Billy chalked this up to driver brain fade. Later Griffin got a permanent index change after running a 0.635 under 8.135 defeating the Olds of Kevin Houghtaling in round 3. The NHRA only hits you once for a permanent change at a given race and even though Billy's index changed from a 8.88 at the beginning of the race to a 8.64 he was still in the hunt for a win On the other side of the ladder the awesome A/A of Vinnie Deceglie was chopping thought the field. Vinnie, who grew up on Long Island and now resides in Southern California, was also hit with a CIC infraction after going way under his index in the third round. An index change is a minus but Vinnie also had the advantage of three of his opponent's redlighting to the purple Vette, which is a plus. Deceglie got around the E/SMA Grand Am of Gerry Russo in the semi finals when Russo left too early handing Vinnie one of his gifts. In the other semi race Griffin got to try out his new 8.64 index and sent Doug Harris' B/TA S-10 Chevy home to South Jersey 8.125 to Doug's 0.457 under 8.373. In the race for the gold Deceglie was out first with a 0.138 light and the race was his to win with Griffin having a terrible 0.252 RT. But the Vette had way too much clutch for the track and got out of shape giving Griffin the win. Billy ran a 0.494 under 8.136 for his first NHRA "Wally". In addition to having Bill Casey help tune the car Billy thanked his good friend Bill Masiello for his assistance he provided in the win at New Jersey. Low qualifier in Comp was the 0.845 under 8.985 by the VW powered G/D of Michele Costa with Doug Harris' truck #2 with a 0.793 under 8.327. Allyn Armstrong's Opel L/A was third and Griffin's Camaro 4th with a .754 under 8.126. The cool weather helped make this an amazing field. Michele went out in the third round losing to Gerry Russo and Armstrong gave runner up Deceglie another one of his gifts when he redlighted to the big block A/A. Super Stock Although the 2000 Chrysler Sebring of Tom Sheehan is a one-owner car, it too has a little history behind it. According to Tom's father Harry Sheehan, fellow Super Stock racer Michael Volkman was at the Chrysler R&D headquarters and saw four or five of the Sebring models that were destined for the scrap heap. Michael realized that these cars would make great racecars and told the Chrysler reps that if they wanted to get rid of them, he would take them off their hands. Later Chrysler called Volkman and told him he had a deal. Michael built his GT/IA first and one year later Harry and Tom with the help of Tom Cressman Chassis in West Chester and Volkman put their version together for the GT/HA class.
In round five Tom beat the Monte Carlo of Joey Wintermyer in a heads up GT/HA race when Joey slept on the line. Round six had Tom racing Jim Boburka in a tight race. Jim and Tom both ran either right on or close to their dial in with Tom's 0.017 RT making the difference. Boburka ran a 9.69 on a 9.69 dial to Tom's 10.32 on a 10.30 dial. In the final Tom raced the SS/FM "Alco Hauler" of George Taylor Jr. out of Baltimore with Taylor getting a little to anxious and lighting the big red bulb. George had earlier taken out the Olds of Tim Worner and the Camaro of Bob Letellier to get to the final. After the race George Taylor Sr. said " Last Thursday we gave Tom's father Harry a ride to track from the motel. On the way we stopped and had breakfast and Harry paid the check. I had no idea we would have to pay him back with their win at E-town!" Although the Taylor team did not win the race, the Taylor family gave credit for their great showing to Bub Whitaker and George Miller who did the motor and head work on the high flying Camaro. Ninety eight cars qualified for the race with Townsend DE racer Skip Gladstone low man with a 1.343 under 10.307 in his V6 SS/TD Chevy truck. Stock Veteran NED racer Al Vanis driving his N/SA 1977 Pontiac LeMans took the win at the K&N Filters SuperNationals defeating the lime green '71 Charger of Nick Reiter from Warminster PA in the finals. Al who lives in Manalapan NJ cut a beautiful 0.012 light in the finals to Nick's much slower 0.130 and ran a easy 12.478 on a 12.31 dial to the slowing 11.914 of Reiter.
Over one hundred stockers were on hand for eliminations with the C/FIA of Mahopac NY's Angelo Ditocco nailing down low qualifier with a 1.336 under 10.664 in his '98 Camaro. Super Comp
Bruzzo defeated #2 in the world in 2002 Kent Hanley in the semifinal round with a 8.913 to Hanley's 8.946. On the other side of the ladder Biondo took out Kent Lane with a nearly perfect 8.905 with a 0.010 light while Kent went under the 8.90 index with a 8.893 ET. Super Gas At the Atco NHRA National Open last month Super Gas racer Jim Smulligan showed up with a brand new Worthy built Corvette roadster and won the first time out with the car. Competition Photo owner Dave Bishop who gives out the Best Appearing Car award at each divisional race told Jim that his car was a definite candidate for the award at one of the 2003 LODRS races. Unfortunately for Competition Photo Jim got the award a little earlier than expected and was chosen by the NHRA as the Best Appearing Car at the K&N SuperNationals. This is great for Jim and his wife Kathy but now we have to go find another car to give the award to.
The Smulligans who live in Coopersburg PA would like to thank Lyle Essick from Motorsport Trailers in Morgantown and also Ben Worthy for building such a great racecar. The car hooks like a fish on a line and with the power supplied by Jim himself it's a great combination. Jim and Kath would also like to mention their new puppy "Digger". Digger liked the "Wally" Jim got for winning the race so much that he thought it was dinner and tried to eat it. Super Street
Steltz pushed his Camaro a little too hard in the final breaking out with a 10.889 to Garbinski's 10.916. Earlier Garbinski defeated sharp Chevy II of Ted Leahy and the '69 Camaro of Dennis Altman to get to the finals. Steltz beat Gary Traeger from Clifton Park and 2002 Super Street winner Donny Sabin to get the right to meet Garbinski for all the marbles.
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