Legends the likes of Bob Glidden, Warren Johnson, and the winningest professional driver of all-time, John Force, are typically credited as the most decorated racers in drag racing history. With great respect for everything Force, Glidden, Johnson, and so many others have accomplished during their illustrious careers, drag racing fans must also recognize the equally stellar efforts, performance, and results that Frank Manzo has accomplished.

Seventeen Lucas Oil world championships, 105 NHRA national event wins, 118 Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series wins, 11 U.S. Nationals title (Manzo is the only NHRA driver with 10 or more Indy wins), and the current Top Alcohol Funny Car record holder at 5.411 and 268.06 MPH. He’s also the statistical leader in every Top alcohol Funny Car category; No. 1 Qualifier, Low E.T., Top Speed, final rounds and any other record you can think of, Manzo holds them all! No other racer in the history of the class comes close, and although an apple to oranges comparison to his professional counterparts, one could say the Matawn, New Jersey native has no equal.

In a sport where a single national event win has eluded so many contenders and a world championship is as difficult to string together as it gets, Manzo is quite possibly the greatest competitor the sport has ever seen.

For years, the driver know simply as “The Ace” had suggested his retirement from driving, but each year he returned, unable to shake his competitive spirit. After he won his record 10th U.S. Nationals title in Indy, Manzo shared with the world that this would be his final run. True to his word, Manzo made a final push for one last title, outlasting a strong challenge from longtime foe Tony Bartone. Indeed, Manzo was going out a winner.

Dragzine’s Al Heisley caught up with Frank, his wife Michelle, and longtime crew chief John Glade in Las Vegas during the final 2013 Division 7 points meet. A week prior, Manzo sealed his 17th and final Lucas Oil series title, and was in the midst of one final road trip to the west coast as a driver. The Al-Anabi Racing team was in preparations for one last race: the AAA Auto Club Finals at Pomona. With the title in hand and his championship speech on his mind, Manzo was in Las Vegas building engines and getting in a couple of test sessions before heading to Pomona.

Manzo, tired after a grueling stretch of races that, following his Indy win, he wasn’t sure if he was even going to make, agreed to sit down and share some of his thoughts on retirement, his racing career, and all that he’s managed to accomplish behind the wheel of a race car.

Dragzine: Frank, give us your thoughts on your career and all the success you’ve had.

Frank Manzo: I don’t think any young man, any human being, could ever dream up anything like what I’ve done in my Alcohol Funny Car career, or my racing career. It’s been an unbelievable ride. A lot of hard work and a lot of late nights. You couldn’t even dream of this happening.

Basically, I was working all the time in the construction business and then working on the race car at night. My friends would come down and help me. Time went really fast and the stats piled up. I never realized what I’d done until the last couple of years when the NHRA started compiling career stats and talking about them a lot that I truly realized what I’d done. It’s a dream come true.

 

DZ: What’s the secret to your success?

FM: Behind every good man is a good woman. My wife, Michelle. And a good crew. John Glade has been with me since 1974. Fred Bowers and Ed Hoffman have been with me since 1995. Basically, I’ve been fortunate to have a great crew that prepares the car so that when I climb in, I know that it’s the best car that I can possibly bring to the starting line. It’s a combination of a little bit of luck, some great sponsors that have helped me along the way, a great wife, a great team, and an awful lot of hard work. I worked many, many hours in the shop during the winter trying to pick-up two hundredths here and two hundredths there. My goal was two hundredths a year and for a lot of years I picked up that two hundredths.

DZ: Tell us about your relationship with Al Anabi. It seems to be much more than an everyday sponsorship deal?

FM: Yes it is. I went to work them four years ago. I was hired to work on Sheikh Khalid’s Pro Modified car. We had talked about it for 8 to 10 months, and initially I wasn’t interested. I had the construction business, the Funny Car…I just wasn’t interested. But he kept talking to me and my wife until finally he came to me with a life changing offer and I accepted. It was time for me to get out of the construction business and this gave me the opportunity to live my dream of being on the road with my Funny Car and have fun. I also got the opportunity to learn and work on his personal Pro Mod car.  Although he hasn’t driven the car for the last year and a half, it’s still worked out to be a good relationship. 

DZ: You hired Tim and Kim (Richards) for awhile. Tell us about that.

FM: The first year I went over to Qatar I was supposed to tune only Sheikh Khalid’s car. The first year he drove, I mean, we had ex-world champions from the states over there racing us, and by the Grace of God and a little bit of luck; we won the first Arabian Championship. Then he decided he wanted to come over here and run in the states. We both understood that it would be hard because I still had a limited amount of time left to run my own car. What I needed was someone in the off season that I knew could do a great job. We were talking about it one day and Tim and Kim’s name came up and he called them.

Then Timmy and I talked about it some more and the next thing I know, Timmy was working on the Pro Mod car and building my engines. Tim and I go back a long way and I have a lot of respect for him, his approach to drag racing, and his work ethic. Tim taught me a lot. It’s partly because of him that I’m where I am today. He and Brad Anderson both taught me a lot about the Hemi engine and I was fortunate enough to grasp what they were teaching me. 

DZ: Once you step out of driver’s seat, will you be able to walk away from all of this? Your Funny Car, all the racing, the life?

FM: That’s a real good question. When the time comes, I don’t know. I’ll still work on the Al Anabi Pro Mod car and he also wants me to get familiar with the fuel cars. I’m walking away from my Alcohol Funny Car at the end of this year. I keep telling myself that I’m ready but deep down inside I know that I’m not ready. I’ll have trouble when I’m at the race track watching my friends race their Funny Cars, there’s no doubt about it. But, at 61 years old, you know, it’s time.

DZ: What was your first drag race?

FM: Englishtown, 1970.

DZ: What was your 1^st ¼ mile ride and was it your own car?

FM: Yes, it was my own car. It was a ’23 T-bucket B/Altered with a small block Chevy.

DZ: I really can’t see you in a T-bucket, Frank! What was your 1^st Funny Car?

FM: In 1972, I bought Lew Arrington’s fuel Funny Car Firebird. I put a blown engine in it and ran it in BB/FC.  

DZ: Who have you liked racing and who haven’t you liked to race?

FM: I liked them all. It never mattered to me who was in the other lane. They were all my friends and I was happy racing every one of them.

DZ: Is there anything you’d like to see changed in the sport?

FM: No, there’s not. The NHRA does a great job keeping us safe in every category. They do a great job at running the sport. I have a lot of good friends in the NHRA who work very hard in maintaining parity and focusing on safety.

DZ: If you weren’t a drag racer, what would you be?

FM: I don’t know. Drag racing is all I know. I’m not a guy to do picnics, go on trips; I’m nothing but a drag racer.

DZ: Who do you most admire in drag racing?

FM: The person who was my idol wasn’t a drag racer. Dale Earnhardt was a racers racer. He didn’t do it for the money — he just wanted to race.

Days later, Manzo went on to claim his 105th career national event title in his 129th career final round appearance, and his first at the Finals, when he defeated Clint Thompson. Manzo recorded low elapsed time of the weekend earlier in the day, brining his driving career to a close in the same fashion he’d shown the competition for the last four decades: dominant. And just as he imagined it would, the moment was an emotional one for “The Ace”, as we all saw in his final interview on ESPN2. Drag racing is all that Frank Manzo knows, and even though he’s turned the page in his life, drag racing will no doubt be a part of the next chapter.