Mickey Ferro (Todd Dziadosz photo)

Words by Jeff Burk
Photos by Steve Gruenwald, Todd Dziadosz and Debbie Gastelu

For fans of sportsman racing, Gainesville certainly had its spectacular moments. In the TAFC class Alexis De Joria and Frank Manzo took turns bettering the existing speed and ET records, but the big news was that even after keeping the record, Manzo not only did not win but he didn’t even make the final round.

Top Alcohol Dragster qualifying saw dominant performances from the injected nitro cars but on race day it was supercharger racer Chris Demke who pushed his blown alky car into the winner’s circle. Demke’s win showed two things: 1. NHRA rules don’t favor either nitro or supercharger cars; and 2. As the rules stand today, supercharged cars have the power to run with the nitro cars.

The Biondo clan took home not one but two Wallys in LODRS sportsman divisions, winning both Competition Eliminator and Super Stock titles. The closet race in the .90 classes came in the Super Comp final round that saw both competitors run dead-on their 8.900 dial. The drivers’ reaction times at the start determined the winner.

And in Stock eliminator multi-time World Champ Dave Fletcher went lights-out on the rest of the field when in a five-race stretch during eliminations he had two perfect reaction times (.000), a .006 and a .009. I can’t ever remember a better set of numbers over five rounds in my memory.